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Naropa faculty hosting professors across the US
Contributed by: Susan Seecof on 7/25/2008

As the academic year comes to its traditional triumphant start next month, faculty members of universities like Naropa are busy completing their summer activities. Ever wonder how university professors spend their summers? Although academic schedules change during the summer they don't go away. Some professors seeking new trends in education, engage in trainings that offer new technisues to take back to their classrooms.

Naropa's summer conferences this year offer a rich opportunity for local faculty to work with professors from universities across the U.S., sharing their views and gathering wisdom to take back to their schools. The upcoming CACE Pedagogy Seminar (July 29-August 4) has invited professors from 17 universities in the US and Mexico to learn contemplative approaches to education.

Faculty in attendance will include professors of communications, business, English language, art, psychology and health from 17 different colleges and universities across the United States and Mexico, including Colorado State University at Pueblo, University of Georgia, N. Arizona University, and University of Quintana Roo (Mexico).

Colorado State University professor and CPS participant Carol Foust says this educational approach supports the learning process in the classroom. "I believe contemplation education is vital in the process of integration and learning as it creates a space and connection in each person and the group-it takes the learning to the next level," says Foust. "Class dynamics can make or break learning. It is so important to create an environment that nurtures the dichotomy of individuality vs. community, between silence and sharing."

CPS provides a missing link in much of liberal arts education, a forum for teachers to examine their views and gain expertise in contemplative education from Naropa University faculty.

The application of contemplative practices at the higher education level has gained interest in the last few years. Inspired by the Naropa 1997 Spirituality in Education Conference, with distinguished presenters such as H.H. the Dalai Lama and author/educator Parker Palmer, a growing number of networks of higher-education professionals for the advancement of contemplative education have developed; at the five Colleges (Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke, Smith College and University of Massachusetts, Amherst); in Colorado, with the Rocky Mountain Contemplative Higher Education Network (RMCHEN); and with the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown University.

"Higher education is increasingly recognizing the role that colleges and universities play in students' development as socially engaged, moral human beings," says Stuart J. Sigman, PhD, vice president for academic affairs at Naropa University. "Naropa's contemplative approach provides a missing link in much of liberal arts education: the need to integrate traditional critical, analytic and research skills with the ability for self-reflection, discernment and comfort with uncertainty. We do not simply ask students to meditate; contemplative education invites students to understand themselves, their relationship to others and their relationship to bodies of knowledge."



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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Susan Seecof

Boulder , CO

Susan Seecof has posted 6 stories and 0 comments since joining on 8/7/2006. Susan Seecof 's average story rating is 0.
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