ERIC Number: EJ978692
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 17
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0882-4843
EISSN: N/A
Engaged Pedagogy in the Feminist Classroom and Yoga Studio
Musial, Jennifer
Feminist Teacher: A Journal of the Practices, Theories, and Scholarship of Feminist Teaching, v21 n3 p212-228 2011
This essay ruminates on the connective tissue between teaching undergraduates and teaching yogis/yoginis. In this essay, the author employs bell hooks's work, particularly her work on love, compassion, and "engaged pedagogy" from "Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom" and "Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom," to explore the relationship between teaching environments: what does an anti-oppressive yoga pedagogy look like and what does a yogic, heart-centered university pedagogy look like? To negotiate these questions, the author employs the "chakra" system to organize her thoughts. "Chakra," a Sanskrit term, translates into "wheel" because, for energy to flow freely throughout the subtle body, the wheel must be turning at a reasonable pace. Just as one attempts to turn the energetic wheel to promote spiritual growth through yoga, one attends university classes to energize, expand, and challenge the intellect. The author begins the essay with the root "chakra" ("muladhara"), the desire for safety, and ends with the crown "chakra" ("sahasrara"), the necessity of contemplation, to show how the needs of university students and yoga practitioners are very similar; hence, there can be an integrated, nurturing, mutually constitutive feminist, anti-racist, heart-centered yogic pedagogy that benefits all. (Contains 17 notes.)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Undergraduate Students, College Instruction, Metacognition, Physical Activities, Mental Health, Non Western Civilization, Comparative Analysis, Ethics, Educational Environment, Feminism, World Views, Self Esteem, Teacher Student Relationship
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Adult Education; Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A