Toward a Deeper Awareness: Becoming a Mindful Educational Leader

This study explored the meditative practice and non-meditative process of mindfulness and its application to educational leadership. The definition of mindfulness that guided this research was – being attentive and aware in the present moment. Mindfulness was viewed as being more than meditation; it was seen as clear comprehension of a situation and being prepared and willing to address whatever happened. It was a way of understanding one’s self and one’s self in relation to others and the world. The purpose of this research was to construct a conceptualization of mindful educational leadership. This Scholarly Personal Narrative (Nash, 2004; Nash & Bradley, 2011; Nash & Viray, 2013) study provided a conceptualization of what it means to be a mindful educational leader. The conceptualization came from the application of a review: of mindfulness; of leadership as expressed in a way closest to mindfulness, and through the application of Scholarly Personal Narrative to the researcher’s experiences as an educational leader, and as a participant in major life-changing events. Data collection included: epistolary letters, journal reflections, as well as narrative and poetic life texts. A parallax vantage analysis was utilized to uncover and identify universalizable themes within the narrative. These themes offered an understanding of the duality of mindfulness (awareness of self and others) that was linked to the duality of leadership that, at its base, is about the leader and the follower, and thus it is both self and relational. The resulting construct of mindful educational leadership would fill a gap in the academic literature on leadership and would offer to educational leaders, a reflective and purposeful way of being in the world.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Research

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Authors dc:creator

• Karrah, Deborah
• Bearance, Deborah

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jones, David

• Education

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/28470

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:11023/2390