Tomas Rocha

Climate change poses a threat to young people's capacity to flourish both now and in the future. In response, Aristotelian Climate Change Education (CCE) aims to cultivate radicalized climate virtues in students and give them structured opportunities to contemplate Socrates's question—“How should one live?”—amidst conditions of unprecedented ecological uncertainty. However appealing this approach may be to environmentalists, it faces a serious objection from political liberals who appeal to the principle of neutrality toward competing conceptions of the good life. In this article, we draw from critical theorist Rahel Jaeggi's Critique of Forms of Life to address the concern about liberal neutrality while deepening our account of Aristotelian CCE. Jaeggi's work helps us diagnose liberal neutrality as an ideological avoidance strategy and offers an alternative, context-transcending standard for legitimacy grounded in whether a form of life can learn from crises and overcome its own blockages to learning. After showing why Aristotelian CCE should not be held to liberal neutrality as a standard of legitimacy, we argue that it is nevertheless legitimate because it cultivates capacities, such as problem recognition and good deliberation, necessary for successful learning. Along with structured time and space for contemplation about the good life, an education in radicalized climate virtues prepares students to flourish as they and their forms of life learn from a continually evolving climate.

This essay analyzes Pierre Hadot's reading of Aristotelian theoria in order to evaluate theoria's relevancy for the contemporary field of Contemplative Education. It emphasizes the limited engagement with theoria against a backdrop of heightened attention to mindfulness-based practices. The essay critiques the conflation of Plato and Aristotle's appropriations of diplomatic theoria and reveals shortcomings in Hadot's attempt to characterize theoria as a spiritual exercise of self-cultivation at the core of an Aristotelian way of life. The critique underscores the need for a clearer delineation of Plato and Aristotle's contribution to contemporary Contemplative Education and points to the possibility of a richer exploration of theoria beyond Hadot's interpretation.

Teacher strikes have taken place in the United States since the end of the 19th century, became much more common in the 1960s, and have enjoyed a resurgence over the past five years (2018-2023). In this paper, we analyze teacher strikes with two main objectives. First, we examine how sexism and misogyny impact discourse around teacher strikes, as well as the justifications that teachers themselves give for striking. We find that teachers are at risk of being deemed ‘immoral’ unless they justify their decision to strike by appealing to their being in the service of others. Pressure to adopt this framing not only negatively impacts teachers’ dignity as human beings deserving of adequate compensation and working conditions, but it also inadvertently upholds unjust patriarchal norms regarding teaching as care work. In the second part of this paper, we put forward alternative framings teachers can adopt in justifying their decisions to strike. The framings are rooted in philosophical literature that allows for self-regarding actions to be recognized as properly moral in certain circumstances. We argue that by extending this recognition to teachers who strike, we combat covert sexist expectations and uphold the dignity of teachers as persons.

Mindfulness training has been used to improve emotional wellbeing in early adolescents. However, little is known about treatment outcome moderators, or individual differences that may differentially impact responses to treatment. The current study focused on gender as a potential moderator for affective outcomes in response to school-based mindfulness training. Sixth grade students (N = 100) were randomly assigned to either the six weeks of mindfulness meditation or the active control group as part of a history class curriculum. Participants in the mindfulness meditation group completed short mindfulness meditation sessions four to five times per week, in addition to didactic instruction (Asian history). The control group received matched experiential activity in addition to didactic instruction (African history) from the same teacher with no meditation component. Self-reported measures of emotional wellbeing/affect, mindfulness, and self-compassion were obtained at pre and post intervention. Meditators reported greater improvement in emotional wellbeing compared to those in the control group. Importantly, gender differences were detected, such that female meditators reported greater increases in positive affect compared to females in the control group, whereas male meditators and control males displayed equivalent gains. Uniquely among females but not males, increases in self-reported self-compassion were associated with improvements in affect. These findings support the efficacy of school-based mindfulness interventions, and interventions tailored to accommodate distinct developmental needs of female and male adolescents.

The current study is a pilot trial to examine the effects of a nonelective, classroom-based, teacher-implemented, mindfulness meditation intervention on standard clinical measures of mental health and affect in middle school children. A total of 101 healthy sixth-grade students (55 boys, 46 girls) were randomized to either an Asian history course with daily mindfulness meditation practice (intervention group) or an African history course with a matched experiential activity (active control group). Self-reported measures included the Youth Self Report (YSR), a modified Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Measure –Revised. Both groups decreased significantly on clinical syndrome subscales and affect but did not differ in the extent of their improvements. Meditators were significantly less likely to develop suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harm than controls. These results suggest that mindfulness training may yield both unique and non-specific benefits that are shared by other novel activities.