Building powerful interactions through mindful practice

Educators are fraught with the challenge to design, deliver, and sustain a learning environment that features strong engagement among students, or what might be considered "powerful interactions" that take place in the school community.

According to Wolk (2008), this challenge emerges from a least two factors:

• curriculum and its delivery; citing Dewey's observation documented in Experience and Education (1938) that teachings have traditionally focused on depositing information through an exchange of students' passivity and teacher authoritarianism: "What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win the ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his own soul?" (p. 49). Through this model of pedagogical administration, it is of little surprise from our contemporary vantage point that student motivation, engagement, or drive becomes depleted and the overall experience of schooling for these individuals becomes drab or "joyless."

• Educational policies; rules, regulations, and procedures that promote, emphasize, or facilitate standardization in an attempt to realize the dividend of an equal economy among pupils, inevitably journeys students to encounter a period of existential apathy and malaise. Echoing Goodland's A Place Called School (1984) to stage this insight: "Boredom is a disease of epidemic proportions. … Why are our schools not places of joy?" (p. 242). With schools having formalized expectations for educational stakeholder behaviour through standardized protocols, the outcomes of monotony, inauthenticity, and a move towards unempathetic relationships takes its stride. How, then, asks Wolk, can schools integrate the great lessons of everyday concerning the fundamental human need for joy and compassion and educate learners along a path that gives recognition to the whole child, or, in his words, "mind, heart, and soul"?

Taran (2015) adds a further point about how the need for powerful interactions promoting health and wellbeing emerges from exposure to and participation in a cultural milieu that ignores the intersubjectivity of mindfulness, or the intentional practice of awareness within and among relationships of people, places, and things, and of processing information in these contexts purposefully (Davis & Hayes, 2011). Generating mindfulness is about constructing a space that turns impulsive reactions to thoughtful and reflective responses. As he puts it:

"Who is the teacher that you remember most in your life? Chances are that she or he saw something special in you and encouraged you to develop that gift and share it. I had one such teacher, and I remember her to this day -- she made a huge difference in my life. Every adult who can help kids not only to identify their gifts, but also to share them, is planting powerful time-release seeds for their future."

Goldie Hawn and Dan Siegel (2009) present a Ted Talk about the power of mindfulness and the role it can play in forging powerful, engaging, and emphatic relationships among students, teachers, and the broader public at large.

In order to reach the goal of building and sustaining powerful interactions through mindfulness, Dombro, Jablon, and Stetson (2011) encourage educators to undertake the evidence-based promise of a few key pedagogical exercises. Some of these are:

• Validate students' perceptions: Relate to your students through "mirror talk," that is, acknowledge what students are doing in describing what is observed. "Talia, I see that you have drawn some shapes using yellow, red, and green. Tell me more about your illustration." This linguistic gesture communicates to the student the importance of their work while at the same time your openness to learning more.

• Exhibiting a personal touch: Co-construct conversations that are timely, relevant, and authentic to the lives of your students. "It was the long weekend, and I understand that you, Ibrahim, celebrated a birthday in your family by travelling to Niagara Falls. How did that go?"

• Exercise respectful dialogue: As you travel in the learning environment and notice the work of students, ask for an invitation to visit. "Jaxen, I see that you are busy building a tower using the blocks. May I come join you to see how you further work out this tower?" In asking for permission to enter their creative space, the educator builds further trust in their partnership with the student.

• Embrace the present: Recognize that emotional experiences are rooted in the past and that they carry weight in the present. "Aidan, I notice that you are upset about Kayden taking the blocks away from the carpet that you were just playing with. Tell him how you feel about this. I'll be here to watch and support you." Having students work out conflict between each other and with the support of the teacher goes a long way towards building the ability to remain presently-minded and have the confidence to resolve problems in the moment.

• Become a risk-taker: Show students that courage can lead to great discoveries and personal growth. "Jehan, we have just brought in some worms in the compost bottle. I recognize that you expressed some fear about having worms near you, but let's look together at how they behave in the compost. I'm sure we'll learn something!"

• Model curiosity: Exhibit the wonder of not knowing things and the ability to venture on new paths towards gaining knowledge. "Hmm, I see that Spring is here and the birds are chirping. I wonder what forms of life we will meet in our walk around the schoolyard."

• Welcome complexity: Using vocabulary with unfamiliar terms is not a practice to be avoided but a exercise to be modelled daily and with enthusiasm. "When we visit the animal farm today, you'll notice that some rabbits have white fur, Divit. Because these rabbits have white fur in the winter, other animals cannot see them as well, so they are able to hide from view, that is, become camouflaged."