"This volume presents a scholarly investigation of the ways educators engage in artistic and contemplative practices -- and why this matters in education. Arts-based learning and inquiry can function as a powerful catalyst for change by allowing spiritual practices to be present within educational settings, but too often the relationship between art, education and spirituality is ignored. Exploring artistic disciplines such as dance, drama, visual art, music, and writing, and forms such as writing-witnessing, freestyle rap, queer performative autoethnograph, and poetic imagination, this book develops a transformational educational paradigm. Its unique integration of spirituality in and through the arts addresses the contemplative needs of learners and educators in diverse educational and community settings"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Lectio divina : an invitation to readers / Kerri Mesner, Barbara Bickel, and Susan Walsh -- Lectio One -- Writing witness consciousness / Susan Walsh and Heeson Bai -- Lectio Two -- To see, to know, to shape, to show : the path of an indigenous artist / Vicki Kelly -- Lectio Three -- Companions with mystery : art, spirit and the ecstatic / Celeste Snowber and Barbara Bickel -- Lectio Four -- Wrestling with the angels of ambiguity : queer paths in contemplative activism / Kerri Mesner -- Lectio Five -- Woman overboard : pedagogical moments of performative inquiry / Lynn Fels -- Lectio Six -- Improvising vulnerability through freestyle rap inquiry / Sean Park and Shahar Rabi -- Lectio Seven -- Loving language : a poet's vocation and vision / Carl Leggo -- Closing Lectio.