The Mindful Classroom

Tru Leverette is associate professor of English and Director of Africana Studies at the University of North Florida.

Acknowledgements Preface: Why Be Mindful? Introduction: Where have we been? Where are we now? Tracing civil (and uncivil) discourse Chapter 1: What we talk about when we talk about race: encountering individual identity, personal agency, and collective struggle Mindfulness & Movement Practice 1 Chapter 2: Who and How Will We Be? Creating Constructive Conversations and Communities Mindfulness & Movement Practice 2 Chapter 3: From Page to Presence: Using Literary Studies to Engage the World Mindfulness & Movement Practice 3 Chapter 4: Engaging Community Mindfulness & Movement Practice 4 Chapter 5: The Mindful Classroom: Seeing and Freeing the Whole Student Chapter 6: Student Voices: Reflections from Mindfully Engaged Students Conclusion: Where are we going? Communities to Come Afterword: From Conversation to Commitment by Andrew Woods Appendices: Resources Bibliography Notes About the Author

The Mindful Classroom by Tru Leverette deftly weaves theory, pedagogical practice, and narrative to illuminate and honor the complexity of educating students as whole human beings who possess and require development of their self-reflection, compassion, and critical thinking in service of engaging productively in mindful conversations about race and social justice. Leverette shares grounded skill-building practices from her own teaching, offers student perspectives on their experiences as learners, and integrates scholarship from diverse fields of study. College and university educators who engage in mindfulness practices, deliberative pedagogy, community-engaged learning, and/or discourse on race and social justice will be affirmed, and will also benefit from the wisdom and experience shared in this text. -- Kathryn Byrnes, Bowdoin College Democracy is in trouble. But education is an opportunity for all of us as it helps to create space for us to listen and learn from and with others. Importantly, as this book highlights, there is an inward orientation that is critical to being able to do the common work of democratic life. We are more than our ideological and partisan affiliations, but it's easy to lose sight of this in this moment. We need practices that exercise our individual and collective civic muscle. This book highlights some of those possibilities. As Leverette argues, whole conversations involving whole people remind us that we are people comprised of many dimensions. Stretching ourselves-figuratively and literally-helps us develop mindful that orients our actions. -- Timothy J. Shaffer, Kansas State University