Teaching and Learning for Wholeness and Wellness in Higher Education

• In Event: Developing Culturally Responsive Curriculum in Higher Education in Challenging Times

Abstract

The landscape of modern institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the United States is evolving, shaped by the social, cultural, and political contexts that influence their climate. As a result, higher education professionals are called to challenge the dominant epistemology that has long underpinned teaching and learning (Okun, 2000). This paper explores how assumptions embedded in dominant epistemology hinder the wholeness and wellness of adult learners. It also highlights the importance of integrating meaning-making theory within a culturally responsive framework—expanding, rather than preserving, learners’ frames of reference (Mezirow, 1990). By engaging with culturally responsive approaches, professionals can promote adult learner well-being and help create institutional cultures of wellness.

This work draws on Robert Kegan’s (1994) Model of Self-Evolution, which explains how adult learners construct meaning from their experiences, relationships, and identities. The model outlines a developmental progression from a “socialized mind,” which passively adopts external values, to a “self-authoring mind,” which critically evaluates and reshapes them. When meaning-making theory is paired with culturally responsive frameworks, the connection between the socialized mind and dominant epistemological assumptions becomes clear. For instance, values such as objectivity, quantity-over-quality, and binary thinking reflect a narrow epistemology that limits internal consciousness and integration, both vital for achieving wellness and self-authorship (Palmer et al., 2010; Okun, 2000). Okun (20000) further describes these values as oversimplifications of complex matters, a devaluation of process, and an overreliance on linear thinking that discredits other valid forms of reasoning. Collectively, they reinforce a singular way of thinking that constitutes dominant epistemology.
Culturally Responsive Curriculum (CRC) directly challenges these assumptions by valuing the lived experiences and cultural backgrounds of learners. Hammond (2015) asserts that culture functions as a filter through which learners interpret new information, either validating or challenging their existing worldview. This emphasizes the importance of engaging learners through frameworks that support the development of a self-authoring mind. Teaching and learning, therefore, go beyond the mere transmission of information. It involves a developmental process that meets learners where they are, constructing a “developmental bridge” between their current understanding and new knowledge (Ignelzi, 2000). CRC serves as this bridge by rooting instruction in learners’ lived realities, promoting more integrative ways of knowing.

Advocates of integrative learning support approaches that address the full range of human experience—cognitive, emotional, social, and cultural—helping learners deepen their understanding of themselves and the world (Palmer et al., 2010). CRC centers the multidimensionality and intersectionality of adult learners’ identities, supporting integration and guiding learners toward greater epistemological complexity to navigate their realities with a more nuanced, self-authored perspective.

Ultimately, integrating meaning-making theory within a culturally responsive framework is essential for transforming IHEs into spaces where learners pursue both intellectual growth and personal wellness. Higher education professionals have a moral responsibility to confront and disrupt the dominant epistemology deeply embedded within the teaching and learning process to support learners, thus fostering an environment where learners re-organize information to reconcile their own evolving understanding of what it means to be whole and well.

Author

• Maryann Krikorian, Loyola Marymount University