Teaching Assistants' Training Program

Description

Contemplative practices are not oriented to the individual, but instead ask students to examine their thoughts and feelings in relation to classroom content and the greater context. By directing contemplative practices towards equity and anti-oppressive pedagogies, such embodied self-awareness can serve as a basis for structurally analyzing systems of oppression. In doing so, students are invited to transform how they come to learn about and understand the world. How may course instructors and teaching assistants effectively integrate anti-oppression contemplative practices into the online and in-person classroom? This workshop will bridge together research on Mindful and Contemplative Pedagogy with recent work on Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy, to explore tangible steps for fostering learners’ embodied self-awareness of inequality and social change. Through case studies, it will explore techniques and methodologies (including reimagining standard exercises like writing and close reading) in ways that invite students to engage in processes of self-inquiry, attention-building, and compassion. In doing so, students are also invited to develop disruptive knowledge that critiques social inequities.