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"Imagine a classroom that explores the twinned ideas of embodied teaching and a pedagogy of tenderness. Becky Thompson envisions such a curriculum "and a way of being "that promises to bring about a sea change in education. Thompson's pedagogy of tenderness encompasses a student's whole self, helping the individual to merge mind, body, spirit, and emotions to achieve true understanding. As she shows, teaching with tenderness encourages us to truly listen to one another; makes room for emotion and uncomfortable perspectives; and welcomes silence, breathing, and movement. The patience and mindful attentiveness that emerges spurs students to achieve great work drawn from their best selves. Throughout, Thompson invites readers into her classroom and the lives of her students to illuminate how methods like yoga and sleep for overworked students have led to dramatic transformations"--
About the author
Becky Thompson is a professor of sociology at Simmons College. Her books include
Survivors on the Yoga Mat: Stories for Those Healing from Trauma and
A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism.
Summary
Imagine a classroom that explores the twinned ideas of embodied teaching and a pedagogy of tenderness. Becky Thompson envisions such a curriculum--and a way of being--that promises to bring about a sea change in education.Teaching with Tenderness follows in the tradition of bell hooks's Teaching to Transgress and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, inviting us to draw upon contemplative practices (yoga, meditation, free writing, mindfulness, ritual) to keep our hearts open as we reckon with multiple injustices. Teaching with tenderness makes room for emotion, offer a witness for experiences people have buried, welcomes silence, breath and movement, and sees justice as key to our survival. It allows us to rethink our relationship to grading, office hours, desks, and faculty meetings, sees paradox as a constant companion, moves us beyond binaries; and praises self and community care. Tenderness examines contemporary challenges to teaching about race, gender, class, nationality, sexuality, religion, and other hierarchies. It examines the ethical, emotional, political, and spiritual challenges of teaching power-laden, charged issues and the consequences of shifting power relations in the classroom and in the community. Attention to current contributions in the areas of contemplative practices, trauma theory, multiracial feminist pedagogy, and activism enable us to envision steps toward a pedagogy of liberation. The book encourages active engagement and makes room for self-reflective learning, teaching, and scholarship.
