How are mindfulness meditation teachers implementing social justice literacy in their classes?

Many mindfulness practitioners are trying to find ways to address the fast-emerging demands to end social injustice around the world. This interdisciplinary project aims to investigate, for the first time, how mindfulness meditation teachers and courses are incorporating social justice literacy training, and how such incorporation is perceived to intersect with fostering personal well-being. Focusing on teachers committed to promoting social justice, the project will determine teachers’ attitudes and existing practice towards incorporation of social justice literacy including, but not limited to gender, racial, and environmental literacy. We will survey and subsequently interview mindfulness meditation teachers to investigate their experiences with social justice issues. We will examine experiences of training, incorporation of methods, and barriers to learning and implementation. These insights will be accompanied by a textual analysis of social justice manuals. We will take special care to add global representation to our mapping. This project will provide crucial input into existing discussions about whether and how modern mindfulness applications could and should support social justice. Ultimately, this work will contribute to the refinement and expansion of this dimension in mindfulness training.