Adapting education to the evolving technological and instrumental landscape is a societal challenge requiring comprehensive engagement. Educational institutions, including schools and universities, play a pivotal role in navigating this process. Central to this endeavor is humanization, defined as the process of achieving greater humanity in social, historical, and transformative contexts (Salazar, 2013). Esquirol (2021) asserts that humanization involves an awareness and reflexive movement toward becoming some(one) with some(body). This process encompasses self-awareness, reflection, and a commitment to embodiment and integrity. Furthermore, humanization empowers students to actively engage with history, resisting dehumanizing aspects of neoliberal culture (Hyslop-Margison and Naseem, 2007). The question arises: how can we best support teachers in becoming more human and cultivating a more human environment within schools?

Advocating for the humanization of education within teacher education necessitates integrating various dimensions of teaching practice. This involves considering both subjective and objective aspects, recognizing its relational nature, and understanding socioecological dynamics. To address the depth and complexity of teacher development, explicit attention must be given to emotional, relational, and ethical/philosophical dimensions. Humanization is the overarching goal of education, comprising the articulation between qualification, subjectification, and socialization functions (Biesta, 2008, 2015). Qualification aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills to become professionals in a given field; subjectification raises awareness of the personal dimensions of education in relation to the process of being and becoming human (Biesta, 2015); and socialization, refers to “the many ways in which, through education, we become members of and part of particular social, cultural and political ‘orders’” (Biesta, 2008, p. 40).

The current educational landscape, dominated by competence-based models, tends to prioritize qualification, neglecting subjectification, and socialization functions, resulting in a fragmented educational experience (Biesta, 2008, 2015). These models have enabled the definition of concrete and measurable criteria of good teaching, informing policy recommendations and teacher education mostly based on performance, standards, and measurement (Collins, 2004). The results are extensive lists of competences that teachers must fulfill to become good practitioners, creating a norm of what good teaching should look like. The risk of a competency-based approach is the erosion of teacher agency, the creation of a disjointed curriculum based on the list of “things” the teacher should be competent in, as well as the creation of individual learning trajectories, centered on the development of the teacher’s own competencies, but neglecting the emotional, collective, and relational dimensions of the teacher’s work (Biesta, 2015; Ball, 2016; Sachs, 2016).

Humanistic-based approaches highlight that teachers are fundamentally individuals (Combs, 1979; Abraham, 1984; Palmer, 2007), recognizing personal dimensions of the teacher (emotional, bodily, cognitive, relational, biographical, and reflective) often overlooked in competence-based models (Lopes and Pereira, 2012). According to Meijer et al. (2009, p. 298), it reinforces the “importance of learning to know oneself better as a prerequisite of being a good teacher.”

This article explores a praxis for humanization of education, focusing on the integration of mindfulness-based approaches (MBAs) in teacher education. MBAs bring attention to internal and subjective dimensions, as well as to ethical and political aspects of becoming a teacher. Their practical, experiential, relational, and ethical nature, make them a valuable approach to empirical research on the humanization of education. Weare and Bethune (2020) situate the concept of mindfulness as follows:

“Mindfulness goes right to the heart of the human challenge, to help us reassess what we value and what makes us authentically and meaningfully happy, to understand ourselves more deeply, relate more effectively to our own emotions and behaviors, and experience our inescapable connectedness with the social and ecological contexts in which we live” (Weare and Bethune, 2020, p. 3).

Based on a consultation with 28 experts in the field, Weare and Bethune (2020) recognize the need to go beyond the individual dimensions of MBA. They emphasize the ethical, critical, and social dimensions of these approaches, recognizing the role that mindfulness can play in reflecting on the purposes of education and its transformation in the face of the social, ecological, and global health challenges of today’s societies.

Integrating MBAs in teacher education, a burgeoning field, has shown moderate effects in reducing psychological symptoms associated with stress, anxiety, and depression, along with enhancing socio-emotional competences relevant to well-being and professional effectiveness (Emerson et al., 2017; Klingbeil et al., 2017).

McCaw (2019), in a critical review of the use of the concept of mindfulness in education, develops a conceptual distinction between “thin” and “thick” mindfulness based on their ontological, teleological, and ethical characteristics. While “thin” mindfulness focuses on personal development, “thick” mindfulness emphasizes ontological and ethical dimensions, viewing mindfulness as part of a transformative ethical education system (McCaw, 2019). In its “thin” version, mindfulness is described, in psychological terms, as a temporary human capacity or mental state utilized in a context of personal development. This is the starting point of different mindfulness-based programs (MBP) to promote mental health and well-being. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) are the first generation of programs that have emerged in the Western world. These programs include mindfulness practices to develop attention, awareness, and kindness with inner experience, as well as psycho-educational exercises to promote understanding and transformation of the mind–body relationship and mental habits. The operationalization of the concept of mindfulness in this “thinner” version has enabled the proliferation of scientific research, the theoretical and empirical development of mindfulness processes and mechanisms, and the implementation of MBP in diverse contexts (e.g.: hospitals, schools, universities, and other organizations). But they have been criticized for the historical and ethical decontextualization of mindfulness practice and its instrumental character (Hyland, 2015).

