1st Edition
Mindful Practice for Social Justice A Guide for Educators and Professional Learning Communities
This book is designed to help you bring mindfulness and social justice to the forefront of your education practice, so you can work toward self-actualization and social transformation. Author Raquel Ríos offers instructional practices, coaching strategies and implementation tools to help you activate mind, body and spirit on your journey to making real changes toward equity in your school or classroom.
What's Inside:
- Chapter 1 explains the importance of realizing one’s powers and how power increases when we discover its purpose and utility in society.
- Chapter 2 introduces you to the three domains of Peak Learning Experience (Personal, Social and Transpersonal) that lead to the targeted practices of Authentic Presence, Freedom and Emergence and discusses how bias can limit our ability to see the truth in people and situations.
- Chapters 3–5 delve into each domain, offering strategies, activities, reflection questions and application to practice tools.
- Chapter 6 discusses the importance of building the right team and the need to change how we recruit talent if we want to innovate our profession.
With the powerful reflection tools and activities in this book, you and your teams will feel more equipped and supported on your path toward mindfulness, social justice and change in education.
1. You are Either Magical, or You are Not 2. Three Domains for Peak Learning Experience 3. Authentic Presence: Personal Awareness and Self-Mastery 4. Freedom: Social Awareness and Adaptability 5. Emergence: Transpersonal Awareness and Agency 6. The Unicorn Point
Biography
Raquel Ríos (@RaquelRiosPhd) is an educator, learning designer and consultant. She is the author of the book Teacher Agency for Equity: A Framework for Conscientious Engagement (Routledge, 2017).
"As educators we are always looking for ways to connect with our students, to promote a format to help them understand what social justice is. It is also important to help students understand what "self awareness" is. Dr. Rios’ new book is an excellent start in that direction. Enjoyable reading with excellent activities and exercises to move in that direction. Highly recommend this book for anyone that is interested in learning about mindfulness and its application to social justice."--Mary G. Mayorga, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Belmont University, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program
"A compelling and accessible guide for anyone seeking to take a deeper look into their self-actualization and social transformation…Dr. Ríos reminds us to assess our implicit biases and positions of power to ultimately disrupt inequities in our classrooms."--Sheldon L. Eakins, host of the Leading Equity Podcast
"'How can we shift a group out of that feeling of powerlessness?' Dr. Raquel Rios poignantly asks. Recognizing that personal well-being depends on societal well-being, she presents practical strategies that prompt educators to bring mindfulness and social justice into their everyday practice. If you are ready to do the "inner," "outer," and "soul" work outlined in her book, you may find yourself initially exploring your identity, culture, and purpose through contemplation, yoga, and even acting. However, Rios’s exercises move far beyond the personal, leading you to greater awareness of power dynamics and systems. You will learn to how to practice mindful inquiry with your colleagues as well as strategies for freeing up and channeling group energy for the good. This is a resource that will nourish your spirit, enhance your collegial relationships, and inspire more committed action for social transformation."--Dr. Amy L. Eva, Associate Education Director, Greater Good Science Center, University of California, Berkeley
"Harnessing the power of all that it means to be human, Raquel Rios offers tools and strategies much needed in our educational systems and in world at this precise moment in time when chaos, fear and suffering have touched our lives perhaps like never before. The book is unique in connecting mindfulness and social justice and would make an excellent resource for justice and equity educators in schools, colleges and universities. In the evolving field of contemplative education, this manual stands out as a tool to help us care for one another, to address social injustice with insight and wisdom and to ultimately transform our lives and how we engage with the world."—Laura I Rendón, author of Sentipensante Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation, Stylus Press
