The Mindful Teacher

The authors, one an urban public school teacher in Boston and the other a professor of education at Boston College, define and articulate the idea of 'alienated teaching' and offer a means to counter it. Alienated teaching is what teachers do when they feel that they must comply with external conditions that they have not chosen and from which they inwardly dissent because they do not believe that new policies and reforms serve their students well. Funded by a grant from the Boston Collaborative Fellows, the authors examine the effects of top-down policy mandates on classroom teachers. 'Mindful teaching' is a way for teachers to learn how to incorporate appropriately, reforms and mandates into their practice. Mindful teaching promotes openness to new ideas and new perspectives via discussion in a collegial group committed to teacher inquiry. It promotes quiet and thoughtful articulation about professional commitment and beliefs. The authors are strong proponents of teachers becoming 'teacher leaders' in order to work through the issues of mandates, teaching to the text, etc.