Otherwise, on the “thick” version of mindfulness the approaches seek to go beyond mindfulness training, taking mindfulness practice as part of a system of ethical education and seeing “the presence of mindfulness as in effect reminding us of who we are and what our values are” (Gethin, 2011, p. 270). Thick mindfulness definitions point to the role of mindfulness practices in personal and social transformation. Here, the practitioner is not a mere object of a mindfulness training to improve their wellbeing and professional efficacy, but a subject of reflective action, toward a more human collective becoming. Awareness, silence, stillness, and kindness are the gateways for recognizing impermanence and interdependence of experience as well as to go beyond the notion of an isolated and separate self. This ontological position brings the subject to a different relational place with themselves, the people and world around. This process is experienced in the ethical and dialogical space provided within a group of mindfulness practice. There is no dichotomy between “thin” and “thick” mindfulness. As McCaw (2019) clarifies, “thick mindfulness could be said to transcend but contain thin mindfulness, in the manner of a smaller circle being contained within a larger circle” (p. 267). However, thinner versions of mindfulness are not enough to develop education humanization.

In this context, the primary focus of this article is on the thickness of the concepts and how the dialogue in the field of mindfulness relates to dialogues about the values and purpose of humanizing education in teacher education.

The scoping review conducted in this article aims to map research on mindfulness in teacher education and its relationship with the humanization of education, guided by questions such as how MBAs have been conceptualized and their role in humanizing teacher education.

In examining the intersection of mindfulness and education, this study relies on the theoretical perspectives of Biesta (2008), focusing on the functions of education (qualification, subjectification, and socialization), and Ergas (2019), emphasizing the role of mindfulness in, as, and of education (see Figure 1). Biesta and Ergas were selected to address the complementary aspects of instrumental, subjective, and ecological/relational dimensions within both educational and mindfulness practices, aligning with the overarching concept of humanization.

A scoping review was chosen to map relevant literature on the relationship between the humanization of education and MBA, as it is a novel topic. Scoping reviews allow for the selection of broader topics with different study designs, providing comprehensive coverage of research activity. This review followed the five-step process proposed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). The first stage involved identifying the research question: How have MBAs been conceptualized in teacher education? (2) What is the role of MBAs in humanizing teacher education? To identify relevant studies for stage 2, an electronic database search was conducted, in May 2021, including the following databases: Academic Search Ultimate, Education Source, ERIC, Fonte Académica, and Teacher Reference Center. To expand the search for relevant literature in this review, we selected the following research terms for the scoping review:

The search involved identifying articles that contained any of these specific terms in their title, abstract, keywords, and full text. Only articles published after 2010 and with full text available were considered. A total of 154 articles were initially selected, and 151 remained after removing duplicates (see Figure 2). To select the studies for the review (stage 3), titles and abstracts were screened according to the inclusion criteria: (a) population: teachers (pre-service, in-service, and university teachers); (b) phenomena of interest: humanization, MBA, and contemplative education; and (c) context: higher education, teacher education organizations. The study employed exclusion criteria to select articles for analysis. A total of 151 articles did not meet the inclusion criteria and were excluded. After applying the exclusion criteria, 48 articles remained for full-text reading. The articles were read by two authors. After conducting a thorough analysis and initial topic coding (Richards, 2005), the authors made the decision to limit the sample to empirical studies, while excluding literature reviews. A total of 21 pieces from 10 different countries were ultimately selected for review (refer to Figure 2).

The researchers read the full-text articles, and data were charted (stage 4) to identify the country, study setting, sampling approach, research design, and MBA, with the support of the database program Excel (Table 1). The charting approach used the analytical frameworks of (a) mindfulness in, as, and of education (Ergas, 2019b); (b) the “thin” or “thick” (McCaw, 2019) mindfulness definitions; and (c) the research paradigm (post-positivist; constructivist; advocacy/participatory or pragmatic; Creswell, 2003). According to Arksey and O’Malley (2005, p. 26), this “‘descriptive-analytical’ method within the narrative tradition, which involves applying a common analytical framework to all the primary research reports and collecting standard information on each study, stands more chance of being useful.” Data charting was conducted by two of the authors. Peer checking with all the authors was employed throughout the process.

