First Advisor
Gottlieb, Derek
Document Type
Dissertation
Date Created
12-2021
Abstract
This dissertation explored how mindfulness shapes the way educators find meaning and coherence to their narrative selves amid the complex interlocking contexts in urban schools. Drawing on the theoretical lens of a narrative concept of self found in MacIntyre and others, I used a photo-narrative inquiry, observations, and interviews to collect data from the five participants in this study. I then constructed narrative vignettes that highlighted themes internal to each participant’s way of storying their teaching lives in urban schools through the lens of mindfulness. Analysis of participant stories leads to the conclusion that mindfulness is a grounding for self and a holistic way of perceiving that is expressed as a sense of call to create a beloved community of learning. This finding has significance in the way it both confirms and deepens existing literature on mindfulness in the lives of educators, but also in the way it offers a kind of subversive counter-narrative to the purpose of mindfulness within the story of education in this country.
Extent
167 pages
Local Identifiers
Miller_unco_0161D_10989.pdf
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by the author.
Recommended Citation
Miller, John Brian, "Becoming Ourselves: A Photo-Narrative Inquiry Into Mindfulness in the Teaching Lives of Urban Educators" (2021). Dissertations. 778.
https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/778