Mindfulness at Metropolitan Universities

• In Event: Meditation and mindfulness for effective teaching/learning & wellbeing in adult and higher education settings

Proposal

Non-traditional students are facing many challenges in higher education as they navigate the learning space while dealing with the complexities of managing work, families, and ongoing health and wellness issues, and the stress of multiple emotional demands. Adults in the wider university community, including faculty, staff and students also have to navigate some of the same issues in managing multiple roles (Kasworm, 2008). In a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bodovkski (2018) argues that care-takers must also take care of themselves. Many institutions have recognized that faculty and staff could benefit from mindful practice and sometimes offer faculty and staff development activities related to mindfulness or meditation that is aimed at the wellness needs of employees. Mindfulness practices or contemplative practice (Barbezat & Bush, 2014) take place both in and out of the classroom, and is one of the ways of tending to some of dimensions of well-being. As examples, the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma and Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado are each experiencing an emerging incorporation of mindfulness practices within classroom, hybrid, and online settings as well as developing some opportunities for meditation and mindfulness within the wider university community.
This paper illustrates how mindfulness practices and programs can support individuals within academic communities for well-being. This paper specifically highlights mindfulness and meditation practices at these two metropolitan universities. It presents diverse approaches and various programs of mindfulness related activities that two universities have developed and provided to their faculty, staff as well as students on their respective campuses. The practical, applied work includes examples of how mindfulness – based practices and programs worked at two metropolitan universities. Further, it includes a discussion of programming challenges, classroom teaching practices and suggestions for expanding offerings for non-traditional adult learners.
Practices and programs offered by various offices and instructors cross-campuses such as, general mindfulness programs aimed at the whole university community, Labyrinth and walking meditation; Service-learning and contemplative reflection; Pranayama deep breathing; Introduction to Mindful Awareness; Relaxing Music for Stress Relief; Reducing Stress through Mindfulness and Meditation; Mindfulness methods in teaching; Meditation for Study. These examples maybe unique to the type of university in which faculty serve at metropolitan settings, yet they can reveal practices for those that serve non-traditional adults within a variety of higher education institutions.
In conclusion, this paper signifies that the most obvious mindfulness offerings take place as professional development opportunities and as co-curricular (not-for-credit) options on these campuses. The authors recommend that though there are some examples of the integration of mindful practice within credit-bearing courses and what individual faculty who have a meditation practice themselves do in their classrooms, there is a greater need for future research on perhaps how faculty in particular incorporate activities that are related to mindfulness in the for-credit classes that they teach.

Author

• Kristi Archuleta, University of Central Oklahoma