CONTEMPLATIVE INQUIRY AND HOLISTIC EDUCATION SIG

The Contemplative Inquiry and Holistic Education (CIHE) Special Interest Group is concerned with the development and integration of learners’ mind, body, and spirit through holistic means.  Like teaching, learning is a holistic endeavor that is most powerful when multiple aspects of the human being – cognitive, emotional, intuitive, physical, social, spiritual, and ethical – work together.

 The SIG’s aims relate to:

(a) exploring and demonstrating the value of holistic education in settings around the world;

(b) examining pedagogies for inner growth and development through a combination of right-brained and left-brained approaches, such as meditation, qigong, tai chi, yoga, movement, music, dance, storytelling, the visual arts, and reflective writing (e.g., diaries, journals, essays, and poetry), instead of just the left-brained, standardized-testing approach;

(c) studying the use of creative and multidisciplinary forms of holistic education that encourage learners to become engaged in society;

(d) comparing educational systems in different parts of the world in terms of how well and how often they engage learners in holistic learning;

(e) determining the factors that contribute to success in holistic education in an international perspective;

(f) identifying the key aspects in conducting research related to holistic education; and

(g) learning about the many ways (e.g., autobiographical narratives, poetry, artistic expression, and meditation-based processes) contemplative inquiry can contribute to such research in areas around the world.

The SIG’s focus is central to an understanding of the inner self, and the contemplative research methodologies it promotes are necessary for comparative and international education.

2024-2025

• Jinting Wu, State University of New York – University at Buffalo, USA: Co-Chair. jintingw@gmail.com 
• Molly Dunn: Co-Chair. msd818@hotmail.com 
• Yishin Khoo, University of Windsor, Canada: Communications Officer. yishin.khoo@gmail.com 
• Tanya Kramer, North Dakota State University, USA: Newsletter. tanya.m.kramer@ndsu.edu 
• Virginia Gomes, University of Maryland, USA: Newsletter. vigomes@umd.edu 
• Sarah Kistner, University of Maryland, College Park, USA: Secretary/Treasurer. sarahkistner93@gmail.com
• Isabel Tejada-Sánchez, Los Andes University (Colombia): Communications Officer. mi.tejada10@uniandes.edu.co 

2023-2024

• Jinting Wu, State University of New York – University at Buffalo, USA: Co-Chair.
• Yishin Khoo, University of Windsor, Canada: Co-Chair, Program Chair/Unit Planner.
• Denise McHugh, University of Maryland: Secretary/Treasurer.
• Tanya Kramer, North Dakota State University, USA.
• Virginia Gomes, University of Maryland, USA.

Email CIES.CIHE.SIG@gmail.com