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Sabbath as a Spiritual Imperative for Liberatory Teaching
Proposal abstract :
Scholarship has accounted for the mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion due to the stress of teaching, particularly for people of color whose efforts often involve cultivating racial equity and uprooting oppressive structures. It has exposed the culture of academia that thrives off of exhaustion, overworking, and unhealthy boundaries. Yet, scholarship has yet to fully consider the spiritual implications. Indeed, in academia the interior worlds and spiritual lives of teachers do not get taken seriously and are often relegated to the private sphere or deemed wholly inappropriate for consideration in the classroom space. Yet, this project moves spirituality from the margin to the center of liberatory praxis. The goal of this grant project is to intentionally examine and reclaim the practice of sabbath as a spiritual imperative for liberatory teaching. I will explore the framing question: How does the intentional centering of sabbath as a spiritual practice influence my pedagogy?
Learning Abstract :
Question or Problem
Scholarship has accounted for the mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion due to the stress of teaching, particularly for people of color whose efforts often involve cultivating racial equity and uprooting oppressive structures. It has exposed the culture of academia that thrives off of exhaustion, overworking, and unhealthy boundaries. Yet, scholarship has yet to fully consider the spiritual implications. Indeed, in academia, the interior worlds and spiritual lives of teachers do not get taken seriously and are often relegated to the private sphere or deemed wholly inappropriate for consideration in the classroom space. Yet, this project moves spirituality from the margin to the center of liberatory praxis. The goal of this small grant project is to intentionally examine and reclaim the practice of sabbath as a spiritual imperative for liberatory teaching. I will the explore the following framing questions: How does the intentional centering of sabbath, or rest, as a spiritual practice influence my pedagogy? How does it shape how I teach, and what I teach? How might it transform me, mind, body, and spirit?
Project Goals
Over the course of one academic year (Fall 2023 and Spring 2024), I will intentionally adopt sabbath as a daily practice. I will implement various forms of sabbath that will enable me to continue developing my pedagogical practice, opening a world of possibility for both teaching and learning, including the implementation of sabbath into my classroom policies. My hope is that sabbath builds the spiritual capacity for pedagogical transformation. More intimately, I endeavor to reflect on how sabbath can help bring me to a state of wellness, space of wellbeing, and a place of integrated wholeness of mind, body, and spirit.
Description of Activities
With support from this grant, I will implement a "sabbath plan" across four sectors.
1. Physical sabbath: this is defined as activities that improve physical well-being and restores the body. It involves both passive and active rest. Passive rest includes improving the quantity and quality of sleep, while active rest will involve daily physical group exercise activities at West Lafayette Wellness center through yoga, swimming, and Zumba classes.
2. Mental / emotional sabbath: this involves ceasing from the cognitive demands of work and quieting the mind. This type of rest will be facilitated by twice monthly tele-therapy sessions that enable me to share my thoughts in the company of a licensed therapist, and begin working on ways to improve my mood, decrease stress, and develop healthy work-life boundaries.
3. Sensory sabbath: this involves unplugging from the ongoing sensory stimulation that living in
Scholarship has accounted for the mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion due to the stress of teaching, particularly for people of color whose efforts often involve cultivating racial equity and uprooting oppressive structures. It has exposed the culture of academia that thrives off of exhaustion, overworking, and unhealthy boundaries. Yet, scholarship has yet to fully consider the spiritual implications. Indeed, in academia the interior worlds and spiritual lives of teachers do not get taken seriously and are often relegated to the private sphere or deemed wholly inappropriate for consideration in the classroom space. Yet, this project moves spirituality from the margin to the center of liberatory praxis. The goal of this grant project is to intentionally examine and reclaim the practice of sabbath as a spiritual imperative for liberatory teaching. I will explore the framing question: How does the intentional centering of sabbath as a spiritual practice influence my pedagogy?
Learning Abstract :
Question or Problem
Scholarship has accounted for the mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion due to the stress of teaching, particularly for people of color whose efforts often involve cultivating racial equity and uprooting oppressive structures. It has exposed the culture of academia that thrives off of exhaustion, overworking, and unhealthy boundaries. Yet, scholarship has yet to fully consider the spiritual implications. Indeed, in academia, the interior worlds and spiritual lives of teachers do not get taken seriously and are often relegated to the private sphere or deemed wholly inappropriate for consideration in the classroom space. Yet, this project moves spirituality from the margin to the center of liberatory praxis. The goal of this small grant project is to intentionally examine and reclaim the practice of sabbath as a spiritual imperative for liberatory teaching. I will the explore the following framing questions: How does the intentional centering of sabbath, or rest, as a spiritual practice influence my pedagogy? How does it shape how I teach, and what I teach? How might it transform me, mind, body, and spirit?
Project Goals
Over the course of one academic year (Fall 2023 and Spring 2024), I will intentionally adopt sabbath as a daily practice. I will implement various forms of sabbath that will enable me to continue developing my pedagogical practice, opening a world of possibility for both teaching and learning, including the implementation of sabbath into my classroom policies. My hope is that sabbath builds the spiritual capacity for pedagogical transformation. More intimately, I endeavor to reflect on how sabbath can help bring me to a state of wellness, space of wellbeing, and a place of integrated wholeness of mind, body, and spirit.
Description of Activities
With support from this grant, I will implement a "sabbath plan" across four sectors.
1. Physical sabbath: this is defined as activities that improve physical well-being and restores the body. It involves both passive and active rest. Passive rest includes improving the quantity and quality of sleep, while active rest will involve daily physical group exercise activities at West Lafayette Wellness center through yoga, swimming, and Zumba classes.
2. Mental / emotional sabbath: this involves ceasing from the cognitive demands of work and quieting the mind. This type of rest will be facilitated by twice monthly tele-therapy sessions that enable me to share my thoughts in the company of a licensed therapist, and begin working on ways to improve my mood, decrease stress, and develop healthy work-life boundaries.
3. Sensory sabbath: this involves unplugging from the ongoing sensory stimulation that living in