Holistic Education Commons^™

Pláticas Liberadoras: Testimonios Of Chicana/O Elders En La Comunidad De San Diego, Gabriel Nunez-Soria

Dissertations

There is robust scholarship inquiring about many facets of critical consciousness (CC), most of which is centered around working with teens, youth, and educators. This study explored development of CC through testimonios of the lived experiences of eight Chicana/o elders in San Diego County. All eight of these elders participated in the Chicana/o movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s and carried these experiences with them into the present moment. Development of CC, the contextualized understandings of historical, social, and systemic aspects of our collective struggle against oppression through dialogue, reflection, and action, is a fundamental aspect of liberatory …

For The Love Of Teaching: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experience Of Moral Education, Anne Marie Foley Ruiz

Doctoral Dissertations

Moral aspects of teaching arise each and every day, yet we lack information about how prepared teachers feel about this critical aspect of teaching. This multi-case study explores perceptions of five pre-service teachers in an elementary teacher education program in Western Massachusetts. A series of interviews explore their histories prior to the program and their experiences in the program as related to the pre-service teachers’ orientations to the moral work of teaching. Research questions address the awareness and self-efficacy of student teachers in implementing the moral aspects of teaching. Using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006), this study explores beliefs …

Impact Of Social Emotional Learning On Exclusionary Discipline, Joanna T. Carrillo Rowley

Education Theses and Dissertations

A middle school campus in a Southeast urban community used a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle, an inquiry method in improvement science, to address high exclusionary discipline rates by implementing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) strategies and Restorative Practices (RP) to transform school culture. A reform to a comprehensive discipline program was developed to minimize the amount of exclusionary discipline outcomes (in-school suspension [ISS], out-of- school suspension [OSS], and expulsion) among students while increasing student attendance rates, student achievement, and teacher retention. Three distinct cycles will be examined, each concentrating on a different problem of practice and intervention. These methods were introduced, practiced, …

Giving And Taking Care During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Secondary Teachers’ Experiences Of Social Emotional Learning, Janna Jobel, Rebecca J. Lloyd

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been primarily researched in elementary schools, and within this context, SEL curriculum is often presented as an isolated, preplanned curriculum, with a list of curricular objectives to be delivered. A phenomenological inquiry was conducted to better understand the ways in which SEL and SEL curriculum are understood and experienced in a high school context. Data gathered from close phenomenological observations and interviews with three high school teachers in mathematics and physical education afforded the opportunity to orient, interpret, and describe the phenomenon of SEL-in-action. Rich descriptions of SEL as it is lived were generated and …

Book Review: Kumar, Ashwani. (Ed.). (2022). Engaging With Meditative Inquiry In Teaching, Learning, And Research: Realizing Transformative Potentials In Diverse Contexts. New York, Ny: Routledge., Giovanni Rossini Phd

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Book Review of following text:

Kumar, Ashwani. (Ed.). (2022). Engaging with Meditative Inquiry in Teaching, Learning, and Research: Realizing Transformative Potentials in Diverse Contexts. New York, NY: Routledge.

Social Emotional Learning In Early Elementary Education And The Impact On Academic And Behavioral Outcomes, Adam Mckee

M.Ed. Literature Reviews

This project explored the impact of direct instruction in social-emotional learning (SEL) at the elementary grade levels on academic and behavioral outcomes. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to analyze existing research in this area. The findings demonstrate a strong correlation between explicit SEL instruction in primary grades and positive improvements in both academic achievement and behavioral outcomes. This paper concludes that providing explicit instruction in essential SEL skills, including self-regulation, flexibility, and inhibition, is vital for promoting positive student outcomes in both academic achievement and behavior.

A Field Trip That’S Not About The Destination But The Journey, Vanessa Scanfeld, Eric James, Vincent Dotoli

Middle Grades Review

This Practitioner Perspective presents a middle school unit focused on designing a day-long field trip as an effective project-based initiative for advancing social and emotional learning (SEL). It considers the social and emotional competencies students develop as they navigate the complexities of this project: researching options, planning an itinerary that meets various parameters, and ultimately taking the trip. It also offers practical guidance to schools for successfully adopting this program.

Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction And Social–Emotional Teaching Practices For Linguistically Diverse Learners In The United States, Wing Shuen Lau

Education Dissertations

This dissertation includes two previous research studies with a central theme to sustain and advance culturally and linguistically responsive practices in literacy instruction, which are essential for promoting diversity and equity. This work highlights the need for a more holistic approach to English language teaching that integrates culturally responsive teaching and social–emotional learning. Culturally responsive teaching recognizes the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom. Social–emotional learning focuses on developing students’ emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills, which are critical for academic success and overall well-being. Both studies call for a greater diversity of language teacher preparation curricula and …

Resistencia Indocumentada: Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Higher Education Undocumented Students In The San Diego-Tijuana Border Region, Adan Escobedo Sanchez

Dissertations

Undocumented students face myriad obstacles while attending higher education institutions that would deter them from completing their academic journeys. Furthermore, they are placed with a dual narrative that labels them as either dangerous or exceptional. This study explored the lived experiences of undocumented students in college in the San Diego-Tijuana border region to consider what factors have led to resilience and resistance in their academic journey. By understanding these factors, the research aimed to tackle the dual narrative that burdens undocumented students from the illegality as a master status they possess.

This study used narrative inquiry and a literature review …

Equalizing Postsecondary Transition For At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services: A Chance To Succeed, Karla R. Sanchez

Dissertations

Postsecondary transition can be difficult for At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services (APYRSES). Special educators supporting postsecondary transition often manifest traditional and institutionalized forms of oppressive education while dismissing collective values and beliefs.

This qualitative case study examined the beliefs and attitudes shared by three special education teachers after being introduced to a justice-focused, humanizing intervention to facilitate postsecondary transition for APYRSES. The conceptualized intervention was grounded in liberatory educational frameworks and drew from critical, culturally affirming, sustaining, and humanizing theories that foster cultural reciprocity, self-determination skills, and antiracist social–emotional justice learning to afford opportunities for APYRSES to succeed. The …

Utilizing New Technologies To Measure Therapy Effectiveness For Mental And Physical Health, Jonathan Ossie

Dissertations

Mental health is quickly becoming a major policy concern, with recent data reporting increasing and disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, increased substance abuse, and elevated suicidal ideation. One specific population that is especially high risk for these issues is the military community because military conflict, deployment stressors, and combat exposure contribute to the risk of mental health problems.

Although several pharmacological approaches have been employed to combat this epidemic, their efficacy is mixed at best, which has led to novel nonpharmacological approaches. One such approach is Operation Surf, a nonprofit that provides nature-based programs advocating the restorative …

Creating Systemic Support: Cross-Sector Partnerships As A Catalyst To Institutional Transformation For Southeast Asian Student Support, Brianna Lourdes Edoria Pascua

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper investigates the potential impact of cross-sector partnerships between nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and universities on the educational attainment of Southeast Asian American (SEAA) students, particularly those from disenfranchised or nontraditional backgrounds. Guided by the research question, "Can cross-sector partnerships between NPOs and universities contribute to increased educational attainment among SEAA students?", the study seeks to comprehensively explore SEAA student experiences, challenge the Model Minority Stereotype, enrich SEAA higher educational achievement literature, underline the significance of disaggregated data and cross-sector collaborations, and create an adaptable framework for other communities. By adopting an Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) lens, the research …

Beyond Carceral "Solutions": Using Transformative Human Rights Education In Domestic Violence Prevention, Alli E. Rios

Master's Projects and Capstones

Domestic violence is a choice a person makes to gain and exert absolute power and control over another person. Unfortunately, the predominant structure for addressing domestic violence - the criminal justice system - is rife with problematic social and structural constructs, like patriarchy, white supremacy, and neoliberalism, which are themselves rooted in issues of power and control (Acheson, 2022). The influence of these factors, which are largely defined by exploitative hierarchies, helps to explain why domestic violence remains prevalent. To more effectively address and prevent domestic violence, research suggests that comprehensive policy and curricular reform are necessary on multiple levels …

