Contemplative Institute for Teaching and Learning : Regenerative Practice for Earth, Soul, and Syllabus

The Contemplative Sciences Center and CTE are accepting applications for our week-long Contemplative Institute for Teaching and Learning: Regenerative Practice for Earth, Soul, and Syllabus. The Institute will be held June 5-9, 2023 at Sevenoaks Retreat Center in Madison County, VA.

Our calling for nature-connected experiences in the curriculum is an essential response to the interconnected environmental and mental health crises. This professional development retreat supports and creates community among instructors whose work intersects with environmental issues and/or who seek to integrate nature-connection practices in their teaching and personal lives. It offers an experiential, reflective, and equity-oriented framework to center nature-connection in support of academic learning objectives, the development of human consciousness, and student wellbeing. Institute facilitators bring a deep well of experiences including decades of college teaching, contemplative practice and pedagogy, trauma-therapy, nature play, environmental and social justice education, and embodied critical thinking.

Participants will experience, develop, and share concrete strategies for integrating nature-connection into the design or redesign of a course or assignment to support embodied critical thinking, foster creative expression, and deepen students’ appreciation for beyond-human environments and one another. In an intimate group of about 20 participants, we will explore how our pedagogy can support human and planetary flourishing, enhance our own wellbeing, and engage with pressing issues of our time.

• Registration fee: $250

• Room & Board (private room for four nights & all meals included): ~$800

• Room & Board (shared room for four nights & all meals included): ~$700

• Total participation cost: ~$950-$1050