Aikido as Transformative and Embodied Pedagogy

Drawing on the authors lifelong practice in the non-competitive and defensive Japanese art of Aikido, this book examines education as self-cultivation, from a Japanese philosophy (e.g. Buddhist) perspective. Contemplative practices, such as secular mindfulness meditation, are being increasingly integrated into pedagogical settings to enhance social and emotional learning and well-being and to address stress-induced overwhelm due to increased pressures on the education system and its constituents. The chapters in this book explore the various ways, through the lens of this non-violent relational art of Aikido, that pedagogy is always something being practiced (on the level of psychological, somatic and emotional registers) and thus holding potential for transformation into being more relational, ecological-minded, and reflecting more embodied attunement. Positioning education as a practice, one of self-discovery, the author argues that one can approach personal development as engaging in a spiritual process of integrating mind and body towards full presence of being and existence.

Michael A. Gordon is a sessional instructor and award-winning scholar in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, Canada, and a 6th Dan Aikido teacher with an autonomous organization also based in Canada. He writes and presents internationally on a range of issues related to `spiritual psychology.¿ He is also owner and Clinical Director of Mindful You Therapy Center in Vancouver, Canada, specializing in adult/couples psychological counseling, trauma recovery (EMDR), psychospiritual development, and mind/body integration.

1. Introduction: Practice as Transformative Wholeness.- 2. Teacher as Healer: Animating the Ecological Self Through Holistic, Engaged Pedagogy.- 3. Awakening to Wholeness: Aikado as an Embodied Praxis of Intersubjectivity.- 4. Moto-Morphosis: The Gestalt of Aikido and Psychotherapy, and Motorcycling As 'Way'.- 5. The Way of the Classroom: Aikado as Transformative and Embodied Pedagogy.- 6. Conclusion/Looking Back, Looking Ahead.-