The Future of Education

University teachers across the globe are preparing their students for their future roles within an unknown future society. Embedding meditative practices within the curriculum design and delivery for university modules can better help university teachers find agency and being within their own professional roles in their institutions. It can also better help their students prepare for the future unknown by giving them direct and experiential opportunities to work with their own agency and being. There has been much research into the benefits of meditative and contemplative practices, and in recent years, this research has broadened its scope into Higher Education Pedagogy (HEP), particularly in the field of education and social science research, predominantly, but not exclusively, in North America. University modules centred on meditative and various other contemplative practices already exist in various forms and are becoming increasingly more common. This university module, a credit-bearing university meditation module that is geared towards student professional and personal development, nonetheless, adopts a pedagogical approach unlike any other within the Higher Education Institution (HEI) and also within the China context.

This conference paper charts the progress of an on-going action research study at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China-based campus. The research study aims are two-fold: to provide educators with the agency to explore an alternative and innovative mode of being an university educator in modern society, as well as to provide our students with the agency to explore alternative and innovative modes of working with their own agency and being in modern society.