The power of deep reading and mindful literacy: An innovative approach in contemporary education

Abstract

This paper explores mindfulness as an innovation for improving literacy skills of deep reading. More specifically, this paper describes a case study of a deep reading intervention where graduate education students participated in an eight-week deep reading training. As an embodied practice, deep reading serves to awaken and evoke the reader's voice, helping the learner to make meaning as a whole person immersed in the embodied nature of language. Deep reading, as other contemplative practices, requires persons to go inside, to find meaning, to know themselves, and to connect to others (Barbezat & Bush, 2014). Unlike many other contemporary approaches in education, deep reading draws upon the involvement of the whole body and mind. Deep reading provides a conduit for stretching the human capacity for imaginative thought, shows promise for developing cognition, quiets the chaos of a distracted society, and, overall, serves to humanize the educational process.