Teaching as Contemplative Professional Practice

Teaching is reframed as a contemplative professional practice grounded in the idea that what teachers attend to shapes their actions and moral living. The article argues that attending pre-conceptually and non-judgmentally to one's inner life while teaching moment-by-moment provides a basis for engaging developmentally in teaching as a moral endeavor. Central to this conceptualization is ongoing work on awareness, attention, and noticing of one's inner life during teaching, undertaken in regard of students, thereby making teaching a moral practice.

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Abstract

Starting with the argument that what we attend to is important for how we act in and on the world – and, thus, our moral living – the article conceptualizes teaching as contemplative practice, arguing that attending pre-conceptually and non-judgmentally to our inner life as teachers as we teach moment-by-moment will give us the basis upon which we can engage developmentally in teaching as a moral endeavour. Central to the conceptualization of teaching as contemplative professional practice is the idea of on-going wok on one’s awareness, attention, and noticing of one’s inner life while teaching. Such on-going professional development is undertaken in regard of others, the students, and, thus, makes teaching as contemplative practice a moral endeavour.