Do you dare to pause? Hearts and minds together: a contemplative approach to fos
Do you dare to pause? Hearts and minds together: a contemplative approach to fostering effective inclusive academic practice
Sarah Rhodes
What is the idea?
This approach consists of a series of structured ‘pauses’ within an Inclusive Curriculum Design module on a PG Academic Practice course for students (staff new to teaching in higher education). The structured pauses in the pre, during and post module phases are designed for students to contemplate the anticipated, current and future impact of their learning journey towards more equitable and inclusive practises within their own teaching, learning and assessment approaches. The aim of this approach in our very fast paced ever changing landscape of Higher Education is to provide opportunities for staff to engage both their hearts and minds when designing inclusive curriculums for the future.
Why this idea?
The value and importance of fostering inclusive practice in education, specifically higher education, is at the heart of Initial Teacher Education provision (Coffield et al., 2008). However, the design of the curriculum often isolates inclusive learning and teaching as discrete sessions or modules (Forlin, 2010; Symeonidou, 2017) rather than as an integral thread and holistic approach throughout the course. Into baking? Think of inclusion like the ‘sticky sugary syrup’ continually found throughout a lemon drizzle cake! Therefore, a key area is to reframe inclusion in Initial Teacher Education learning and teaching within a social justice framework to engage both hearts (attitudes and behaviours) and minds (knowledge and skills).
John Dewey consistently criticised the segmentation of seemingly opposing themes into dualistic relationships. Dewey particularly loathed the mind/body dualism and advocated for treating the mind-body as an ‘integral whole’ (Boydston, 2008, p. 27). Based on this philosophy, Dewey proposed that experience (body) is key to learning (mind). Contemplative practises offer faculty, students, and staff tools for working productively with the mind and emotions. These tools can become an important aid to sustained reflection and capacity building. Students and staff are encouraged to engage in contemplative practice then step back and appraise for meaning and significance. In recent years, such practises have lost their explicit place in education in favour of reasoning and evidence especially during the recent pandemic (Jayman, 2020) that has focused mainly on problem solving and reactive approaches.
Rendon (2009) has researched more recently this debate that heart and spirit are becoming more absent from teaching. She makes a persuasive case for ending the segregation of heart and spirit from traditional teaching to sensing and thinking pedagogy: educating for wholeness, social justice, and liberation. Based on her research and experiences she argues that inner and outer, learning are connected, and that contemplative practises are imperative to ensure learners are engaged an