![]() For the purpose of this paper, mindfulness is conceptualized as an example of biopower, something that both impacts subjects of power and also instantiates powerful subjects (Ball, 2012). Drawing upon Foucault’s concept of biopower helps to problematize and inquire about the ways that mindfulness practices in schools, and their resulting truths about emotion, operate to construct the student as a mindful subject and the teacher as manager of social emotion (Cisney & Morar, 2015). When it comes to the subjectification of both teachers and students as part of this relational dyad, “what is in question is the nature of power relations themselves as a form of delimitation” (Cisney & Morar, 2015, p. He argues that the technology or instrumentation of power “cannot be exercised unless a certain economy of discourses of truth functions in, on the basis of, thanks to, that power” (Foucault, 2003, p. This article uses a Foucauldian perspective to introduce an inquiry of how the discourses found in education policy and curriculum shape the mindful subject.Michel Foucault argued that “power is constituted through acceptable forms of knowledge, scientific understanding and ‘truth’” (Gaventa, 2003, p. In building a rationale for the critique presented here, this paper considers how MBIs in education originated and how the popular, mainstream notions described above have shaped a rationale in support of cognitive interventions designed to manage the social behaviors of youth who have been problematically labeled “at-risk” or academically low-performing (Brown, 2016). Critical discussions of this work and its commitment to the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion are part of a more recent and vital critical movement. ![]() Yet, the prevalent pairing of mindfulness and youth who are labeled “at-risk” has generated an abundance of literature substantiating the use of mindfulness as a means for improving student wellness and achievement outcomes throughout the field of education. The biases associated with “risk discourse, the practice of identifying students presumed more likely than their peers to experience low academic achievement” (Brown, 2016, p. Though the “at-risk” label is often considered a trope or stereotype when describing racialized or low-income students and has been dangerously employed in policy and curricula, it does focus attention on “ how education might better address schooling for all students, particularly those positioned as potentially underachieving” (Brown, 2016, p. 183)which alludes to a legacy of disciplinary and over-corrective action concerning marginalized students and students of color in American schools (Love, 2019). ![]() In education, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in particular have been historically intertwined with students who have been problematically labeled “at-risk” (Purser, 2019, p. As such, these popularized notions of mindfulness frame what is and is not mindful - subsequently who is and who is not mindful - all the while urging each of us to be more mindful professionals, family and community members, and consumers (Langer, 1989). ![]() Kabbat-Zinn (2003), one of the field’s leading scholars, defines mindfulness in human behavior as “ awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally…It’s about knowing what is on your mind” (2017, p. ![]() Though the social practices associated with mindfulness may have stemmed from deep-rooted spiritual traditions in contemplative cultures, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as the prayerful rituals of structured religion, a contemporary and more secular notion of mindfulness has emerged in the United States. As it has been celebrated and critiqued, mindfulness has incurred various definitions, depending on the set of beliefs through which it is contextualized. In this more cursory conceptualization, mindfulness functions as a form of market capitalism and as a form of capitalizing spirituality (Heffernan, 2015 Purser, 2019). Concurrently, mainstream media has also critiqued the whitewashing and appropriation of cultural concepts and secular principles from which mindful practice originates. In 2014, CBS aired an episode of 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper that explicated to Americans how to achieve mindfulness as part of a growing public wellness trend and movement (Cetta, 2014). Mindfulness has been woven through American popular culture for decades: named and unnamed, formally and informally, as an enduring concept aimed at reforming individuals and organizations in both public and private spaces. ![]()
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