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Beginning in the early 21st century, contemplative pedagogy (a “quiet revolution,” in the words of Arthur Zajonc, 2013), has been used to inform a variety of modern educational goals, including increasing focus, attention, and positive states of mind in classrooms, among others (Barbezat & Bush, 2014; Ergas, 2018; Morgan, 2014; Simmer-Brown & Grace, 2011; Zajonc, 2013). Contemplative pedagogies rely on methods that integrate subjective experience (“first-person” approaches) and include the consideration, analysis, and application of meaning-making and ethics into education (Zajonc, 2019). Contemplative pedagogies connect students to the lived, embodied experience of their own learning; part of the pedagogy is that students become aware of their internal world and connect their learning to their values and sense of meaning, which enables them to form richer deeper, relationships with their peers, communities, and the world around them, and to act as agents of positive change.
In 2019, this author proposed a model of Buddhist pedagogy that dovetailed with this trend, offering promise in expanding ways of thinking about teaching Buddhism incorporating new epistemologies, dynamics, and languaging around why, how, and whom we educate. The basis of this experiment is the practice of Contemplative Pedagogy in a young Buddhist graduate school, Maitripa College, which serves as a nexus of investigation for such application, and the teaching of Buddhist Studies in its traditional and applied forms. Four years later, this paper will summarize a critical analysis of this application thus far: through student evaluations of Maitripa College students, interviews with key college founders and friends from both inside and outside of traditional academia, and artifacts of student work, this paper will ask, and answer, the question: is contemplative pedagogy an effective medium through which to teach Buddhism in higher education?
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
In 2019 this author demonstrated a model of Buddhist pedagogy that dovetailed with the mainstream academic movement contemplative pedagogy, offering promise in expanding American educational pedagogies with ideas of new epistemologies, dynamics, and languaging around why, how, and whom we educate. In 2019, this author proposed a young Buddhist graduate school, Maitripa College, as a nexus of investigation for such application, and the teaching of Buddhist Studies in its traditional and applied forms as a basis of understanding whether and how such pedagogy is effective. Four years later, this paper will summarize a critical analysis of this application thus far: through student evaluations of Maitripa College students, interviews with key college founders and friends from both inside and outside of traditional academia, and artifacts of student work, this paper will ask, and answer, the question: is contemplative pedagogy an effective medium through which to teach Buddhism in higher education?