It was the purpose of this study to identify the influences that contributed to bringing about curriculum change in selected educational agencies which employed consultants in the social sciences through NDEA Title III-B projects. The research attempted to find the ways districts planned, organized, and implemented curriculum change through the use of the NDEA consultants. It focused on the procedures, interrelationships, and interactions taking place within the structure of the projects and the agencies involved in accomplishing those projects. Neither the amount nor the direction of the changes was the intent of the study. NOTE: Both archival copies of this manuscript held within the University of the Pacific library were missing page 203.

Responding to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was founded by Moderate Baptists seeking to reclaim the historic Baptist principle of soul freedom. While this effort was successful, such soul freedom made it difficult for Moderates to hold diverse viewpoints together in unity within the context of a covenant community. Borrowing from the Christian contemplative tradition, which offers a set of shared spiritual practices capable of constructing diverse covenant communities, it is the purpose of this project to offer a process for applying contemplative spiritual practices to the life of Moderate Baptist congregations to reframe Baptist soul freedom as that which allows for personal liberty within the context of a diverse covenant community. / 2025-01-25T00:00:00Z

This thesis investigates the acute phenomenology of altered states of consciousness induced through psychedelics and various Zen practices through the lens of comparative mysticism. Through inductive reasoning, tentative conclusions are drawn regarding how the acute phenomenological qualities of these states compare to one another. This topic had not been meaningfully studied, so the data from which these conclusions were drawn is limited. Though these findings are tentative, they have important implications for the study of comparative mysticism involving psychedelics, and for policy decisions regarding the credentialing of newly trained psychedelic therapists. Further research is required to draw more definitive conclusions on whether psychedelics users and Zen practitioners are having the same sorts of experiences, and this thesis identifies some of the theoretical challenges that can be expected with such research, particularly with regards to the reliability of qualitative data collection methods. To address these challenges, a novel theoretical approach to the study of comparative mysticism involving psychedelic and non-psychedelic altered states of consciousness has been developed.

This project explores the origins and spiritual impact of Black Super Shero Syndrome on Christian women. It proposes that Black women embrace creative communal contemplation to move from spiritual floundering to spiritual flourishing. Grounded in research on African American contemplative spirituality, Black women’s spirituality, and Ignatian spirituality, the project adapts the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola to create a Black Super Shero Sabbath Retreat that explores themes of healing, surrender, communion, community, rest, and sabbath to inspire and equip Black women to move from unhealthy Black Super Sheroes to Beloved Daughters of God. / 2026-07-24T00:00:00Z

The primary objective of this research was to determine if a specific set of reflective practices enhance university undergraduate students’ abilities to: 1) reflect on their thinking processes to become more aware of their own intellectual habits and how they form; 2) inquire with open-minded curiosity, including suspension of assumptions long enough for them to be challenged; and 3) generate justifiable, contextual understandings and judgments, individually and in collaboration. “Reflective practices” refers to a specific set of reflective learning activities introduced to undergraduates in two courses: mindfulness practice extended into journal writing, listening, inquiry and dialogue. The purpose of the reflective practices in this research was to support independent, critical thinking: well-reasoned, evaluative judgments based on evidence, contextual understanding, and respect for others. Students were instructed in both individual, introspective activity as well as in paired and group interaction while preserving a degree of mindfulness. Indicators of the dispositions for critical thinking were developed using grounded theory methods to study students’ experiences, as well as those dispositions previously identified in the research literature. Qualitative results showed increased self-confidence, engagement with multiple points of view, and an unexpected sense of connectedness that was stronger between students who disagreed with each other than between students who found easy agreement in their interaction. Quantitative results showed statistically significant gains in the average number of indicators of critical thinking dispositions appearing in student journals comparing week 1 to week 11. There was also positive correlation between final essay exam scores graded for critical thinking skills and the total number of indicators found in students’ journals. / This thesis presents primary research on the impacts of mindfulness applied to introspective and interactive learning activities in undergraduate university courses.

