Mindful Practice for Social Justice
A Guide for Educators and Professional Learning Communities
Book Description: This book is designed to help educators and other helping professionals bring mindfulness and social justice to the forefront of their practice for self-actualization and social transformation. It offers readers instructional practices, coaching strategies and implementation tools that raise awareness, foster critical consciousness and help build safe, well-rounded, inclusive, intellectually stimulating learning communities.
Now Available! Routledge website
Also at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
A Framework for Conscientious Engagement
Routledge, 2017
Book Description: This book provides educators with a conceptual framework to explore and develop authenticity and agency for equity. In response to growing cynicism within the field of education, Raquel Ríos argues that in order to become authentic agents of change, teachers must take a stance of mindful inquiry and examine the role of a teacher within the broader socio-political context. By utilizing the six principles of Conscientious Engagement, teachers can expand their awareness of the power of language and thought, the complex nature our professional relationships, and how we channel energy in ways that can impede or strengthen our work for equity. Full of real-world stories and input from practitioners in the field, this book helps teachers of all levels develop the skills and confidence to grapple with tough philosophical and ethical questions related to social justice and equity
Available at Routledge website here.
Also available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Reviews for Mindful Practice
“As educators we are always looking for ways to connect with our students, to promote a format to help them understand what social justice is. It is also important to help students understand what “self awareness” is. Dr. Rios’ new book is an excellent start in that direction. Enjoyable reading with excellent activities and exercises to move in that direction. Highly recommend this book for anyone that is interested in learning about mindfulness and its application to social justice.”-–Mary G. Mayorga, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Belmont University, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program
“A compelling and accessible guide for anyone seeking to take a deeper look into their self-actualization and social transformation…Dr. Ríos reminds us to assess our implicit biases and positions of power to ultimately disrupt inequities in our classrooms.”–Sheldon L. Eakins, host of the Leading Equity Podcast
“‘How can we shift a group out of that feeling of powerlessness?’ Dr. Raquel Rios poignantly asks. Recognizing that personal well-being depends on societal well-being, she presents practical strategies that prompt educators to bring mindfulness and social justice into their everyday practice. If you are ready to do the “inner,” “outer,” and “soul” work outlined in her book, you may find yourself initially exploring your identity, culture, and purpose through contemplation, yoga, and even acting. However, Rios’s exercises move far beyond the personal, leading you to greater awareness of power dynamics and systems. You will learn to how to practice mindful inquiry with your colleagues as well as strategies for freeing up and channeling group energy for the good. This is a resource that will nourish your spirit, enhance your collegial relationships, and inspire more committed action for social transformation.”–Dr. Amy L. Eva, Associate Education Director, Greater Good Science Center,University of California, Berkeley
“Harnessing the power of all that it means to be human, Raquel Rios offers tools and strategies much needed in our educational systems and in world at this precise moment in time when chaos, fear and suffering have touched our lives perhaps like never before. The book is unique in connecting mindfulness and social justice and would make an excellent resource for justice and equity educators in schools, colleges and universities. In the evolving field of contemplative education, this manual stands out as a tool to help us care for one another, to address social injustice with insight and wisdom and to ultimately transform our lives and how we engage with the world.”—Laura I Rendón, author of Sentipensante Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation, Stylus Press
Reviews for Teacher Agency
“In this important new book Raquel Rios demonstrates what teachers can do to further equity in the educational experiences of their students. Her ideas are practical and her analysis of the possibilities is insightful and thought provoking. For teachers who seek to make a difference this book will be a source of hope and inspiration.”—Pedro A. Noguera, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
“With the forces promoting corporate school reform projecting outsized power through their big megaphones, Raquel Rios performs an essential challenge, reminding us that education is a universally recognized human right and, at its best, an enterprise geared toward enlightenment, liberation, and the full development of the human personality—mind and heart, body and spirit. Drawing on a lifetime of experience, Rios urges us to expand our critical capacities as we fight for equity, justice, and an education worthy of free people.”—William Ayers is a former Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago
“No matter what we teach or who we teach, we will find great value in the art, the spirit, the healing nature of Teacher Agency for Equity. The practicality of Rios’ work about establishing equity and justice in schools and the community is equally admirable and useful for teachers and teachers of teachers. Rios’ insightful questions at the end of each chapter challenge the reader to internalize the abstract concepts and stories within the book and particularize those into engagement with students, parents, schools and communities. But more important is Rios’ deep understanding that the wisdom in every community and classroom comes from the experiences and the genius of those at the bottom, not the gurus at the top. This consciousness, developed from her own diverse experiences, is congruent with the core beliefs of the long struggle of humans to be free. Her words and beliefs channel those of Civil Rights icons like Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Vincent Harding, and Bob Moses.”—Joan T. Wynne, PhD/writer/educator, Miami Algebra Project Council
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