Mindfulness-Based Teaching and Learning
Mindfulness-Based Teaching and Learning
Seonaigh MacPherson received her Ph.D. from UBC in 2000 for an ethnographic study of a Tibetan monastic education, A Path of Learning: Indo-Tibetan Buddhism as Education. She has published widely, including a book with Routledge (2011) on Education and Sustainability: Learning Across the Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education Divide.
Mindfulness Studies: Seonaigh began practicing meditation over 40 years ago, which led to travels and sojourns in Sri Lanka and India. She has studied with leading meditation teachers, including with HH the Dalai Lama, Ven. Tara Tulku, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. She participated in a formative Mind and Life dialogue at the Dalai Lama's residence in Indian in 1997, observing week-long exchanges between the Dalai Lama and leading Western physicists. She has taught Buddhism at the University of Alberta and, more recently, introduced undergraduate courses in mindfulness and wellbeing at UFV.
In 2016, she became certified as an MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) teacher and in 2018, received the highest certification to teach and supervise MBSR teachers in training. She collaborates closely with the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, and is currently negotiating a partnership agreement between the Centre and the University of the Fraser Valley. She is series editor of a new international scholarly book series with Dio Press on Mindfulness-Based Teaching and Learning.
Adult and Higher Education: Seonaigh's key mentor and professor was UK-based Dr. Peter Jarvis, editor of the Journal of Lifelong Education. Dr. Jarvis solicited and published her first scholarly article, a study of Buddhism as adult education, which was later reproduced in a book of best articles selected by Dr. Jarvis. Her doctoral and later SSHRC-funded (2005-2008) research focused on the intercultural and multilingual education and lifelong learning pathways of Tibetan refugees in Canada, the USA, and India, chronicling educational strategies to sustain their language, culture, and religion. She also held two SSHRC-funded research grants on professional education aimed at supporting Indigenous language teachers and intercultural teaching skills in K-12 teachers in Manitoba. Professionally, she has worked in healthcare, ESL/EFL/EAL, TESL, and environmental training and program development for adult learners. She has also worked supporting special needs learners in the K-12 education system.
Seonaigh MacPherson's K-12 teachers blog topic: Buddhist vs. Secular Mindfulness Training
The MBTL program took my passion and practice for mindfulness and reinforced it with structure, evidenced-based research, and social learning that continues to elevate the development offerings I provide both within and outside of the workplace.