Revisiting the Nature of Transformative Learning Experiences in Contemplative Higher Education
Olen Gunnlaugson, Renata Cueto de Souza, Steven Zhao, Allen Yee, Charles Scott, H. Bai
Journal of Transformative Education February 7, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1177/15413446211067285 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
Contemplative practices in higher education can foster intersubjectivity—a shared, relational awareness among learners—that may deepen transformative learning beyond individual reflection. A review of theoretical and research literature on postsecondary contemplative education, combined with qualitative data from graduate students in a contemplative inquiry program, suggests that second-person contemplative approaches (practices done with others) help students access underlying intersubjective dimensions. This shift can affect both the nature of learners' consciousness and their overall journey of transformation through their studies, offering evidence of transformative potentials in these relational, contemplative pedagogies.
Study at a glance
| Design | qualitative study |
|---|---|
| Population | graduate students enrolled in a contemplative inquiry program |
| Key finding | Second-person contemplative approaches in postsecondary education can enable students to access intersubjective dimensions, potentially shifting the nature of transformative learning and the learner's consciousness. |
Abstract
We are interested in the transformative potentials of intersubjectivity as it is enacted through second-person contemplative approaches. Our work here focuses on contemplative practice as a pedagogy that reveals and enacts intersubjectivity within postsecondary education. How might contemplative higher education practice as a pedagogy enable students to access these underlying intersubjective dimensions, thus creating conditions for a shift in the forms of transformative learning that affect the nature of the learner’s consciousness as well as their overall journey of transformation through the course of their studies? We review the theoretical and research literature on postsecondary contemplative education, particularly in its intersubjective dimensions, and then offer data from a qualitative study involving students enrolled in a graduate program in contemplative inquiry that offers evidence of the transformative potentials of these intersubjective, contemplative approaches to learning and inquiry.