Bien qu’il ait inspiré des contemporains plus célèbres, tels François Rabelais et Clément Marot, et fréquenté des humanistes de premier plan, bien qu’il soit l’auteur d’une forme de tragédie latine inédite et maintes fois rééditée, et d’une chronique du règne de Louis XII connue des historiens, le poète néo-latin Nicolas Barthélemy de Loches est resté parfaitement méconnu. Il est ainsi nécessaire de rassembler, corriger et compléter les données dont on peut disposer sur ce personnage et ses oeuvres, mais aussi de reconstituer le cadre social, littéraire et historique dans lequel il a vécu et composé, afin de réévaluer la diversité et la richesse poétique de ses oeuvres. Ces données suffisent à montrer que les écrits de Barthélemy ne sont pas ceux d’un moine cloîtré, mais bien plutôt ceux d’un véritable humaniste engagé dans les réformes de son temps, qu’elles soient pédagogiques, monastiques ou évangéliques. L’édition d’un des recueils poétiques de Barthélemy les plus représentatifs de sa production littéraire (le recueil varié paru à Paris en 1520) vient nourrir et confirmer cette lecture. / Although he inspired famous contemporaries like François Rabelais or Clément Marot, and spent time with leading humanists, although he wrote a new Latin tragedy form many times reprinted and a chronicle about the reign of Louis XII familiar to historians, very little is known about the Neo-Latin poet Nicolas Barthélemy de Loches. Collecting, correcting and completing existing data about the man and his writings is necessary, as well as the reconstruction of the social, literary and historical environment in which he lived and wrote, in order to reevaluate the poetic diversity and richness of his work. Such data are enough to show that Barthélemy’s works were not written by a cloistered monk, but rather by a true humanist involved in the pedagogical, monastic and evangelical reforms of his time. The edition of one of the most representative poetic collections written by Barthélemy (a varied collection printed in 1520 in Paris) supports and confirms this interpretation.

This thesis examines how different types of connection – intimacy, community, and compassion – can positively impact the cultivation of well-being and ways of knowing. Using Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology (narrative storytelling supported by scholarship) I describe my journey from the 15-years I lived as a monastic yogic nun, followed by a period of heartbreak, to my recent experience as a tip-toeing Buddhist and mid-life graduate student who yearned for community, a place to belong, and an opportunity to be heard, seen and valued. I explore how the pain and suffering of loneliness, grief, loss, and change, when met by presence, patience, awareness, care and flexibility, can help to strengthen one's relationships with the self, others and surrounding environment. I close by outlining how contemplative pedagogy (learner-oriented, introspective and experiential learning) can help to create new ways of knowing, improve cognitive functioning and well-being, and cultivate compassion. I demonstrate how these three connections can transform the higher education learning experience from an abstract, impersonal view of reality to an authentic, interconnected, and intimate one that help students develop long-lasting and meaningful relationships well beyond the classroom walls.

