Yesterday I also watched the last Lilly Online Conference recording from the Universal Design and & Design Equity section by Deanna House from the University of Nebraska Omaha. House used essay questions for a computer informations and systems management course and took full advantage of the video integration. Using the Canvas LMS and video capture, students had the option to explain their reasoning on camera. House described the experience and showed two examples from one student. It is neat to see and hear students explaining their thought processes. This was a graduate-level course, I believe, and the exams were formatted to include several essay and reflection-type questions.
Today I began watching sessions from the Resiliency section of the recorded Lilly Online Conference. The first one was by Jacquelyn Lee from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Lee spoke about “Education for Emotional Rigor: The Pedagogy of Mindful Self-Care.” Lee began with an outline and session outcomes that included defining emotional rigor and mindful self-care. Lee mentioned that “meaningful learning will involve uncomfortable emotions and emotionally stretching experiences and contexts.” Lee then asked: “Does our pedagogy account for the full human experience that is required when we are learning?” Lee defined emotional rigor as: “a characteristic to describe circumstances or contexts that challenge our emotional bandwidth; process that invites us to engage by feeling deeply and fully, calls upon us to skillfully and constructively work with our emotions and their nuance and contradictions… involves risk-taking, and offers opportunity for increased consciousness, reflection, and growth ” (Lee, 2020). Lee’s work revolves around the work of Paul and Elder, and Lee explored the concept of emotional humility and the spectrum of human emotions. Emotional courage, Lee explained, is the allowance of “the spectrum of emotional experiences.” Then, Lee encouraged us to consider emotional empathy, and the notion of self-empathy, self-compassion, and the “capacity to feel alongside another” citing a recent publication Lee, 2021. I had never heard about emotional autonomy, and Lee defined it as our capacity to recognize and experience one’s emotions, independent of the influence of others! I know emotional autonomy has been relevant to my experiences this year… Emotional perseverance, Lee explained, is the capacity to navigate uncomfortable emotions while confidence in emotion is acknowledging that emotions are temporary and useful for us. Finally, Lee cited the work of Linehan 1993 to talk about wise-mindedness as the capacity to integrate intellect and emotions into one’s being.
Lee explained mindful self-care as bringing together experience (our thoughts, feelings, sensations), the relationship to experience (mindfulness, attention, acceptance, attitude), and the response to the experience (conscious action, personal and professional self-care, behavior). Mindfulness according to Lee is about “paying attention intentionally to what is happening right now in the mind and the body… in a way that we are trying to accept the truth of the experience.” Importantly, this is done with an attitude of non-judgement and in a way that is not reactive. Lee and Miller (2013) designed a structure of support with strategies for self-care. Lee explained that Professional Self-Care includes effective practices like workload and time management, attention to professional role, attention to reactions to work, professional social support/self-advocacy, professional development, and revitalization and generation of energy. This really resonated with me as I have struggled with this and my own feelings this past year. The last strategy was to consider what activities revitalize and generate energy that can help cope with challenges. Lee encouraged educators to name emotional rigor in class and professional spaces, normalize and frame it as a helpful necessary part of learning, and share personal experiences. Lee brought up the book by Oren Sofer on mindful communication that I am now curious about! The three strategies were to lead with presence, come from a place of curiosity and care, and focus on what matters.
For assignments, Lee suggested scaffolding them to include time for pausing, reflecting, and communicating about emotional rigor. Also, design assignments with a self-care plan, for example. Lee mentioned that there are two areas of scholarship that focus on mindfulness: mindfulness-based pedagogy and contemplative pedagogy. Lee ended with a grounding practice activity: name 5 things you see with your sense of sight; 4 things you feel with your sense of touch; 3 things you hear with your sense of hearing; 2 things that you smell with your sense of smell… and 1 thing you taste with your sense of taste. While Lee works with students who will work or are working in the helping professions, these practices and considerations are important in the courses I teach. I want to be true to my feelings and honor and respect those of participants in our shared space.
