Thesis advisor: Hosffman Ospino / There is a pressing need to re-awaken in teaching the prophetic call to serve the liberation of children, whose complex humanity remains systemically marginalized. This proposal is grounded in a study of the Lasallian tradition of education, which originates from John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719), founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in seventeenth century France and the patron saint for Christian teachers of the young. From a Lasallian perspective, the prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is rooted contemplatively in a Christian mysticism of faith, which energizes an incarnational mission of education in zeal, shaped by a preferential option for children as the poor and marginalized. This preferential option for children is a hermeneutical key that reads the Lasallian mission of education forward into the twenty-first century. I develop this idea of a preferential option for children, locating it in an interpretive study that critically synthesizes a Lasallian theology of child with literature in childhood studies, spirituality, critical pedagogy and participatory action research. Building on the Lasallian imagination, this study contributes to a Christian spirituality of education as it examines how contemporary theological perspectives on children and childhood serve as a lens that deepens the interconnection between Christian mysticism, liberation, and child in teaching as a prophetic vocation. To teach for children’s liberation is to promote their flourishing as full human beings created in the image and likeness of God. It attends to conditions that protect children in their social marginalization while engaging and developing their social participation as responsible agents in our common belonging to God as God’s children and siblings-in-Christ. It demands just presence in teaching, which begins with listening as receptivity to the mystery of the child as graced irruption. The prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is mystically rooted in contemplative wonder at the Incarnation. Such wonder must also open the teacher to being disturbed by the scandalizing action of God, who steps out of God-self not only to be with the poor, but also in the least as a human child in Jesus Christ. It is this recognition of God’s presence in each child and with children that calls forth the responsibility of teachers, making an ethical claim on them to be courageously present in ways that prioritize the human dignity of children in education. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

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A compelling argument has been made which claims that institutions of higher education focus disproportionately on transmitting basic skills to their students at the expense of supporting issues of central importance to the development of emerging adults, including clarifying values and identity and defining individual purpose and meaning (Palmer & Zajonc, 2010). As a result, an increasing number of postsecondary teachers are considering how they can refashion education by using contemplative inquiry to deepen student learning and personal growth. This movement to reframe the teaching-learning paradigm has led to the development of teaching methods that seek to cultivate emotional, psychological and intellectual competencies including creativity, self-understanding, awareness and mental flexibility (Lief, 2007). Contemplative pedagogy, which can include mindfulness practices and contemplative or imaginative inquiry, provides such a framework for teaching and learning. Faculties at institutions of higher education across the U.S. are increasingly adapting this educational model for use in their classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand ways in which faculty members in higher education are developing mindfulness-based contemplative pedagogies and to identify critical variables that have informed how they have conceptualized and implemented this educational model. I employed a collective case study methodology to explore the experiences of faculty members who have embedded contemplative inquiry within the broader context of a traditional liberal arts curriculum. The study focused on why and how these instructors have developed contemplative teaching practices, their experiences integrating these practices into the classroom, and the potential outcomes they identified for themselves and their students. The findings suggest that, for these teachers, contemplative pedagogy provides a mechanism to deepen learning through a process of embodied inquiry in which both student and teacher are actively engaged. Through their teaching practices participants demonstrated a common goal: to foster in students qualities of mind that might help them engage more directly with learning as an experiential process of personal inquiry. This study informs the evolving landscape of contemplative education by exploring how teachers are developing and implementing contemplative models for learning in order to address issues of personal meaning and purpose in higher education.

In this dissertation, I am in conversation with the following questions: How can individuals and communities teach and learn to engage more peacefully, nonviolently, and compassionately with each other? Further, how can one practice a style of communication that helps at least one person suffer less each day? In asking these questions, my goal has been to imagine as well as attempt to actualize a world where individuals and communities work together to create less suffering in each other's lives by first developing compassionate awareness of our interconnectedness, then "waking up" not only to our own divinity but also to that place in all of us where the entire universe dwells. In this dissertation, communication is situated as both a spiritual practice and as a practice of yoga. To illuminate this notion, I have sequenced this text as a yoga practice in and of itself, employing Shiva Rea's "wave methodology" to introduce and support the peak purpose of this text -communication as yoga - via svadhyaya, or self-study, as a path to expand relational awareness through everyday small acts or micropractices. Communication, thus, becomes an emergent process based in yoga philosophy and practice wherein one learns to acknowledge and take responsibility for one's interactions with others and other realities by recognizing one's shared vulnerability. To heighten this awareness, this text includes 108 asanas or micropractices, which serve to explore my guiding questions as well as exemplify communication as yoga - as an everyday practice.

Undergraduate students lack the opportunity and environment to contemplate and develop ecoliteracy skills that serve to integrate subject matter into their everyday experiences. Ecoliteracy is grounded in Capra's web of life theoretical framework and represents students' capacities to read world systems objectively with their head, heart, hands, and spirit. Contemplative pedagogy provides educators with exercises that give students time to reflect on the integration of learning. Ecoliteracy and contemplative pedagogy research has shown little quantitative data pertaining to how contemplative pedagogy affects undergraduate student ecoliteracy. To address that gap, this causal-comparative study measured the use of contemplative pedagogy exercises relative to undergraduate student ecoliteracy. A convenience sample of 150 undergraduate students who did and did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises completed the New Ecological Paradigm Scale and Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form. Independent-samples t tests measured the differences between the 2 groups. Findings indicated that students who did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises in the classroom were more likely to self-report higher ecoliteracy. A possible interpretation of these findings is that current contemplative pedagogy exercises may focus students' attention internally and not adequately promote the world-centered view that would more readily advance student ecoliteracy skills. Results of this study provide further insight that may inform professional development and contemplative pedagogy exercises that empowers students' ecoliteracy skills by encouraging critical thinking, action, and compassion towards positive social change.

In order to address complex challenges and bring about transformations, change agents need to possess the necessary capacities. Contemplative pedagogies such as Social Presencing Theater (SPT) may play a crucial role in developing such capacities. Therefore, this thesis explores how the embodiment method SPT could contribute to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), in order to support change agents in development. SPT and its learning environment, outcomes and possible contributions to ESD were researched through surveys with twelve participants of a two-day SPT training, as well as interviews with eleven SPT facilitators. According to the results, SPT has the potential to offer relevant contemplative practices that cultivate the capacities that leaders need to address complexity and uncertainty. The findings suggest that as a learning process, SPT can foster capacities within change agents and groups, promoting awareness and mental flexibility to recognize and work with dynamic systems. SPT also appears to foster specific learning outcomes, including several key competencies for sustainability. We recommend applying SPT in the context of strategic leadership development for sustainability, to promote sustainability education that is strategic, holistic, and innovative.

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.