Experience, Purpose, Pedagogy, and Theory: Ritual Activities in the Classroom
Mark I. Wallace
Teaching Ritual August 1, 2007 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176452.003.0007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Interventions | Contemplative practices social fieldwork projects |
| Key points | Argues that taking a religion and ecology class into the woods after 9/11 produced unexpected rituals, and that the natural world created a liminal space in which students could stop, sense, feel, speak, and reflect in healing forms of shared communication; also reflects on the planned and unplanned risks of teaching such a class. |
Abstract
Abstract: This chapter discusses how fresh reactions to 9/11 were dealt with in the classroom. In a class on religion and ecology, a variety of contemplative practices and social fieldwork projects were used, but unexpected rituals were born when the class was taken into the woods. There the natural world created a liminal space in which the students were able to stop, sense, feel, speak, and reflect in healing forms of shared communication. The chapter describes the experience of taking risks with a religion class, those that are planned and also the challenge of those that are unplanned.