Towards a contemplative approach to ethnography and education: an ethnography of a contemplative classroom at a North American university

ABSTRACT This paper gives an ethnographic account of a contemplative class at an elite university in the US. The contemplative class, which incorporates mindfulness-based practices, took on the function of unravelling time, and of challenging the credit-oriented culture of the university. The opening up of time and credits allows for a safe communal space to explore ‘vulnerability’ and ‘authenticity’. As the semester progressed, ‘vulnerability’ and ‘authenticity’ came to be recognised as ‘skills’ to be performed in the class among some students. The conundrum is that these terms are grasped through experience, as relational, non-dualistic ways of being. An ethnographic account of a contemplative class thus begins and ends with the author’s own experience of ontological transformations through contemplative practice. The paper leaves open the question of how a contemplative approach to ethnography might be construed.