Re-Envisioning Higher Education

Embodied Pathways to Wisdom and Social Transformation

Edited by:
Jing Lin, University of Maryland
Rebecca L. Oxford, University of Maryland
Edward J. Brantmeier, James Madison University

A volume in the series: Transforming Education for the Future. Editor(s): Jing Lin, University of Maryland. Rebecca L. Oxford, University of Maryland. Vachel W. Miller, Appalachian State University. Amanda Jane Fiore, State Department.

Published 2013

This book will expand the horizon of higher education, helping students, faculty and administrators to return to their roots and be in touch with their whole being. This book stresses that learning is much more than just accumulating knowledge and skills. Learning includes knowing ourselves—mind, body, and spirit. The learning of compassion, care, and service are as crucial or even more important in higher education in order for universities to address students’ individual needs and the society’s needs. Higher education must contribute to a better world. The book acknowledges that knowing not only comes from outside, but also comes from within. Wisdom is what guides students to be whole, true to themselves while learning. There are many ancient and modern approaches to gaining wisdom and wellness. This book talks about contemplative methods, such as meditation, qigong, yoga, arts, and dance, that help people gain wisdom and balance in their lives and enhance their ability to be reflective and transformative educators and learners.

CONTENTS
Introduction: Expanding the Roles of Higher Education and Contemplative Pedagogies for Wisdom and Innovation, Jing Lin and Rebecca Oxford. PART I: CONNECTIVITY, VIRTUES, AND MORALITY: NEW PARADIGMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION. Re-Visioning Higher Education: The Three-Fold Relationality Framework, Heesoon Bai, Avraham Cohen, and Charles Scott. Education for Transformation and an Expanded Self: Paradigm Shift for Wisdom Education, Jing Lin. Exploring Unconscious Embodied Ethical Transformation: Perspectives from Daoist Body-Mind Contemplative Practices, Tom Culham. Developing Moral Intelligence: Global, Networked, and Embodied Approaches, Yi (William) Wei and Michael Wei. PART II: TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGIES AND WELLNESS, HOLISM AND PEACE. Transformative Approaches to Teacher Education: Becoming Holistic Educators in “Unholistic” Settings, Robert London. Pedagogy of Vulnerability: Definitions, Assumptions, and Applications, Edward J. Brantmeier. Anti-Domestic and Dating Violence Efforts on Campus: A Case Study of A Holistic Program, Laura L. Finley. Teaching Peace and Wellness as the Wisdom Path, Alice Yeager and Sharon Howle. Enacting Indigenous Wisdom Within Higher Education Pedagogies: An Example from Early Childhood Teacher Education in Aotearoa, Carol Smith and Jenny Ritchie. PART III: YOGA AND MEDITATION FOR WISDOM, COMPASSION AND INTEGRITY. The Power of Meditation in College Learning, Fran Grace. Yoga and Higher Education: Adding Concentration, Clarity, and Compassion to Learning, Ramdas Lamb. “The Needs of the Heart”: Finding No-Self in the College Classroom, Geraldine DeLuca. Embodying Higher-Education Towards Integrity, Oren Ergas. PART IV: DEVELOPING THE ECOLOGICAL SELF AND CULTIVATING DEEP CONNECTION WITH NATURE. Toward an Ecological Self Amid an Empathy Epidemic: Higher Education, Psychology, and Mindful Connection with Nature, Debbie C. Sturm, Anne Metz, and Rebecca L. Oxford. Ground Truth: Investigations of Earth Simultaneously Spiritual and Scientific, Jill S. Schneiderman. Using Hula to Teach Personal, Inter-Personal, and Environmental Peace, Sachi Edwards. PART V: SERVICE LEARNING AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Service Learning as Civic and Spiritual Engagement, Ai Zhang. Mindfulness Meditation and Service Learning: Complementary Ways of Knowing, Jared Featherstone. Locating Self By Serving Others: A Journey to Inner Wisdom, Cara Meixner. PART V I: AWAKENING EDUCATION: CONCLUSION AND NEW OPENINGS. Awakening Education: Toward a Rich Tapestry of Mindful and Contemplative Engagement for Social/Environmental Transformation, Claudia Eppert. Author Biographies.

REVIEWS
"Readers interested in engaging with ideas about higher education beyond ubiquitous contemporary neo-liberal discourses will be heartened by Jing Lin, Rebecca L. Oxford and Edward J. Brantmeier’s book Re-envisioning Higher Education. Eschewing solely “a rational, scientific, individualistic, and materialistic framework for higher education” (p. xii), this edited collection delves into the ways “we are moving into a new era of cultivating whole beings and wisdom” (p. xiii), a project less often explored in higher education literature. Explicitly challenging dominant ideologies and mainstream practices in academia, the authors collectively invite us to imagine how we may center relationality and embodiment as central components of education." Anne E. Wagner & Riyad A. Shahjahan in Teachers College Record (Read full review)