Date of Award
Spring 5-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA - Master of Arts
Department
Mindfulness Studies
First Advisor
Nancy Waring
Abstract
Teacher development is of critical importance in the relatively new field of mindfulness. This study focuses on what can be understood about teacher development, from the perspective of teachers who have trained in this field. Five U.S.-based qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teachers were interviewed to find out about their formative experiences. The data were gathered from interview transcriptions, and have been presented in the context of the literature concerning teacher training pathways and recognized and/or recommended teacher development activities. The teachers described a range of formative experiences, involving formal training, professional, spiritual and ordinary life moments, and including pleasant as well as unpleasant experiences. They related experience types that are encouraged for developing teachers, and some that extended beyond the recognized training pathways. The array of experiences they counted as formative can provide a powerful window into what teachers-intraining and teacher trainers might attend to, in encouraging aspiring and experienced teachers in their ongoing development.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Fletcher, Margaret, "Formative Experiences for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teachers-In-Training" (2017). Mindfulness Studies Theses. 11.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/mindfulness_theses/11
