Integrating contemplative pedagogy and anti-oppressive pedagogy in geography higher education classrooms.

Geographers have long advocated for decolonizing geographic research and curriculum to produce forms of anti-oppressive knowledge and learning. While these calls have become more prominent in recent years, these conversations are rarely translated into a reflection on pedagogy and how we integrate anti-oppressive teaching in the classroom. This paper argues that introducing contemplative pedagogy into our classrooms presents one step toward teaching and producing anti-oppressive geographic knowledge. Anti-oppressive teaching and learning requires challenging oppressive forms of knowledge and asks that students and instructors develop self-reflexivity, reflect on their privilege, and learn to see the world through the experiences of others. Contemplative pedagogy helps both students and instructors engage more deeply with these challenging tasks by equipping students to reflect on their own experiences and positionalities and integrate contradictory and challenging viewpoints. I argue that by incorporating contemplative pedagogy and mindfulness into geography classrooms, both instructors and students will have a set of tools with which to transform the learning experience and provide students with the skills to productively engage in these difficult, but necessary, conversations around issues of privilege, colonialism, injustice, racism, and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]