Mindful Service-Learning: An Innovative Pedagogical Approach

"Tend the World and You Tend Yourself: Tend Yourself and You Tend the World"

Abstract

Why Mindful Service-Learning? 

While 30 years of service-learning has yielded many benefits, I have found that students today are more stressed than ever, that effective preparation for meaningful service-learning can be lacking, and that an exclusively Western perspective could be expanded to include Eastern views, thereby better preparing students for a global world. Mindful Service- Learning draws on established service- learning practices, the Eastern practice of mindfulness, and Asset-Based Community Development to foster healthful student learning and meaningful university-community collaboration.   Specifically, mindful service-learning utilizes Eastern tools—being present, beginner’s mind, deep listening, compassion--in addition to more individualistic and analytical practices, to broaden the contemporary approach to service-learning. Focused on an intersectional perspective, it is an innovative way to address privilege, oppression, identity and power dynamics in all environments, but especially in complex urban settings. As I will demonstrate through a review of past practice as well as a study of contemporary student experience, this approach can help students from different backgrounds and various academic disciplines to learn lifelong wellness skills as they engage in authentic partnerships.