The authors are in the fifth year of a six year, grant-funded project with public schools in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) to introduce the theory and practice of “mindfulness” into teacher inquiry. Three cohorts of teachers in schools in struggling circumstances have drawn upon literature on teachers’ professional learning communities, cognitive psychology, and the “engaged Buddhism” of Thich Nhat Hanh to examine and improve their teaching. Monthly Saturday seminars, with formal meditation practices and readings and assignments related to mindfulness, have supported teacher inquiry and participatory action research. The presenters will describe the concept of “alienated teaching” they developed through their research and the “seven synergies” of mindful teaching that the teachers developed as its antidote and corrective. The presenters will use a dialogical structure of “problem-posing education” (Freire, 1970) to engage the audience and to promote greater reflection and moral purpose among educators.

The presenters use a model of “teachers as researchers” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle 1994) to conduct this scholarship. Research instruments included interviews with participating teachers, focus group discussions, teachers’ journals, and classroom observations.