Luận án: Yoga trong Giáo dục Đại học Bắc Mỹ - Giảng viên và Ứng dụng

Lesley University DigitalCommons@Lesley Educational Studies Dissertations Graduate School of Education (GSOE) 2011 Yoga in Higher Education: North American Educators and the Use of Yoga as Pedagogy: A Dissertation Laura Douglass Lesley University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/education_dissertations Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Douglass, Laura, "Yoga in Higher Education: North American Educators and the Use of Yoga as Pedagogy: A Dissertation" (2011). Educational Studies Dissertations.edu/education_dissertations/60 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School of Education (GSOE) at DigitalCommons@Lesley. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational Studies Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Lesley. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@lesley.edu, cvrattos@lesley.

Yoga in Higher Education: North American Educators and the Use of Yoga as Pedagogy A DISSERTATION submitted by Laura Douglass In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy LESLEY UNIVERSITY May 28 2011 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first introduction to yoga was in high school, where I stumbled upon a popularized text on hatha yoga that was available at Edison Community College in Ft. A few years later, Akhilananda of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness introduced me and a group of unruly undergraduates at the University of South Florida to bhakti yoga and the study of the Bhagavad-Gita. By 1996 I had met Swami Satchidananda, a yoga teacher who blended the study and practice of raja, bhakti, jnana, karma and hatha yoga. Satchidananda had a profound influence on my initial conception of what ―yoga‖ could be and I began an exploration of yoga in western culture.

I am grateful to the culturally pluralistic and religiously diverse country in which I live. Without our culture‘s dedication to diversity, this dissertation, and my interest in yoga, may have never taken shape. This thesis would not have been possible without the ongoing support of my primary adviser, Dr. Cohen was available to me throughout the long process of my doctoral work and encouraged me to see myself as a scholar and as a researcher.

She helped me to challenge assumptions I carried about my place in the world. The freedom that results from this questioning is a gift that I cannot repay. In many practical ways she helped to develop my skills as a scholar. She arranged for us to present together at two academic conferences: Interdisciplinary at the Borders: Creating, Thinking and Living New Knowledge in Tempe, Arizona and The Future of Adult Higher Education: Principles, Contexts and Practices in Saratoga Springs, New York.

She also recommended me for several adjunct teaching positions while I was at iii Lesley University, including Ways of Knowing, Nature of Inquiry and my work in the Self Designed Master‘s Degree Program at Lesley University. Perhaps most importantly, Dr. Cohen‘s sense that the body, and critical thinking can happen together was imperative to my sustained enthusiasm throughout the doctoral process. My other doctoral advisers were also important to the development of this work.

Meenakshi Chhabra provided insight into my qualifying exams that helped me to hone my thinking in the dissertation. Neal Klein, in addition to providing insight into my thesis, gave me several opportunities to teach and develop courses that use yoga as pedagogy; these experiences helped me explore some of the ways in which yoga is being used within the curriculum and provided me with a source of income during my doctoral work. Klein has also encouraged me to publish in Lesley University‘s journal, Pedagogy, Pluralism and Practice, for which I am grateful. Sat Bir Khalsa has provided much needed critical insight on how to make this project successful.

Some of his insights I ignored, which has made my research process considerably more problematic! His phone calls challenging a particular aspect of my work have consistently reminded me that the details of my research mater to educators across North America. Khalsa also provided me with an opportunity to volunteer in a study he was running on Yoga in the Public Schools that informed my thinking as a researcher and a scholar. I am thankful to Lesley University for providing me with two teaching fellowships, that while not directly supporting my research, did provide additional opportunities to experience the system of higher education on an intimate level. This work helped me, as a new scholar, to relate to the concerns and interests of those I iv interviewed.

I am also appreciative for the opportunity to study with Dr. Caroline Heller and Professor Leah Hager-Cohen, both of who encouraged me to see the possibilities of writing my research in a way that is enjoyable to read and to re-think my ideas. I am thankful to Constance Varattas, the librarian at Lesley University who introduced me to bibliographic software, for which I will forever be thankful. My colleagues Nancy Young, Jan Wall, Celia Biacioni, Tracy Wallach, Jessica Schwarzenbach and Pete Cormier have provided support in encouraging me to complete my doctoral work.

Frank Trocco, perhaps unknowingly, provided me with an essential reminder that it is possible to be an academic and retain your sense of humor – for which I am exceptionally thankful. I am thankful to the Adult Higher Education Alliance who gave me the 2010 Arthur Chickering Award to present aspects of my research at the annual conference. Many individuals have given their time through interviews. I could not have completed this research project without their full and very generous support.

To participate in qualitative research is unsettling, as inevitably one‘s words are woven into a narrative that the participant has done little to create. I am aware of how courageous it is to allow your words to be ―interpreted‖ by an outsider, and hope that I have provided an adequate context to do their words and work justice. Many of my presumptions about what was happening (in yoga as pedagogy) were proved wrong in the process of my research. I am quite grateful for the insight the research participants offered; any misinterpretations of their words are my fault alone.