Growth Mindset Intervention And Its Impact On Productive Struggle In The Eighth-Grade Mathematics Classroom, Jordy Wilson

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

This study aims to seek means to increase student productive struggle while adhering to the strenuous performance demands by our school systems. This study examines connections between growth mindset interventions, attitude towards struggle, and productive struggle in the mathematics classroom. Growth mindset interventions have been shown to change mindsets and to help students become more willing to engage in challenging problems and deal with difficult situations and struggle. Productive struggle is the engagement with difficult problems with the understanding that breakthroughs occur from confusion and struggle and has been linked with students’ conceptual understanding in the mathematics classroom. It has …

Editorial Introduction: Contemplative And Holistic Education As Inside-Out Work For Healing, Peace, Justice, And Equity, Heesoon Bai, Charles Scott, Cary L. Campbell, Jwalin Patel

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Inaugural Special Issue: EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

Meeting The Jche Team: A Reconstructed Interview, Heesoon Bai, Charles Scott, Cary L. Campbell, Jwalin Patel, Yifan Sun, Jing Lin, Hyeyoung Bang, Sachi Edwards, Deepa Srikantaiah, Yishin Khoo, Denise L. Mchugh

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

This “reconstructed interview-conversation” involves the entire editorial team of the Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education (JCHE). Together, the team dialogues around the shared visions, aspirations, motivations, and aims we have in creating this new journal platform. With this sharing, the team sends out a welcoming invitation to colleagues from around the world to get to know our new journal and to join our work to support and promote contemplative and holistic education. We at JCHE are committed to the ideal of education as transformative integration of mind-body-heart-spirit, which we ultimately understand as a decolonizing project. Through this interview, various …

The Four Protocols Of Engagement And How To Apply Them, Joyce A. Schneider

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

In response to concerns as to how to respectfully mobilize Canada's 2015 Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) 94 Calls to Action in our teaching/learning and/or life practices, I developed the Four Protocols of Engagement as a starting point for those ready to authentically engage with First Peoples, their/our lands, and ways of doing, knowing, and valuing. I demonstrate how I apply the Four Protocols in my own work through detailing how each protocol enacted requires preparatory knowledge seeking and actions to make meaningful and impactful Land Acknowledgements. I conclude by reflecting on the content and practices outlined in this example of …

‘How To Be Here?’, Dialoging Into Climate-Change: An Interview With Tim Lilburn, Tim Lilburn, Cary L. Campbell

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

This interview with Canadian, poet, philosopher and essayist Tim Lilburn was commissioned for this Special Issue. Lilburn discusses with Cary Campbell, the general dilemma of ‘how to be here’ – both: how to connect to land and place as a member of settler society, as well as; how to inhabit this moment of acute climate crisis – discussing ideas from Lilburn’s (2017) previous book The Larger Conversation: Contemplation and Place, and the forthcoming Interiority & Climate-Change. This interview follows up from an earlier dialogue between Lilburn and Campbell, published by Philosophasters.org in 2019, and republished below with permission.

A Forest In The City: Contemplative Practice For Difficult Times, David Chang

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

In this short narrative-essay, David Chang presents what he learned after spending a year in contemplative solitude on a remote off-grid island along the coast of BC, offering “invitations to live the stillness of the forest in the bustle of the city”. Chang makes the case that those blessed with the time and resources to practice contemplative solitude have an (educational) commitment to share these lessons and insights with broader society, arguing that “Contemplation becomes insignificant if it cannot address the pressing problems of our day”.

Inner Work: Foundational To Contemplative And Holistic Education, Avraham Cohen, Thomas Falkenberg

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

In this interview (conducted by Heesoon Bai), Avraham Cohen and Thomas Falkenberg speak about the origin and practice of their respective inner work and about the need for and ways of bringing more inner work into the world.