The stage 5 of the review: collating, summarizing, and reporting results (Arksey and O'Malley, 2005) will be presented below according to the initial research questions.

This scoping review examines the relationship between MBA and education humanization in teacher education. The “mindfulness in education strand” brings an instrumental view of the use of mindfulness. A “thin” (McCaw, 2019) version of mindfulness was used in all the studies, focusing on the development of socio-emotional competences to promote teacher wellbeing and efficacy. The research aimed to provide evidence for the feasibility of using MBP and measuring the effects of mindfulness practice in different dimensions. The MBAs in this strand typically adopt a competence-based approach, prioritizing short-term interventions within a psychological framework, where mindfulness serves as a tool for stress reduction and well-being. Programs such as the CARE for Teachers (Jennings et al., 2011), the Learning to Breath (Kerr et al., 2017), MBSR adaptations (Newsome et al., 2012) as well as the use practices from other mindfulness programs (Hartigan, 2017) offer interventions to equip teachers with tools for improving educational environments, learning conditions, and mental health. This is aligned with the qualification function of education proposed by Biesta (2008), as teachers become more competent in classroom management and in dealing with the challenges of the profession. However, the predominant quantitative focus on the effects of mindfulness practices in research tends to overlook the subjective and processual dimensions experienced by individuals. This reinforces an instrumental view of MBAs, providing a limited understanding of the transformative potential these interventions can trigger. Addressing the socio-emotional dimension of the teaching profession contributes to education humanization, enabling teachers to resist the dehumanizing aspects of school education and associated mental health challenges.

The perspective of mindfulness as and/or of education is less common in the scientific literature (Ergas and Hadar, 2019; Ergas, 2019b). However, this review suggests an equal number of studies in the mindfulness in education strand (nine studies) and the combination of other strands (nine studies), which may indicate a different trend in recent research. These strands (as and/or of education) acknowledge the subjective and relational dimensions of the teacher, focusing on teacher self-knowledge, self-reflection, and the creation of ethical space for participants (McCown, 2016). The integration of MBAs into initial teacher education is identified as a priority by the Mindfulness Initiative’s policy document (Weare and Bethune, 2020). Approaches that utilize “thick” mindfulness aligned with constructivist and participatory paradigms contribute to understanding the meaning of these approaches for teachers and to exploring personal transformation at ontological and holistic levels (Antunes and Oliveira, 2015).

These studies contribute to the interest in how beginning teachers think about themselves and undergo personal transformations as they become teachers. Korthagen (2004) notes this question’s importance in valuing the educational aspect of mindfulness practice and its transformative potential. MBA appear to be therefore as promising pathway to reinforce the subjectification function (Biesta, 2008) in teacher education and support a transition to more humanist-based approaches. The incorporation of communities of practice, elective university courses, personal teacher practices, and non-formal curricula in MBAs, with a focus on longitudinal approaches, highlights their potential for sustained transformation. It is important to recognize that not all studies view MBA as the sole strategy for humanization. Therefore, it is crucial to emphasize the significance of diverse approaches to promote reflection, transformation, and personal growth. These approaches aim to humanize education by empowering teachers and integrating the subjective dimensions and social engagement of teacher work.

The limitations of this review include the exclusive reliance on database research, which excludes literature published through other means. In future research, it is recommended to consider mindfulness as a part of education strands within advocacy/participatory paradigms, with explicit protocols on mindfulness approaches and professional training. Empirical studies should adopt longitudinal and flexible approaches, such as communities of practice, to better understand the role of mindfulness as a collective praxis for humanization.

Mindfulness plays a critical role in education from three perspectives: mindfulness in education, mindfulness as education, and mindfulness of education. This scoping review raises important questions that are essential for the development of comprehensive frameworks aimed at humanizing teacher education. The integration of the MBA into teacher education is very diverse. There are various approaches to mindfulness in education, ranging from structured programs such as CARE for Teachers and Learning to Breathe, to more flexible approaches that integrate teachers’ mindfulness practices into existing curricular units or create communities of practice. The goal of creating a humanized educational space can be achieved in different ways. Whether through MBAs or humanized research strategies such as narrative approaches, the main goal is to develop socio-emotional competencies and habits of reflection and transformation. The MBA is as a promising way to both facilitate and study the subjective, reflective, and transformative dimensions of teacher education, and then to contribute to the overall humanization of education.

FS: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. AL: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing. CS: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing, Validation. EF: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing.