In a time of intellectual and emotional overload in education, this paper offers room for breathing through a pedagogy of emptiness from a Daoist perspective. It begins by introducing the concept of Daoist emptiness through three intertwining features--generative, transcendent, and inclusive--important for rethinking pedagogy. It then moves to…

In response to the increasing alienation from nature exacerbated by digital living, this course design presents an advanced composition "rewilding" course. Combining natural history writing, nature therapy research, and mindfulness activities, the course aims to reconnect students with the natural world. Inspired by Micah Mortali's…

Bringing metacognition onto college campuses is a transformational experience for students and faculty as well as their institutions. In this chapter, we share a collection of metacognitive activities and describe their value in and outside of the classroom based upon our experiences in the community college setting. These activities are easily…

The escalating planetary crises of human-induced climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and declining biodiversity call for urgent actions to be taken at all levels of society and by the global community. The current political strategy for a sustainable future that emphasizes economic and technological progress is insufficient to…

In this article, we explore how inclusion and diversity in mindful dance and movement practices can be supported by a practice of self-reflexivity in regards to our embodied identities as teachers. We understand identities as created through processes of stratification, which tend to assign dualistic, fixed and often mutually excluding categories…

Implicit bias classes have become a common practice with the aim of creating more inclusive work and learning environments. Such classes are aimed at helping individuals identify unconscious habits of mind and behaviors around race, which can be a disorienting experience. By seeing such classes through the lens of transformative learning theory,…

We build on identity-based motivation theory to integrate research on in-person and virtual learning environments so that we can articulate which features of virtual learning environments are likely to support or impede learning and identity exploration. Although students experience their identities as stable anchors for meaning-making and action,…

This chapter describes a practice of philosophical meditation as a way to transformation in an Italian context. It makes use of poetic and autoethnographic writing to highlight some features of the method, and offers suggestion for adult education practice.

This reflective essay advances a model of transformative education based on the collaborative experiences of a professor and three students who sought greater opportunities for flourishing through reflective and contemplative methods in an instructor-created open space. Open space derives from research in education, child psychology, and…

Transformation has been the fundamental basis upon which education has always stood, as without transformation in mind, education would seem purposeless and undirected. This would imply that the objective of providing information in education is not just to gain knowledge but to achieve the desired transformation in character or behaviour by…

This article represents an ideological and methodological call to action that is over fifty years in the making. It seeks to articulate a new form of critical consciousness by combining the principles of a Freirean liberatory pedagogy with the methodological and ideological specificity of Ball's Model of Generative Change. We call this evolved…

The authors focus on applying mindfulness-related concepts to business education by relying on transformational learning techniques for reducing impulse buying in a six-week Smart Consumer university class. A transformational learning program was designed including activities in the classroom as well as outside activities. They incorporated…

American colleges and universities, along with American culture in general, have entered a new post-truth era. In responding to this new environment, colleges and universities might benefit from a more comprehensive engagement with religion and its complex understanding of truth. The model for engagement proposed here focuses on five educational…

Feeling 'solid' is no longer an option as we are fraught with uncertainty in Zygmunt Bauman's (1925-2017) liquid modernity. The discussion of strategies to deal with uncertainties is open to educators. How might educators engage inner silence, sound, and re-sounding in order to navigate uncertain waters? If sounds are educational and the listener…

Although interest in contemplative pedagogies has grown considerably in higher education, faculty have relatively few resources available to help them make evidence-based choices about the use of different contemplative pedagogies in particular disciplinary or course contexts. We propose adapting a framework from the Scholarship of Teaching and…