Mindful Social Studies

Mindful Social Studies: Frameworks for Social Emotional Learning and Critically Engaged Citizens situates the field of social studies education as uniquely poised to integrate anti-racist, equity, and asset-based pedagogies with contemplative, mindfulness-based strategies to promote the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students need to be effective citizens. Students' Social Emotional Learning (SEL) hinges upon their experience(s) engaging in authentic learning that strengthens cognitive skills, including critical thinking, self-awareness, reflection, compassion, empathy, and perspective taking. In this volume, the co-editors have curated reflective K-16 practitioner-style, research-focused, and theory-based chapters that explore social justice-orientated contemplative pedagogies, as well as mindfulness-related frameworks and strategies for teaching social studies and the social and behavioral sciences. In this book, chapter authors explore ways of cultivating specific mindfulness-related social studies dispositions and transformative rationales and approaches for critical mindfulness and SEL based on compelling arguments for meeting the needs of students, families, and educators in a dynamic and increasingly diverse society.

Natalie Keefer is associate professor of social studies education, graduate coordinator, and Co-Director of the Louisiana Center for Research and Education on Languages and Literacies at the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
Tori K. Flint is associate professor of literacy and early childhood education in the College of Education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

List of Figures and Tables
Part One: Critical Reflections: Centering Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness in the Classroom Context
Introduction: Gazing Inward and Outward by Connecting SEL, Mindfulness, and Critical Pedagogies in the Social Studies Classroom
Natalie Keefer and Tori K. Flint
Chapter One: "Still Can't Say Namaste?!": Making Asians and Asian Americans Visible in the School-Based Mindfulness Movement
Mohit Mehta and Joanna Batt
Chapter Two: Teaching Critical Affective Civic Literacy through Social Studies Inquiry
Patrick Keegan
Chapter Three: Civic Mindfulness: Teaching About Racism with Courage and Compassion
Elizabeth Yeager Washington, Maria Cristina da Costa Leite, and Ana Puig
Chapter Four: From the Null to the Explicit: Building Antiracist Practices Into our Everyday Teaching of Social Studies
Brittany L. Jones and Melanie M. McCormick
Chapter Five: Giving Voice to the Struggle for Civil Rights: Utilizing Memorialism to Develop Students' Historical Empathy Skills
Nefertar