Mindfulness and Education

This volume is the outcome of a conference on mindfulness, education and transformation held in Australia in 2014, and as such mainly reflects work in the southern hemisphere. There are 12 chapters in three parts: conceptualisations and research about mindfulness, mindfulness and settings, and mindfulness in tertiary and related settings. One important theme is the secularisation of mindfulness by abstracting it from its original Buddhist context, which implies the development of compassion and a corresponding ethical framework. In the West, mindfulness is often associated with a therapeutic context. Some chapters are more directly concerned with a critical review of evidence, while others integrate mindfulness with local traditions and practices. There is an interesting article on the impact of teachers meditating in a school setting where results seem to indicate a transformative effect not only within the teachers, but also in the school community. In the university context, mindfulness can help students with emotional regulation, self-efficacy, decentring (detaching from one's thoughts) and deautomatisation of reflex behaviour patterns, also associated with self-control and corresponding to Buddhist equanimity. This is an important volume for anyone interested in the relationship between mindfulness and education.