Building warmth sculpture in the student-teacher relationship: Goethean observation and contemplative practice in an action research inquiry

Abstract

Through an action research approach, this dissertation focuses on the central role of interpersonal warmth in the teacher and student relationship. The heart of its inquiry is based on data gathered by a set of teachers working collaboratively as co-researchers in their own classrooms. These individuals inquired into the potential of the teacher and student relationship to become a vehicle for transformation in teacher and student effectiveness, fulfillment, and in academic and social success. They investigated the extent to which student and teacher can experience inner emancipation from the constraints of an increasingly cold system where success is too often based solely on performance metrics, with curriculum and human connection accordingly influenced. The co-researchers integrated a set of contemplative exercises into their classroom and teaching practice for a period of twelve weeks as a way to build warmer pedagogical connections. The exercises were based on Goethe’s three step phenomenological plant observations as modified through the work of Jochen Bochemuhl and informed by the social artistry of Joseph Beuys, the contemplative inquiry of Arthur Zajonc, and the pedagogical indications of Rudolf Steiner. The research crystallizes a marriage of contemplative practices with Goethean phenomenological observation. Detailed findings are informed by experiences of co-researchers’ “new organs of perception” which allowed for better seeing, hearing, and sensing the needs of their students. A process model of warmth sculpture practice, grounded in the experience of the co-researchers, is offered as a scholarly contribution with a set of observational and contemplative exercises offered as the practice contribution. The dissertation contributes four original elements to the literature and practice of teaching: (a) a theoretical framework for the practice of warmth sculpture that evolved in phases and that is grounded in data collected by co-researchers; (b) a model of warmth sculpture practice that unfolds in four steps; (c) findings from rich examples of the transformative possibilities that can emerge in the classroom from this practice and: (d) a first person action research account that uniquely situates the seminal impulse at the heart of this exploration.