ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the benefits of mindfulness, outlines important parallels between contemplative pedagogy and Anti-Oppression pedagogy, and gives some tips for integrating mindfulness into Social Justice courses in order to help students unlearn systems of oppression. Mindful Anti-Oppression pedagogy is situated in the context of Feminist, Anti-Racist, Queer, Abolitionist, Decolonizing and Re-Indigenizing, and Trauma-Informed pedagogies. This chapter argues that while Anti-Oppression pedagogies highly value critical self-reflection of ideologies, power, and privilege, they often stop short of the deep reflection that mindfulness has to offer. Integrating it with mindful and somatic approaches helps students uncover and disrupt taken-for-granted storylines, understand the power often inscribed in those narratives, and create a pause between reaction and response. In that pause, participants can make more intentional choices about how to engage a given situation. The chapter outlines some of the most critical benefits that mindfulness can bring to Anti-Oppression pedagogy. While Feminist and Anti-Oppression pedagogy mark self-reflection as a central ingredient for a transformational learning process, mindful Anti-Oppression pedagogy offers students way to embody those principles as a daily, transformative practice.
Anti-Oppression pedagogy
Contemplative pedagogy
Social Justice courses
Transformational Learning
Mindfulness
Somatics
Embodied Learning
