Occupy Classrooms: Teaching From a Spiritual Paradigm

• In Event: Reflections on Engaging Culture, Race, and Spirituality

Abstract

Sacredness and truth are in some ways strangers to the public education classroom of today, with its market-based models and standardized-test ranking of students. These two concepts, so important to the development of both individuals and societies, are among those most often missing from the classroom. From their intangibility to their interrogation of dominant systems and worldviews, the very essence of sacredness and truth are challenging to philosophies of education that (re)produce and reinforce the status quo. Making space for these ideas is at the root of a spiritual paradigm. Dillard (2006) describes a spiritual paradigm as embodied, political, risky, cultural, sacred, grounded in truth, dialogic, liberating, and redemptive.
The author planned and implemented a unit designed around the components of the spiritual paradigm in her Current Affairs course. Current Affairs was a half-credit elective offered to juniors and seniors as an option for completing the three-credit Social Studies graduation requirement. The course had replaced an Ohio Graduation Test remediation course, and many of the students who enrolled in both of these courses had struggled to experience academic success in the past.
Using Dillard’s (2006) spiritual paradigm, and drawing from Palmer (1993) and hooks (1989), the students and course teacher engaged in an inquiry project about the World Trade Organization and the Occupy Movement. In addition to learning content related to multi-national corporations and citizens’ rights, students were encouraged to form and interrogate their own opinions, find their unique voices, and experience the healing of a positive identity based in academic success. The success of the students’ inquiry into the Occupy Movement had little to do with instruction provided to them by the course teacher; students were given very little direct “instruction” during the inquiry unit. Their success was based in their own commitment to know, and make known to others, the complexities of international trade and the Occupy movement. Their engagement, inquiry, and articulation were inspired by a spiritual paradigm. This qualitative case study demonstrates that educational experiences that privilege the components of the spiritual paradigm can provide students with an engaging learning experience, as well as an opportunity to reinforce positive aspects of their identities.

Author

• Angela Cartwright Lynskey, Midwestern State University