When Whiteness Clouds Mindfulness: Using Critical Theories to Examine Mindfulness Trainings for Educators in Urban Schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article describes results from a critical co-ethnography focused on a mindfulness training for educators in an urban school district in the southeastern region of the U.S. Working across racial difference, and utilizing critical race theory and critical whiteness studies as lenses, the co-ethnographers identified individualism that subverted systemic levels of oppression, race neutral ideologies, and ways the curricula and facilitation of this mindfulness training may have missed opportunities for racial equity work. Additionally, ideologies of whiteness were present in the training despite being situated in a larger teacher residency program with a mission centered on the realization of equity and racial justice in schools. Implications for mindfulness programs and urban teacher residency models are explored.