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Contemplative Pedagogy: Experiments and Reflections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2019

Anita Houck
Anita Houck*
Affiliation:
Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana
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Abstract

This roundtable grew out of the 2017 meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), for which Karen Enriquez organized a panel on the topic of contemplative pedagogy for the Buddhist-Christian Studies Group. As part of that session, Maureen Walsh and Anita Houck presented early versions of two of the essays that follow. That session inspired some members of the College Theology Society to organize a pedagogical lunch on the topic of contemplative pedagogies for the 2018 CTS convention. Given the significant interest shown by CTS members, and the longstanding commitment to pedagogy in the CTS and Horizons, further conversation led to the idea of publishing a roundtable focused on contemplative approaches in Catholic institutions. The authors are grateful to Elena Procario-Foley for her support and guidance.

Keywords

contemplative pedagogy (CP)meditationmindfulnessspiritual exercisespractices
Type
Pedagogical Roundtable
Information
Horizons , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , June 2019 , pp. 113 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © College Theology Society 2019 

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References

1 Coburn, Tom et al. , “Contemplative Pedagogy: Frequently Asked Questions,” Teaching Theology & Religion 14, no. 2 (2011): 167–74, at 167CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 The distinction between first- and third-person learning is common in CP. Daniel P. Barbezat and Mirabai Bush provide a helpful explanation, based on the work of Harold Roth: “For Roth, one of the shortcomings of higher education is that it remains heavily biased toward ‘third-person learning.’ Students learn how to analyze, memorize, and quantify subjects as objects—as something ‘out there,’ separate from themselves. At the same time, the subjectivity of the knower is all but ignored. One of the values of contemplative pedagogy is that it tries to bridge this rift between the knower and the known by bridging the gap between more traditional, objective study and what Roth calls ‘critical first-person learning.’ ‘First person’ means that students engage directly with the practices being studied, and ‘critical’ means that students are not asked to believe anything but instead to evaluate their own experience with openness and discernment.” Barbezat, Daniel P. and Bush, Mirabai, Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning, The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014), 105Google Scholar.

3 Grace, Fran, “Learning as a Path, Not a Goal: Contemplative Pedagogy—Its Principles and Practices,” Teaching Theology & Religion 14, no. 2 (2011): 99–124, at 99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Sydnor, Jon Paul, “Teaching World Religions through Film,” in Comparative Theology in the Millennial Classroom: Hybrid Identities, Negotiated Boundaries, eds. Brecht, Mara and Locklin, Reid B. (New York: Routledge, 2016), 205–18, at 214Google Scholar.

5 Walvoord, Barbara E., Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008)Google Scholar, see especially 6, 15–18.

6 American College Health Association: National College Health Assessment, “Undergraduate Student Reference Group Executive Summary, Spring 2018,” 2018, 14–15, https://www.acha.org/NCHA/ACHA-NCHA_Data/Publications_and_Reports/NCHA/Data/Reports_ACHA-NCHAIIc.aspx.

7 American College Health Association: National College Health Assessment, “Undergraduate Student Reference Group Data Report, Spring 2018,” 2018, 48, https://www.acha.org/NCHA/ACHA-NCHA_Data/Publications_and_Reports/NCHA/Data/Reports_ACHA-NCHAIIc.aspx.

8 I am grateful to Catherine M. Pittman and Lisa M. Karle for leading a faculty-development session on these issues at Saint Mary's College; see their Rewire Your Anxious Brain: How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry (Oakland, CA: New Harbinger, 2015)Google Scholar.

9 See, for instance, the review of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a nonreligious meditative technique developed by Kabat-Zinn, Jon, in Grossman, P. et al. , “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Benefits: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 57 (2004): 35–43Google Scholar; and Falsafi, Nasrin, “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Versus Yoga: Effects on Depression and/or Anxiety in College Students,” Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association 22, no. 6 (November 2016): 483–97CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

10 See, for instance, Zajonc, Arthur, “Contemplative Pedagogy: A Quiet Revolution in Higher Education,” in Contemplative Studies in Higher Education, eds. Sanders, Linda A. and Wehlburg, Catherine, New Directions for Teaching and Learning 134 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013), 83–94, at 84Google Scholar; Astin, Alexander W., Lindholm, Jennifer A., and Astin, Helen S., Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011)Google Scholar; and Shauna L. Shapiro, Kirk Warren Brown, and John A. Astin, “Toward the Integration of Meditation into Higher Education: A Review of Research,” The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, 2008, http://www.contemplativemind.org/archives/830.

11 Barbezat and Bush, Contemplative Practices in Higher Education, 73–74.

12 Chesterton explained that he intended the line “in defence of hobbies and amateurs and general duffers,” among whom he included himself. As an article from the American Chesterton Society puts it nicely: “The line … is not an excuse for poor efforts. It is perhaps an excuse for poor results.” ACS [American Chesterton Society], “A Thing Worth Doing,” The American Chesterton Society, https://www.chesterton.org/a-thing-worth-doing/.

13 Coburn et al., “Contemplative Pedagogy,” 172.

14 That said, the network does not exclude the inexperienced, but instead defines itself as “a place where people are able to provide support to each other—where those with less experience of contemplative pathways, either personally or in the classroom, can learn from those with more.” “What Is Contemplative Pedagogy?,” Contemplative Pedagogy Network, 2018, https://contemplativepedagogynetwork.com/what-is-contemplative-pedagogy/.

15 Astin, Lindholm, and Astin, Cultivating the Spirit, 148–50.

16 William James, The Principles of Psychology [1890]; see Christopher D. Greene, Classics in the History of Psychology, 424, italics in original, http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin11.htm.

17 Lauren Cassani Davis, “When Mindfulness Meets the Classroom,” The Atlantic, August 31, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/08/mindfulness-education-schools-meditation/402469/.

18 Ron Purser and David Loy, “Beyond McMindfulness,” Huffpost, August 31, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-purser/beyond-mcmindfulness_b_3519289.html.

19 Simmer-Brown, Judith, “Training the Heart Responsibly: Ethical Considerations in Contemplative Teaching,” in Meditation and the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for Religious Studies, eds. Simmer-Brown, Judith and Grace, Fran (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011), 107–20, at 110Google Scholar.

20 Simmer-Brown, “Training the Heart Responsibly,” 113–14.

21 Zajonc, “Contemplative Pedagogy,” 84.

22 Barbezat and Bush, Contemplative Practices in Higher Education, 96–97.

23 Barbezat and Bush present the practice in ibid., 97.

24 One of the course texts is The Book of Joy, which includes techniques recommended by two of the authors, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, and provides some context for these practices. The Lama, Dalai, Tutu, Desmond, and Abrams, Douglas Carlton, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World (New York: Penguin Random House, 2016)Google Scholar.

25 See note 2 for more on this distinction.