Reconstructing 'Education' through Mindful Attention (eBook)

Oren Ergas lectures at the Hebrew University and at Beit-Berl Academic College, Israel. His research focuses on mind and body in education from theoretical and practical perspectives. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Philosophy of Education, Critical Studies in Education, and has co-edited Philosophy East/West: Exploring intersections between philosophical and contemplative practices.

Reconstructing ‘Education’ through Mindful Attention 3
Foreword 5
Preface 7
Acknowledgements 14
Contents 15
List of Figures 17
List of Tables 18
1 Introduction: The Problem of Education Is ‘Education’. Forget ‘Education’.Study the Mind 19
Education Is a Mind-Making Process 22
Education, Contingency, and Pruning 25
The Method of This Book 28
Forget ‘Education’. Forget ‘Society’. Study the Mind 31
Reclaiming the Mind from ‘Society’ and ‘Education’ 32
From Mind to ‘Education’ 34
Practically Speaking: First- and Third-Person Methods of Inquiry 35
The Structure of This Book and How to Read It 37
Notes 41
Part I Fundamentals of Mind, Fundamentals of ‘Education’ 43
2 Attention, Space, Time, and ‘Education’ 44
Word 45
Where Do We Stand? 48
Attention in Space 49
The Door of Attention 52
Attention in Space: Reconstructing ‘Education’ 53
The Birth of Me Through Attention in Space 55
Attention in Time 56
Two Conceptions-Experiences of Attention in Time 59
The Necklace Allegory and the Reconstruction of ‘Education’ in Time 63
Summary: The Matrix of Mind 64
Notes 67
3 ‘Education’ and the Pruning of the Mind 69
I and me 70
The Sense of an Origin of Attention 73
From the ‘Origin of Attention’ to I-me 75
The Birth of I and me 78
‘Education’ as Pruning: A Brain-Mind Perspective 80
The Fundamental of WE 82
‘Society’ 83
‘Society’ in the Matrix of Mind 83
‘Society’ Is a BIG Embodied Mind with a ‘Narrative’ 84
The Birth of WE and the Appropriation of ‘Education’ by Out There 87
Language as the Vehicle of ‘Society’ 88
‘Society’ as the Pruning of WE 91
The Illusion of Omniscience 93
The ‘social narrative’ prunes I into me ‘narrative self’ 96
The Habituation of Attention at the Social and Individual Level 98
Summary: Re-grounding Ourselves in the Reconstruction of ‘Education’ 99
Notes 102
Part II The Expulsion of Mind from ‘Education’: A Diagnosis of the Current ‘Educational’ Construct 104
4 ‘Knowledge’ and the ‘Curriculum’ in Time and Space 105
‘Knowledge’ 106
The Contingency of ‘Knowledge’ as the Vehicle of ‘Education’ 106
The Contingency in the ‘Knowledge of Most Worth’ 109
The Reduction of ‘Knowledge’ and the Pruning of Mind 112
Reconstructing ‘Education’. A Brief Recap Before Moving Forward 115
‘Curriculum’ 116
The ‘Curriculum’ as a Mind-Maker: ‘Society’s’ BIG MIND at Work 116
The Three Curricula that All Schools Teach 119
‘Curriculum’ in Space 120
A Phenomenological Perspective 120
An Analytical Perspective 124
‘Curriculum’ and Time 126
‘Curriculum’ as a ‘Social Normative Map’ 126
1. The Metaphysical Error: Now Is Not the Time to Be At 128
2. ‘Education’ Is About ‘Society’ Not About Me 131
3. The Clash Between ‘Social Narrative’ and Embodied Experience 132
Summary: Contingency and Necessity in the Makings of the ‘Curriculum’ 134
Notes 135
5 Pedagogy and Meta-pedagogy 136
Meta-pedagogy, Attention, and the expulsion of the mind 137
Who’s ‘Education’ About? 140
Meta-pedagogy as the Constructor of the ‘Social Curriculum’ 142
Meta-pedagogy as the Constructor of ‘Education’s’ Form 145
Meta-pedagogy as ‘Education’ in Meaning 148
Reconstructing ‘Education’ Through Meta-pedagogy 152
