Bonnie Tai

As a non-conservatory student who nevertheless had the privilege of studying with the late Yong Ku Ahn, formerly at the Peabody Conservatory, the late William Thomas, founding member of the Coleridge Ensemble, and the late Alfred Krips, formerly of the Boston Symphony, Bonnie has performed with the Maitisong Festival Orchestra in Gaborone, Botswana, in the pit orchestra for a production of Scott Joplin’s opera, “Treemonisha,” and the Maryland Women’s Symphony, an all-women’s orchestra playing works by women composers and conducted by a woman conductor. When she’s not working, she enjoys qigong, tai chi, yoga, and meditation, silent retreats, growing garlic and other beautiful and healthful plants, making music, motorcycling, and exploring places both near and far on foot, by bike, or in/on the water.

Before COA

Bonnie started teaching during college when she worked summers for the Island School, a summer enrichment program for urban middle-schoolers on Thompson Island in the Boston Harbor.  After college, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching Math and English at Mahalapye Community Junior Secondary School in Botswana.  During her first graduate program, she developed a keen interest in increasing access and equity in higher education, and followed her first graduate degree working at Brandeis University as Associate Director of Admissions and Curriculum Specialist for Student Support Services. After earning her doctorate, she has focused on educator preparation and higher education access and equitable opportunity, primarily at the undergraduate but also graduate levels.

Course Areas

critical exploration and contemplative, culturally sustaining and revitalizing, democratic, experiential, and place-based education

If you enroll in one of my classes, then it is likely you will be engaged in an interdisciplinary and collaborative exploration that challenges dualistic conceptions of mind and body, self and other, human and environment. My courses also engage the personal with the academic, the vital relationships between school and community, and the synthesis of theory, research, and practice. I aim to engage my students in experiential, service-, and justice-learning that is place-based, including contextualizing the present within historical and global patterns and interrelationships.

• Ed.D. Learning and Teaching, Harvard University, 1999
  
• Ed.M. Technology in Education, Harvard University, 1990
  
• B.A. Humanistic Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 1986
  
• Mindfulness Teaching Certificate, Inward Bound Mindfulness, 2024
  

Bonnie Tai is a faculty emerit in Educational and Human Studies, and a founder of the College Opportunity and Access program. Her primary teaching and research interests focus on contemplative, democratic, experiential, and culturally sustaining and revitalizing education. A major area of research interest is Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and contemplative practices and their contributions to our understanding of the nature of knowledge, mind, and human experience. Two overarching goals have driven her work over the last almost three decades: to enhance access, equity, and quality in education and facilitate learning, teaching, and leadership that values individual and group differences and helps communities effectively negotiate conflict and change. As peer, advisor, teacher, and mentor, Bonnie aims to help educators and learners put theory into practice through critical exploration and place-based education.

I serve on the boards of Impact Boston and Unified Asian Communities, on the advisory council of MDI Adult and Community Education, and on the Academic Advisory Committee for Hancock County Technical Center.

Accepted. Co-authored with COA alumnae A. Plummer, S. Kearsley, and B. Heidemann. Trust: Foundation to passion-driven, student-activist, and community-engaged learning. In Schlein, C., & Crump, S. (Eds.), Active and Engaging Classrooms: A Practical Exploration. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

2021. Engaging the subject before the word. In M. Delaney & S. Mayer (Eds.), In Search of Wonderful Ideas: Critical Exploration in Teacher Education. New York: Teachers College Press.

2013. Witness to learning. In W. Shorr, S. Hoidn, C. Lowry & E. Cavicchi (Eds.), Always Wondering.  Cambridge, MA: Critical Exploration Press.

Fall, 1998. Power Dynamics in the Classroom.  Harvard Educational Review, 68, 3.

Winter, 1997. C. Woyshner & B. Tai (Eds.). Special Issue on Women’s Educational History, Harvard Educational Review, 67, 4.

Presentations

April 11, 2024. “Integrating Mindfulness Education for Self-Knowledge, Compassion, and Executive Function.” Workshop led at New England Educational Opportunity Association Annual Conference, Burlington, Vermont.

April 7, 2023. “The Power of Partnerships: Empowering Everyday Resilience.” Invited panelist at a plenary session, New England Educational Opportunity Association Annual Conference, Portland, Maine.

July, 2019.  Critical exploration in the culturally sustaining classroom: A meditation on decolonizing teacher education. Paper presented at the Summer Conference of the Association of Teacher Educators. Burlington, VT.

October, 2015. Teacher and youth leader development in Nepal: A transdisciplinary case study of an international K-16 partnership. Paper Presentation at the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies. North Andover, MA: Merrimack College.