Mindfulness has all but become a mainstay in modern education. Yet despite the incredible enthusiasm and increased application in schools, there remains significant divergence between advocates and critics. Advocates assert that mindfulness practice promotes individual and societal health and well-being. Meanwhile, critics question the intention…

Today, teaching literature has an established place within the school and university curricula in Western and East Asian countries. This seems so natural that we take the educational role of literature for granted. However, history teaches us that elevating literature to an academic subject required a defense of literature against the critical…

'Mindfulness' is a term which holds increasing currency within educational research, policy and practice. However, there is substantial variation in its use, especially with respect to its historical roots in the Buddhist tradition. I develop a conceptual distinction between 'thin' mindfulness and 'thick' mindfulness, with attendant ontological,…

This paper locates the emergence of critical pedagogy (CP) as praxis in the protest movements in New Delhi, India, against the new citizenship amendment laws that were brought about by the Indian government. The ruling government in India brought amendments to the existing provisions for citizenship, such that persons from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist,…

This article examines how Zen Buddhism conceives of human suffering, the causes of suffering, and the method by which human suffering can be alleviated and compares these with similar notions within critical social theory and its educational manifestation in the critical pedagogy movement. While both Zen Buddhist and critical theories/discourses…

Pedagogue's fallacy occurs when epistemological principles are applied by educators that in fact do not tell of, or explain, or help understand, the subject at hand. It is identified and introduced in this article to raise an important issue in the construction of pedagogical models of religious education: knowledge is reduced and/or distorted to…

This transversal and transilient thought-experiment explores the application and significance of Japanese animism for environmental education and environmental philosophy. Through the exploration of indigenous knowledge found in Japanese folklore and Japanese Buddhism, the thought-experiment offers a critique of a certain strand of contemporary…

The exponential growth of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in recent years has resulted in a marketisation and commodification of practice--popularly labeled "McMindfulness"--which divorces mindfulness from its spiritual and ethical origins in Buddhist traditions. Such commodification is criticized by utilising ideas and insights…

In all of the years of training required to be an expert on any topic, teachers too often forget how to learn from the beginning. This is particularly true with regard to teaching and learning dance in U.S. primary and secondary school settings. Many P-12 dance teachers have had at least ten years of formative dance technique instruction in…