Examining the Transformative Potential of Contemplative Instructional Methods in Graduate Social Work Education: A Phenomenological Teacher-Action Research Study

Background and Purpose: Social justice-based scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) underscores the need to better understand, clarify, and refine transformative learning techniques. Contemplative and mindfulness-based pedagogies are garnering increased attention as powerful transformative learning approaches, including from indigenous, feminist, and critical social work scholarship. Despite the increasing recognition of the importance of holistic teaching paradigms, there is a deficit of research exploring how these pedagogical approaches influence social justice learning and whether they support transformative and decolonizing learning aims.

Responding to this gap, this critical phenomenological teacher-action research project seeks to understand how social work students experience and make sense of contemplative instructional techniques. How do students perceive the relationship between these methods and their understanding of social justice, healing work, and social change? Do students perceive any effects from these practices on their personal well-being and professional development?

Methods: Nine semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with graduate social work students (ages 22 to 55) who received contemplative pedagogical methods across a semester-long required graduate-level course. The participants identified as predominantly cis-gendered (89% cis-gendered; 11% "non-binary”), heterosexual (78% heterosexual; 22% "queer"), female (67% female; 33% male), and White (67% White; 22% Black; 11% Latinx). Students were recruited through an in-class solicitation on the final day of class and during a follow-up email. Interviews lasted approximately 90 minutes, were audio recorded, and transcribed using transcription services. Through an inductive coding process congruent with thematic content analysis, transcripts were collaboratively analyzed using three cycles of coding that spanned manual and software-supported (ATLAS.ti) modes of analysis. Three additional data sets were used to triangulate the findings: (a) intersectional demographic questionnaires; (b) students' contemplative journal entries submitted during the course, and; (c) classroom observational notes.

Findings: Findings reveal that students generated unique insights through contemplative instruction surrounding how life adversities and socialization processes impact their sense of self, connection to others, and perceptions of privilege and oppression. Participants voiced how contemplative learning contributed to new understandings of power, including greater visibility of the prevalence of disembodiment and awareness of how one's social locations are internalized, affecting bodily comportment, processes of attention, expressions of vulnerability, and perceptions of self-worth and belonging. Participants spoke of the powerful impact of getting to "show up more completely" in a space that historically divides mind from body and marginalizes other ways of knowing—a process participants spoke of as "transformative," "decolonizing," "difficult but powerful," and "liberating." In terms of perceived effects, students reported increases in self-compassion, empathy, and perspective-taking and, in their professional practices, a greater sense of bodily presence, relational attunement, patience, and self-regulation.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings suggest students encountered powerful learning experiences through critical contemplative instruction that affected them in somatic, affective, relational, spiritual, and perceptual ways. Ultimately, the findings hold theoretical, pedagogical, and practical implications for social work and generate a call for further social work scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to understand the mechanisms, refine practice techniques, and better understand the risks and effects of contemplative teaching methods.