I have published parts of this dissertation throughout my time as a doctoral student. I am thankful to the peer reviewers of these journals for providing feedback on v my ideas and encouragement to share my findings with a wider community of scholars. The following articles were written while I was a doctoral student, and parts of them appear in edited form in this dissertation: Douglass, L. Thinking through the body: The conceptualization of yoga as therapy for individuals with eating disorders.

Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 19 (1) 83-96. Yoga in the Public Schools: Diversity, Democracy and the Use of Critical Thinking in Educational Debates. How did we get here? A history of Yoga in America, 1800- 1970. International Journal of Yoga Therapy, 17: 35-42.

Finally, a heartfelt thanks to my family Ken and Seth Martin. I am extremely thankful to Ken Martin, who provided much needed love and consistent support throughout my years of study that (I hope) has been repaid in his improved knowledge of and appreciation for qualitative studies. My son, Seth Martin, was four years old when I started the doctoral program, and is now finishing the second grade. He came to many doctoral meetings, and allowed me the space to work on my dissertation.

He has made me promise to ―never get another doctoral degree.‖ I am grateful to his support and love. vi PREFACE We are well educated people who have been schooled in a way of knowing that treats the world as an object to be dissected and manipulated, a way of knowing that gives us power over the world (P. Paulo Freire was one of the first educators to express that liberation from preconceptions is the goal of education with his 1970 publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 2001, 2004, 2006 originally published in 1970). Freire was committed to transformational education; he claimed that education is, ―the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it‖ (Freire in Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007, p.

Yoga can also be seen as a form of education that is concerned with freeing the individual from his or her preconceptions. Yoga is an East Indian philosophical system of self-knowledge that is foundational in the East; Patanjali‘s Classical Yoga is one of the shad dharshan, or six philosophical systems considered essential for intellectual mastery (Radakrishna, 1998). Yoga has many branches and addresses everything from physical wellness, intellectual acumen to spiritual harmony. It can include complex theories of human learning and psychology (Dalal, 2001b; Krishnamurti, 2003).

What is common to the diverse systems of yoga is that they are all viewed as methods by which the individual is freed from their habitual ways of interpreting the world (Sri. Aurobindo, 1997; Dalal, 2001b; Satchidananda, 2003; Sivananda, 2001). The goal of seeing the world free from our preconceptions is achieved through the systematic and consistent practices of yoga in one or more of its forms: postures, breathing practices, meditation, yogic diet, ethical precepts, self-study, vii as well as many other contemplative practices (Feurstein, 2003; Leggett, 1990; Muktibodhananda, 1993; Ravindra, 2006). Like many individuals, my first experience of yoga was the physical postures, or āsanas.

Initially I had great difficulty with the physical practices; not only was my body stiff, but the slow pace of the class made me painfully aware of the ongoing negative dialogue in my mind. I was grounded in what educator Parker Palmer calls ―a way of knowing that treats the world as an object to be dissected and manipulated‖ (P. Not only did I habitually critique the information offered by the teacher, but I was entrenched in the habit of evaluating and judging my body‘s performance – always demanding it do more. I began to understand that I viewed my body as distinctly ―other.‖ It was a tool to be used and the less time I had to care for it the better.

Resistance to seeing our body as essential to our experience is deeply rooted in issues of power. According to the French philosopher Michel Foucault, every culture strives to regulate and supervise the use(s) of bodies; this is one of the primary methods of asserting control over both the individual and society (Foucault, 1978). Reclaiming the body lies at the heart of the physical practices of yoga, for we often understand the world in the same way that we understand our bodies (S. The layers of meaning the body held for me were unraveled in the quiet practice of yoga postures, breathing practices, systematic relaxation and meditation.

As I began to feel more easeful within my body, I was distinctly more at ease with others in my community. Many of the participants in this study are using yoga as a pedagogical tool to think through the body; yet for others yoga has very little, if anything, to do with the physical body. The diversity in how yoga is conceptualized and practiced is astounding. viii One thing for certain is that as academics are beginning to integrate yoga into their lives, new forms of scholarship are emerging.

Yoga has moved out of the physical education department and into the classroom as a topic of scholarly concern and as a pedagogical tool (Brockington et al., 2003; Cohen, 2006; Counihan, 2007; DeMichelis, 2005; Douglass, 2007a; Michelis et al. The integration of the practice of yoga into accredited course design is also on the rise: Harvard University‘s Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa a neuroscientist and educator offers a 3 credit course entitled Mind, Body and Medicine for medical students, which include an optional, but weekly practice of yoga. At Lesley University Professor Amy Tate, and the author teach a 3 credit social science course titled Yoga: theory, culture and practice in which half of the class time is spent practicing yoga.

Lesley also offers a 3 credit graduate course titled Yoga and Therapeutic Touch. At York University in Canada, Dr.