Summary of Parts I and II: The Matrix of Meta-curriculum and Meta-pedagogy 154
The Matrix of Meta-pedagogy and Meta-curriculum 154
Notes 158
Part III The Inner Curriculum: Positioning the Mind at the Center of Curriculum and Pedagogy 159
6 The Ethics of the Inner Curriculum 160
Brain-Mind-Body in the Justification for the ‘Curriculum of Life’ and the Inner Curriculum 161
The Difference Between the ‘Social Curriculum’ and the Inner Curriculum 164
The Ethics of the Inner Curriculum: Every Bead Is Life 169
Is There a Trajectory or Promise in This Inner Curriculum? 171
How Do We Progress From Here? 174
A Word on Methodology 176
Notes 177
7 The Curriculum of Embodied Perception 178
The Brain-Mind as the Agent of ‘Curriculum’ Deliberation: A Coarser Resolution of Perception 181
The Mind as a ‘Cold’ Pedagogue 181
States of Being as the ‘Warm’ Kaleidoscopic Setting of the Mind as Pedagogue 182
The Brain-Mind as a Curricular Agent and Its ‘Educational’ Idea of the ‘Good’ 185
Evolution as the Brain’s Curricular Agenda 187
Embodied-Perception: The Finer Resolution of Bead-Perception 191
The ‘Educational’ Implication of Embodied Perception at the Level of Real-Time Perception 195
Some Implications for the Re-construction of ‘Education’ 196
The Past in the Present and the Conditioning of the Future 199
A Pedagogical Example: The Recursive Nature of Our Brain-Mind 202
Embodied Perception: Some Thoughts about ‘Educational’ Practice 204
Summary of Chapter 7 206
Notes 207
8 The Curriculum of Me 209
The Curricular Boundaries of Me as Narrative and Its Foundation in Embodied Perception 212
Studying the Curriculum of Me Through Mindful Attention 215
Sampling Me as a Pedagogical Practice 219
Mind Wandering, Self-Reflection, and Reflective Practice 220
The Curricular Content of Me 223
Me’s Wandering/Self-Reflecting Brain 227
The Effects of Mind-Wandering on Me: A Justification for the Curriculum of Me 228
Me, ‘Society’ and the ‘the Insufficiency of Now’: The Fuel of the Curriculum of Me 231
The Curriculum of Me as the Process of Agency-Identity-Ownership Formation 237
Me as an ‘Agent’ 237
Me’s Identity 240
Me as Pedagogue 244
Is Me Indoctrinating Me? 251
The Wandering Mind Goes to School 253
Summary of Chapter 8 256
Notes 258
9 The Curriculum of I 261
Two Types of I: The Reflective I and the Contemplative I? 264
The Boundaries of Me’s and the Reflective I’s Agencies 266
Reflective I, Reflective Practice, and the Limits of Their Agency 267
Demarcating the Reflective I’s Limits 269
Self-experiment 1: Stop Thinking 269
Self-experiment 2: Think Only About the Content of Your Choice 271
Engaging the Contemplative I: Back Where We Started – Attention 274
The Contemplative I’s Agency 277
Passive and Active Attention: The Internal Door in Here 284
Active Attention in Mindfulness Practice 286
The Ethics of the Curriculum of I 287
The Choice to Engage in the Curriculum of I as an Ethical Stance 288
The Embodiment of Ethics Within the Curricular-Pedagogical Practice of I 289
The Body as a Gateway to the Contemplative I 293
The ‘Good’ as a Tangible – Socially Engaged Practice 298
The Contemplative I versus the ‘Socially’-Constructed Subject 300
The Curriculum of I Goes to School 303
Reconstructing ‘Education’ Through Passive and Active Attention 303
Summary: The Varieties of the Curriculum of I 306
Notes 308
10 Conclusion: The Reconstruction of ‘Education’ and the ‘Contemplative Turn’ 312
The ‘Contemplative Turn in “Education”’ 314
Evidence of the Feasibility of a Meta-pedagogical Turn and Its Effects 317
A Reconstructed ‘Education’ 324
Notes 326
Epilogue 327
References 328
Index 340