Healing in Our Schools: Connecting us to who we truly are.
For educators, mindfulness is a pathway to connect to their best selves that can advocate for better systems that value well-being for themselves and their students. I’m committed to collective healing that attends to wounds of racism, emotional trauma. By offering practices that are connection-focused, educators enter into the world of their student's community and understand their histories and contexts. Healing belongs in our schools. The books I've written are vehicles of healing that offer a generative story for students to enter into. It is not just about managing stress and anxiety but as a way to deal with the experiences of trauma and racism. My work as a mindfulness director is to develop awareness and not about staying calm. Students and educators have a right to be agitated. By connecting to our true selves, we are better able to advocate for system change, draw boundaries, and co-regulate with one another. A colleague was challenged that breathing wasn't going to fix the problem of racism. We aren't going to get anywhere with dysregulated nervous systems stuck in trauma and impeded imaginations.
Don’t travel alone. Walk alongside your community to do the good work. Listen and learn with them. Everything worthwhile is done with other people. This is a picture of the community driven to bring more Indigenous educators into our community through a partnership across the ocean with the University of Waitangi. BIPOC members in our school community need to be honored with action and support. Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith (right of center) has written extensively about decolonizing research done alongside Indigenous communities and let story be the primary vehicle for research. Storywork is unfolding with engagement knowing that healing happens not always with time but also when people wake up to the needs. Healing within a community is healing for everyone. It is holistic. It is part of the vision.
My theory of change is: when educational leaders form a compassionate learning community to cultivate our inner lives as well as commit to engaged action toward systemic change, then we will be more effective in transforming our educational community, which will lead to a more equitable, compassionate, and embodied experience of learning and living for students, educators, and the broader world we live in. Educators that do their own inner work will not add to educational trauma. The ultimate impact of community/social mindfulness will decrease stress and build resiliency. By co-creating supportive structures for mindfulness to grow, then educators can embody these practices as they mindfully educate their students. Then, students can attach to their consistent, aware, and available educator to feel a sense of belonging, safety, and a reliable environment to learn.
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