Esse trabalho traz questões estéticas da dança e da linguagem cinematográfica focalizando os registros audiovisuais de um espetáculo. O desenvolvimento da relação entre essas duas formas de arte vão desde os registros iniciados por Edson até as modernas videodanças ou videoclipes. Kontakthof, coreografado e dirigido por Pina Bausch e dançado por três elencos de idades e formações diferenciadas e registrados de formas muito distintas em cinco filmes, é usado para se discutir a importância dos registros audiovisuais enquanto memória, explorando aproximações e distinções entre o documentário e a documentação num cenário em que cinema e dança geram conhecimento do presente e do passado. Por fim, esta pesquisa destaca uma mesma cena dessa coreografia, encontrada nos filmes Pina de Wim Wenders e Un jour Pina m`a demande de Chantal Akerman e no registro da peça integral, analisando-a a partir dos diferentes olhares e estratégias. Conclui-se, então, que o registro, com sua aparente aspiração de objetividade, abre espaço para a explicitação da subjetividade tal qual os outros filmes, resgatando essa forma de audiovisual do exílio ao qual, normalmente, é encerrado nas discussões sobre o universo cinematográfico / This thesis aims to offer reflections about the relationships between dance and cinema focusing on the audiovisual records of the Kontakthof choreography, conceived and directed by Pina Bausch. The Kontakthof piece is danced by three casts varying in age and dance background and it was registered by five filmmakers who used very distinct cinematographical principles. It discusses the importance of records and movies as memory and simultaneously explores the meta questions of how art, cinema and dance generate knowledge about the present and the past. This is accomplished by focusing on one scene that appears in \"Pina\" from Win Wenders, \"One Day Pina Has Asked Me\" from Chantal Ackerman and in the documentation itself of the whole Kontaktof piece This scene is then analyzed bringing forth the three different perspectives that generated them. This thesis points out that the registry itself, with its outward intention of being a vessel for memory, becomes an attentive, receptive space, wherein its subjectivity can be ultimately revealed. This inquiry, in turn, allows this form of registry to be rescued from the cinematographical exile that it had been condemned in the past.

My dissertation traces the contemporary American assimilation of Asian enlightenment traditions and discourses. Through a close reading of three communities, I consider how Asian traditions and ideas have been refracted through the psychological, political, and economic lenses of American culture. One of my chapters, for example, discusses how the American Insight community has attempted to integrate the enlightenment teachings of Theravada Buddhism with the humanistic, democratic, and pluralistic values of the European Enlightenment. A second chapter traces the American gum Andrew Cohen's transformation from a Neo-Advaita teacher to a leading proponent of "evolutionary enlightenment," a teaching that places traditional Indian understandings of nonduality in an evolutionary context. Cohen's early period shows the further deinstitutionalization of traditional Advaita Vedanta within the radically decontextualized Neo-Advaitin network, and evolutionary enlightenment engages and popularizes another less-known but influential Hindu lineage, namely that of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga. a A third chapter examines contemporary psychospiritual attempts to incorporate psychoanalytic theory into Asian philosophy in order to reconcile American concerns with individual development with Asian mystical goals of self-transcendence. In conclusion, I argue that the contemporary American assimilation of Asian enlightenment traditions is marked by a number of trends including: (I) a move away from the rhetoric and privileging of experience that scholars such as Robert Sharf have shown to be characteristic of the modem Western understanding of Asian mysticism; and (2) an embrace of world-affirming Tantric forms of Asian spirituality over world-negating renouncer traditions such as Theravada Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. I also reflect on how the cultural shift from the modem to postmodern has affected East-West integrative spiritualities.

This dissertation represents my heuristic response to cultural and ecological historian, Thomas Berry’s (1988, 1999, 2006) multi-dimensional call for connection to the Earth. The term, Heuristic, defined as “enabling a person to discover or learn something for [oneself]” (www. Oxforddictionary.com) describes a journey of learning undertaken out of a desire to live more justly and sustainably on this planet. My inquiry began with a search for the foundational meanings underlying Berry’s statement: Humans must undertake a radical shift in consciousness in order to come to the realization that the Earth is a Communion of Subjects and not a Collection of Objects (www.thomasberry.org). It led to a holistic exploration of academic study and lived experience in the realms of evolutionary science, quantum theory, depth psychology, Indigenous wisdom, and contemplative practice. It resulted in a shift in consciousness that strengthened my connections to human and other-than-human inhabitants of the Earth, added depth to my own story, and provided understandings about the inseparability of all life from a number of perspectives. This work will contribute to the body of educational literature that explores the integration of qualitative Place-based, Arts-based, Narrative, and Contemplative ways of knowing with rigorous scholarly research. I intend to apply the holistic learning gleaned from the integration of the scholarly and participatory components of this research to the development of future pedagogy that enhances the understanding that human beings are inseparably connected not only to our human ancestors, but to the other species, and to the ancient energies of the Earth as well.