Standing at the Crossroads: Navigating Mindfulness, Teacher Self-Care, and Transformative Social Justice Pedagogy

Focused Area

Improving School Climate for Youth-At-Risk

Relevance to Focused Area

This workshop will look at how mindfulness and self-care can be an answer to addressing issues of both teacher and student stress that affect everything from executive functioning to social-emotional competencies and academic achievement. When we are able to transform how we and our students show up daily, we can then begin to transform school climates into more caring, democratic spaces where authentic and equitable learning can take place.

Primary Strand

Mental & Physical Health

Relevance to Primary Strand

Research has shown that those teachers who work with high poverty students tend to have higher stress levels and lower self efficacy than those who work with more affluent student populations. Participants will leave this workshop with a better understanding of how to care for themselves and, in turn, care for all students – including those students most disenfranchised by existing structures that perpetuate class, race, and gender inequities – in way that promote justice, peace, and student happiness and success.

Brief Program Description

Blending research in social justice pedagogy and teacher self-efficacy with a pragmatic look at how mindfulness and self-care impact our teaching, this workshop will encourage participants to question some deeply held beliefs about who they are in relation to their work with underserved students and provide practical strategies for increased mindfulness and self-care within and beyond the professional setting.

Summary

Workshop Summary:

This interactive workshop will take a critically reflective look at who we are as educators and how we show up in our work to serve (or dis-serve) some of our most underserved students.

Blending a solid research foundation of social justice pedagogy, critical theory, teacher self-efficacy, and teaching underrepresented student populations with a pragmatic look at the impact of mindfulness and self-care on our ability to function as both empowered and empowering educators, this workshop will both encourage participants to question some deeply held beliefs about who they are in relation to the work they do and provide practical strategies for increased mindfulness and self-care both within and beyond the professional setting.

This workshop will also look at how mindfulness and self-care can be an answer to addressing issues of both teacher and student stress that affect everything from executive functioning to social-emotional competencies and academic achievement.

Workshop Objectives:

  • Participants will leave this workshop with a better understanding of how to care for themselves and, in turn, care for all students – including those students most disenfranchised by existing structures that perpetuate class, race, and gender inequities – in way that promote justice, peace, and student happiness and success.
  • Participants will develop a solid understanding of why the intersection of mindfulness, teacher self-care, and transformative social justice pedagogy matters in education (for both educators and students).
  • Participants will learn specific strategies for improving mindfulness and self-care in their own lives and the lives of their students, and explore practical ways to implement these strategies immediately in their own professional and personal contexts.

Evidence

The primary goal of this workshop is to facilitate a deeper understanding of who we are as educators and demonstrate some ways in which we can show up in our work with more authenticity in order to create learning environments that are more transformative and socially just.

As part of this workshop, participants will:

  • Through journaling and collaborative dialogue with other workshop participants, reflectively analyze their own practices related to self-care and mindfulness and work on a concrete plan to incorporate more mindfulness into both their personal and professional lives
  • Rate their wellness in different areas of their lives, both personal and professional, and then connect their current reality to a concrete plan to improve their own wellness and, likewise, their own professional practices.
  • Prioritize the different areas of their lives and work on a plan to create more balance in order to increase their own self-efficacy in their life and work goals.

Format

Poster Presentation

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Marina Gillmore’s specialty areas include social and educational justice, critical theory and critical pedagogy, qualitative research methodology, culturally relevant pedagogy, secondary English Language Arts pedagogy and instruction, ELL pedagogy and instruction, secondary curriculum and instruction, academic writing, and foundations of education. Her dissertation research looked at teachers’ beliefs and life experiences and their impact on practice in an educationally just classroom context. In addition to serving as a university professor and dissertation chair, she has worked as an English Language Arts and English Language Development teacher, leadership advisor, head coach, program advisor and curriculum developer, conference advisor, dissertation editor and consultant, and publications chair.

Dr. Gillmore is the co-founder and co-director of The Institute for Educational and Social Justice, which specializes in writing, consulting, and educational outreach efforts centered on social and educational justice issues. She has co-authored three books entitled Motivation, Education, and Transformation: The Change Agent’s Guide to Reaching our Youth and Lifting them Higher and Inspirational Youth: Transforming Average to Extraordinary and Balancing Act: 31 Simple Strategies for Maintaining Your Balance and Sanity as a Teacher. She currently also teaches high school English, doctoral writing and organizational leadership classes, and educational research courses. She is the co-founder and lead facilitator of Spark Retreats, an initiative to help people more closely align their passions with their professional purpose through focused professional and personal development.

Start Date

11-5-2015 5:45 PM

End Date

11-5-2015 6:45 PM

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Nov 5th, 5:45 PM Nov 5th, 6:45 PM

Standing at the Crossroads: Navigating Mindfulness, Teacher Self-Care, and Transformative Social Justice Pedagogy

Blending research in social justice pedagogy and teacher self-efficacy with a pragmatic look at how mindfulness and self-care impact our teaching, this workshop will encourage participants to question some deeply held beliefs about who they are in relation to their work with underserved students and provide practical strategies for increased mindfulness and self-care within and beyond the professional setting.