Contemplative Practice-Infused Pedagogies

• In Event: 51.059 - Contemplative Practice in Educational Spaces

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate a group of pre-service teachers’ experiences with using contemplative practices as members of the undergraduate student group #BlackTeachersMatter (#BTM). Entering #BTM’s second year of existence in the fall of 2017, the students organized programming related to racial justice for their peers, faculty, and staff in the college of education and across the university. As a faculty co-advisor to the group, I developed an academic year-long contemplative curriculum, justified by the array of positive benefits attached to regular contemplative practice. I intended for it to serve as an asset-based supplement to the typical teacher education curriculum and to the difficult resistance work in which the students were involved through #BTM.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Rendón (2009) describes current educational trends as marked by separation, competition, monoculturalism, and perfectionism. Further, these trends are embedded in systems that privilege intellectual knowledge and work outside one’s self. Arguing for a paradigmatic shift in what Rendón calls “pedagogical dreamfields,” she asserts that these negative characteristics “effectively slaughter our sense of wonder and dismiss our culture, heritage, and language” (p. 4). One result is decreased motivation for marginalized students to stay in or excel at school.
Rendón envisions offers alternatives to each of the aforementioned elements that can be fostered in loving and contemplative systems. She developed sentipensante pedagogy as a theory through her lived experiences and her empirical studies. These possibilities, situated in holistic spaces, include a push toward the union of intellectual and intuitive work, collaboration, multiculturalism, and value placed on process. I drew on this theoretical framework to organize and analyze this study.

3. & 4. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

This is a qualitative case study with a focus on the use of contemplative practice in teacher education. Participants included two faculty members and eight undergraduate students. Drawing on Rendón’s (2009) pedagogical dreamfield framework, I analyzed documents, workshop observations, participant interviews and journal entries. My aim was to investigate the ways contemplative practices influenced the group’s activities over the course of the academic year.


5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

I found that student & faculty participants in the study cited an increased awareness about the areas of their lives in which balance was/was not present. Seven participants reported learning new skills that allowed them to access their breath. In five instances, this mindful attention to prana allowed them to de-escalate intense negative emotions or occurrences. Eight of the 12 participants indicated that they planned to continue developing their contemplative practices, including mindfulness, yoga, journaling, and/or meditating.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

As Rendón (2009) brilliantly posits in Senipensante Pedagogy, contemplative practice is one pathway to creating the necessary conditions for holistic, integrated, compassionate educational spaces. Teacher education has a long way to go to foster this type of environment. This study highlights some practices that were helpful for positive growth.

Author

• Jillian Carter Ford, Kennesaw State University