Springer Mindfulness in the Academy: Practices and Perspectives from Scholars

This book focuses on the way academics understand, embrace and enact the concepts of mindfulness in approaching their work in demanding and dynamic contemporary higher education environments. It examines how they implement formal and informal mindfulness practices that increase the capacity to transform mind and body states by drawing on concepts such as compassion, kindness, gratitude, curiosity, self-awareness and non-judgemental stances. The book provides insights into and highlights the struggles of scholars through their experiences and perspectives in relation to their identities, practices and job enactment. Each chapter author explains their mindfulness practices and their motivations for implementing them, and explores how mindful ways of researching, writing, learning and teaching, leading, and engaging with others leads us to self-awareness and engagement in the present. From the Back Cover This book focuses on the way academics understand, embrace and enact the concepts of mindfulness in approaching their work in demanding and dynamic contemporary higher education environments. It examines how they implement formal and informal mindfulness practices that increase the capacity to transform mind and body states by drawing on concepts such as compassion, kindness, gratitude, curiosity, self-awareness and non-judgemental stances. The book provides insights into and highlights the struggles of scholars through their experiences and perspectives in relation to their identities, practices and job enactment. Each chapter author explains their mindfulness practices and their motivations for implementing them, and explores how mindful ways of researching, writing, learning and teaching, leading, and engaging with others leads us to self-awareness and engagement in the present. About the Author Dr Narelle Lemon is an Associate Professor of Education at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. She currently holds the Deputy Chair of Education – Learning and Teaching role  within the Department of Education.  Narelle’s research is focused on engagement and participation in the area of building learner capacity to engage with cultural organisations and community arts programmes, arts education, and social media for cultural knowledge and professional development. She is interested in the lived experience of being an academic – care, collaboration, mentoring, mindful and supportive practices informed by positive psychology. Narelle blogs at Chat with Rellypops, Tweets as @Rellypops and @MindfulAcademic (with Sharon), and curates an online project to promote stories of how creativity and mindfulness are applied to people’s lives from various disciplines in the community on Instagram via @exploreandcreateco.  Dr. Sharon McDonough is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Federation University Australia. She began working in teacher education after a 16-year career as a secondary school teacher. Sharon has an interest in collaborating with schools and organisations to provide learning opportunities for pre-service teachers, and is committed to supporting the ongoing learning of pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators. She researches in the fields of self-study, teacher emotion and embodiment, mentoring and resilience.