Emergent and Contemplative Pedagogies
“Engaged pedagogy is more demanding than conventional critical or feminist pedagogy. For . . . it emphasizes well-being. That means that teachers must be actively committed to a process of self-actualization that promotes their own wellbeing if they are to . . . empower. . . students.” –bell hooks
Larisa Castillo aims to shift teaching culture by advocating for the integration of wellbeing curricula and pedagogies in college classrooms. While these wellbeing approaches are diverse—drawing from positive psychology, contemplative studies, Black feminist pedagogy, the neurobiology of learning, and more—they presuppose a holistic approach to teaching and learning, in which personal, social, and academic growth co-emerge. These integrative methodologies expand traditional conceptions of knowledge, reimagine the relationship between teacher and student, recognize learning as necessarily collaborative and collective, and prioritize equity, inclusion, and sustainability. Such approaches support UCI’s Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative, which is based on the Okanagan Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges.
Larisa’s research centers on emergent pedagogies (see article below), approaches that pay attention to the elements, happenings, and intersections of the emergent moment. These practices integrate traditional classroom content, social and global happenings, and personal responses, experiences, and feelings. Through this integration, they encourage wellbeing because they allow teachers and students to process the constellation of elements that give shape to their lives.
Emergent pedagogies rely on contemplative pedagogies to support the integration of students’ and teachers’ sensations, thoughts, and feelings. Contemplative pedagogies incorporate mindfulness-awareness practices into the classroom, practices that integrate mind, body, and heart by focusing on the felt experience of the present moment (Burns and Rotterdam). By approaching felt experience with curiosity and nonjudgement, practitioners develop an awareness of the layered happenings of the emergent moment. In that way, contemplative practices underpin pedagogies of emergence because mindfulness is the practice of feeling and noticing emergence.
Contemplative Arts play a central role in Castillo’s emergent approaches, as they integrate feeling, expression and cognitive processing. Castillo is the originator of the Humanities Core Arts Competition and Exhibition, which has been exhibiting student work for the past eight years and has developed and supported arts programming for Humanities Core and individual student projects. For more on these projects, see the Arts page.
Join UCI Libraries and the campus community to explore and enjoy the latest installation of the Student Display Pilot Program. The newest Langson Library display, Celebration of Student Art: Humanities Core 2017–2024, features selected student art from eight years of Humanities Core Arts Competitions:
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Langson Library Lobby
Recent Publications:
Using Pedagogies of Emergence to Cultivate Well-Being in Students
Teaching Wellbeing: The Emergent Approaches of the Okanagan Charter
Works Cited
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994.