MLE Initiatives: Education

What is the Community of Contemplative Education?

The Community of Contemplative Education (CCE) was initiated by Mind & Life Europe in 2018 with the goal of creating a sustainable and vibrant community of the leading pioneers and experts to enhance collective learning and implementation around contemplative education in Europe to cultivate human flourishing through education. There is a great deal of excellent work on contemplative and mindfulness based approaches happening out there across Europe, in schools, universities, and the community, supported by change makers and even politicians in some countries, but it is at present scattered and incoherent without enough interchange and mutual learning. So this community aims to bring together and support this vital work.

Read more..

 

 

        

Consultation Report: Developing the CCE in Europe

During 2018, more than 130 experts and change makers completed our survey or were interviewed to explore the landscape of Contemplative Education (CE) across Europe.

We asked them to tell us about their work, about the theories, terminologies and concepts they used, about what was happening in their country around contemplative education and what was moving it on and what was holding it back, and what they would like a community of contemplative education to do to support them. The fascinating results were summarised in a report  presented at the meeting, and you can click on it below.

 

 

Recent Reviews and Bibliographies of CE and Mindfulness in Education

We are building our approach on sound evidence of many kinds, quantitative, qualitative and from the neuroscience, and good quality current literature, which we aim to add to these pages with the help of the community.

 

Useful starting points are following documents.

Katherine Weare & Felicia Huppert (2018). Bibliography on Mindfulness and CE in Education

Katherine Weare (2018). The Evidence for Mindfulness in Schools for Children and Young People

Katherine Weare (2019). Mindfulness and Contemplative Education Evidence Update

Oren Ergas and Linor L. Hadar (2019). Mindfulness In and As Education: A Map of Developing Academic Discourse from 2002 to 2017.

Philippa McKeering & Yoon-Suk Hwang (2018). A Systematic Review of Mindfulness-Based School Interventions with Early Adolescents

Darren L. Dunning, Kirsty Griffiths, Willem Kuyken, Catherine Crane, Lucy Foulkes, Jenna Parker, & Tim Dalgleish (2018). Research Review: The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Cognition and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents – A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (2019). Contemplative Education Bibliography

 

 

Inaugural Meeting in Rotterdam

In September 2018, the inaugural meeting of the Community of Contemplative Education (CCE) was held in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). More than forty experts from all across Europe gathered for this meeting.

See our CCE brochure about the aims of the meeting, the schedule, the participants of the CCE and their bios. For more background information please have a look at the presentation Developing the CCE. And have a glance below at the pictures taken during the meeting.

  

 

The members of our CCE community

For the bios and photos, please see our CCE brochure.

 

 

Moving Forward - The Strategy in 2019

The Rotterdam meeting concluded that there is huge enthusiasm for this development, and that to make progress now we need to divide our focus into several interrelated fields, to be developed through practical activities led by the community over the year 2019. We are currently working on leadership and advocacy, the education of teachers and students, holistic (joined up) approaches in education and research.


You can find the outline of our strategy document here. We hope it will inspire you to join us!


 

 

Current Activities & Insights

 

Books & Research Papers from the CCE

Thich Nhat Hanh & Katherine Weare (2017). Happy Teachers Change the World. A Guide for Cultivating Mindfulness in Education. Parallax Press.

Guy Claxton (2017). The Learning Power Approach. Teaching Learners to Teach Themselves. SAGE Publishing.

Dusana Dorjee (2017). Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life: Searching for the Essence of Mind. 1st Edition. Routledge.

Oren Ergas (2019). Education and Mindfulness Practice: Exploring a Dialog Between Two Traditions. Mindfulness, pp. 1-13.

Kevin Hawkins (2017). Mindful Teacher, Mindful School. Improving Wellbeing in Teaching and Learning. 1st Edition. SAGE Publishing.

 

 

Conferences involving the CCE

When

What

Where

April 12-14, 2019

The Soul of Education: Prague Gathering

Prague, Czech Republic

April 15, 2019

The Mindfulness Club:

Best practices in education - Social-emotional learning, mindfulness and whole-school approach

Prague, Czech Republic

April 26, 2019

Mindfulness in Schools Project:

A Million Minds Matter - Coming Together to Empower a Generation

London, United Kingdom

June 14-21, 2019

Plum Village: Neuroscience Retreat

Thenac, France

 

 

Mindfulness and Contemplative Education in the media

Welcome to the Mindfulness Retreat for Burned-Out Teachers. Times Educational Supplement (May 2019).

The MWS Podcast: Katherine Weare on Happy Teachers Change the World. Middle Way Society (May 2019).

Mindfulness in the News. The Mindfulness Initiative (April 2019).

Movement and Breathing Breaks help Students stay Focused on Learning. KQED News/MindShift (March 2019).

Will the Pupil Equity Fund close the Attainment Gap? The Herald (March 2019).

Teaching Children Mindfulness. PsychCentral (March 2019).

First for Belfast School as Pupils Complete Six-Week Mindfulness Programme. The Irish News (March 2019).

Global Trend: Mindfulness in Schools - Is the US. falling behind? Psychology Today (February 2019).

 

 

Our Supporters

We are grateful for our supporters who make the work of the Community of Contemplative Education (CCE) possible.

   - Triodos Foundation (The Netherlands)

   - Schöpflin Stiftung Foundation (Germany)

   - IONA Foundation (The Netherlands)

   - Gaden Phodrang Foundation of the Dalai Lama (Switzerland)

   - Porticus Foundation (The Netherlands)