Relieving Burnout and the “Martyr Syndrome-Among Social Justice Education Activists: The Implications and Effects of Mindfulness

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• 作者：Paul C. Gorski
• 关键词：Social justice ; Activism ; Burnout ; Mindfulness ; Well ; being
• 刊名：The Urban Review
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：November 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：47
• 期：4
• 页码：696-716
• 全文大小：426 KB
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• 作者单位：Paul C. Gorski (1)
  
  1. George Mason University, 4400 University Drive MS 5D3, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA
  
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Education
  Education
  Community and Environmental Psychology
  Sociology
  
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1573-1960

文摘

Activist burnout, which causes activists to disengage from their activism, is a formidable barrier to the sustainability of social justice movements, including those focused on social justice in educational contexts. However, the cultures of these movements often disregard the importance of self-care, seeing it as self-indulgence, putting activists at even higher risks of burnout. In this study, one of the first to assess the impact of specific self-care strategies on activist burnout, data from interviews with 14 social justice education activists are analyzed in order to uncover how they used mindfulness practices such as yoga, tai-chi, and meditation to cope with burnout. The analysis revealed a variety of ways in which mindfulness mitigated their burnout experiences. It revealed, as well, a shared perception that, beyond helping to sustain their activism, mindfulness made them more effective activists. Keywords Social justice Activism Burnout Mindfulness Well-being