Handbook of Mindfulness in Education

About the Book

Recently, there has been widespread emerging interest in the use of contemplative practices aimed at cultivating mindful awareness and compassion in teachers and students across a broad variety of disciplines (e.g., Roeser & Peck, 2009, Schonert-Reichl et al., in press; Thurman, 2006). But what is mindfulness and how can it be cultivated in secular educational settings in ways that support and extend other core aims of education associated with the "three Rs"?

Both clinical psychology and neuroscience research have revealed important beneficial outcomes of the practice of mindfulness - defined as moment-to-moment, present-centered, nonjudgmental awareness, in adults (Mind and Life Educational Research Network, forthcoming). New studies are underway aimed at extending these practices and their beneficial effects to people earlier in life such that the downstream consequences of a lack of mindfulness, self-regulation and compassion, including stress and its deleterious effects on the body and the mind, may be curtailed.

This volume examines the theories and research that inform research and clinical practice, addressing such questions as: How can contemplative practices be "secularized" and used in such educational settings as schools? Do teachers need mindfulness practices or only students? How should such practices be taught and delivered? The Handbook of Mindfulness in Education includes contributions from some of the leading researchers and practitioners in the field of mindfulness-based interventions, and it is a must-have volume for academics and clinicians alike.

About the Author: Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl is a Professor in the Human Development, Learning, and Culture program in the Faculty of Education at the University or British Columbia (UBC) and Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership, an interdisciplinary research institute in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. She received her MA in Educational Psychology from the University of Chicago, her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Iowa, and was a postdoctoral National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Fellow in the Clinical Research Training Program in Adolescence at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Prior to her graduate work, Kim was a middle school teacher and a teacher at an alternative high school for "at risk" adolescents. Kim studies the social and emotional development of children and adolescents, particularly in relation to identifying the processes and mechanisms that foster positive human qualities such as empathy, compassion, altruism, and resiliency. She has won several awards, including the 2015 Joseph E. Zins Distinguished Scholar Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research in Social and Emotional Learning, given by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the Confederation of University Faculty Associations' (CUFA-BC) Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award for sustained contributions over the course of a career to the non-academic community through research and scholarly activity.
Robert W. Roeser is a Professor of Psychology and Human Development in the Department of Psychology at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. He received his Ph.D. from the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan (1996) and holds master's degrees in religion and psychology, developmental psychology and clinical social work. In 2005 he was a United States Fulbright Scholar in India; from 1999-2004 he was a William T. Grant Faculty Scholar; and from 2006 to 2010 served as the Senior Program Coordinator for the Mind and Life Institute (Boulder, CO). Currently, Dr. Roeser's Culture and Contemplation in Education Lab (CaCiEL) at Portland State is devoted to the study of the putative effects of mindfulness and compassion training for teachers and (early childhood and early adolescent) students with regard to health and wellbeing, and the optimization of teaching and learning.