Mindfulness in Multicultural Education: Critical Race Feminist Perspectives

239 Pages·2022·11.028 MB·English

by  Kathryn Esther McIntosh

“At a time of significant world disruption imbued with egregious social
inequalities, Kathryn E. McIntosh offers a radical, liberating vision of
multicultural education connected to a view of mindfulness that employs
critical race feminist perspectives. Like Latina feminist scholar Gloria E.
Anzaldúa and others before her, McIntosh recognizes the importance
of internal work in the struggle for social transformation. This view of
multicultural education is exactly what is needed now to cultivate a new
generation of sentipensantes, students able to work with both their intel-
lectual ability and their sensory processes to dream new dreams and to tip
the consciousness of the world toward equity and justice”
Laura I. Rendón, author of Sentipensante
(Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy, Stylus Press
“Situated within feminist critical race theory, this book makes an inval-
uable contribution to both mindful pedagogy and multicultural edu-
cation. It problematizes and deepens Western mindfulness discourse
by powerfully integrating embodied pedagogies and the work of femi-
nists of color. Both scholarly and practical, the book offers mindfulness
lessons that can be applied directly to one’s pedagogy. Mindfulness in
Multicultural Education will help prepare future teachers for staying com-
passionate, centered, and attuned in the classroom. What an important
contribution to the field!”
Beth Berila, Ph.D., Professor in the Ethnic, Gender &
Women’s Studies Department at St. Cloud State University
“Kathryn McIntosh pushes the borders of mindfulness in education,
challenging educators to integrate mindfulness practices rooted in
our bodies, emotions, spirituality, and communities. Mindfulness in
Multicultural Education is designed to support girls and women of color,
who have all too often experienced oppression and injustice within the
educational system. Through storytelling and sharing her direct experi-
ences, McIntosh provides an expansive and practical guide to teaching
mindfulness in ways that are healing, humanizing, loving, equitable,
and ultimately, liberating.”
Janine Schipper, Professor of Sociology, Northern Arizona
University, and co-author of Teaching with Compassion:
An Educator’s Oath to Teach from the Heart
“This is a book that is for all people interested in liberation; liberation
from oppressive systems of society and the unease many people, espe-
cially in minoritized populations, suffer from racism and oppression.
Dr. McIntosh applies a critical feminist perspective to her mindfulness
journey and weaves her story into the tapestry of thinking and activism
around social change and contemplative practice to give us some hope in
an uncertain time. The only reason I wanted to put the book down was
to get on my sitting cushion and change the world.”
Dr. Jeffrey Proulx, Mindfulness Center at Brown
University, co-author of Beyond White Mindfulness:
Critical Perspectives on Racism, Wellbeing and Liberation
MINDFULNESS IN MULTICULTURAL
EDUCATION
Grounded in critical race feminism, this book explores mindfulness as an
empowering approach in multicultural education. The author explores how
learners of multicultural education—by (re)centering the body through
mindfulness with concrete strategies and scaffolded practice—can be
empowered to handle the activated emotions and deep self-inquiry that
come with the work of social justice, liberation, and anti-racism. This book
includes counter stories of students of colors and offers both an epistemo-
logical and a curricular approach to mindfulness in multicultural education,
including discussion of theory and key principles in addition to ten modules
with practices to engage learners. These modules can be directly applied as
the basis for curricular changes in teacher education and university-wide
social justice courses, or they can be independently read by learners inter-
ested in enhancing their wellbeing and social justice. Written for teacher
preparation and university social justice courses, this book encourages edu-
cators to contextualize their mindfulness practice within a critique of sys-
tems of oppression and ask questions about how mindfulness can empower
action towards a more just society.
Kathryn Esther McIntosh is Associate Professor in the College of Edu-
cation, Oregon State University. Her work focuses on teacher preparation,
critical multilingual and multicultural, and language equity education. She is
the daughter of a Peruvian immigrant and has taught Spanish/English bilin-
gual elementary school in California before moving to higher education. Her
research is grounded in critical race feminisms, pedagogies in critical multi-
cultural education, and Latinx communities in education. She has published
about culturally responsive practices in teacher education, focusing on the
difficult emotional work of preservice teachers in raising consciousness. She
has completed more than 340 hours of yoga philosophy/meditation immersion
training, has 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher certification, and has been a
practitioner of yoga and meditation for fourteen years.
MINDFULNESS IN
MULTICULTURAL
EDUCATION
Critical Race Feminist Perspectives
Kathryn Esther McIntosh
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Kathryn Esther McIntosh
The right of Kathryn Esther McIntosh to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McIntosh, Kathryn Esther, 1973- author.
Title: Mindfulness in multicultural education : critical race feminist
perspectives / Kathryn Esther McIntosh.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022008130 (print) | LCCN 2022008131 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032118581 (paperback) | ISBN 9781032118574 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781003221869 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Multicultural education--Psychological aspects. |
Feminism and education. | Social justice and education. |
Mindfulness (Psychology)
Classification: LCC LC1099 .M34 2023 (print) | LCC LC1099 (ebook) |
DDC 370.117--dc23/eng/20220511
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022008130
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022008131
ISBN: 978-1-032-11857-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-11858-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-22186-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003221869
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
This book is dedicated to my two children
Emma and Oliver who are so filled with heart
and compassion for people and Earth. Also
to the strong Latina women in my family.
And to my graduate students who inspire
me and undergraduates engaged in
this project with an open heart.

CONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Permissions xx
PART I
Overview 1
1 An Overview of Mindfulness in Multicultural
Education and Critical Race Feminism 3
PART II
Theoretical and Epistemological Foundations 25
2 Mindfulness in Context 27
3 Critical Race Feminisms 62
4 Critical Multicultural Education, Spirituality,
and Liberating Pedagogy 89
5 Students’ Voices: Empirical Research Findings
(Co-Authored by Raisa Blazquez) 108