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2019/20 Featured Scholar awarded to Beth Dorman
The classroom of the 21st Century can be complex and challenging, with the advent of technology in every lesson and student’s pocket, and the demanding social pressures on today’s youth. Teachers have become more than just educators; they’re social, emotional, and equity guides for their students, who were born into a multicultural, tech-centric world that isn’t always easy to navigate.
One of the nation’s leading researchers and an internationally recognized scholar in this new landscape for educators is Associate Professor Beth Dorman, Ph.D. For her contributions to advancing the field of teacher education and her scholarly work completed while at Fort Lewis College, she is the 2019-20 Featured Scholar.
For the last ten years, Dorman has been a thought leader in contemplative education and the practice of weaving mindfulness into the classroom, especially in diverse contexts. Contemplative practices, like meditation, journaling, mindful dialogue, breath awareness, silence, close reading, mindful movement, and the arts can center students, and teachers, so that they are more present, connected to the inner dimensions of their lives, and open to learning from multiple perspectives.
“The complexity of being a teacher has absolutely evolved throughout the decades I have worked in education,” says Dorman. “In addition to rigorously preparing students to master content standards through engaging, culturally inclusive pedagogy, classroom teachers are expected to actively cultivate the social and emotional competencies of their students, so that young people have the skills and dispositions to thrive in and respond to the complexities of life in the 21st Century.”
Dorman added that since contemporary teachers are expected to foster their students’ social-emotional skills, and be able to reach and successfully teach students from a variety of cultural backgrounds, they themselves need to have well-developed levels of social, emotional, and cultural competence. These include but are not limited to self-awareness, self-regulation, and relational skills, all of which can result in more compassionate, constructive communication.
The intersection of contemplative education with social justice education has connected Dorman to FLC’s mission to serve diverse students and foster holistic well-being. While she is preparing her students to be future teachers in diverse classrooms, she herself regularly engages in contemplative practices and ongoing study in order to create a reflective, inclusive learning environment for her students. She is also a certified mindfulness teacher.
“I implement contemplative pedagogies as a way for students to work with content actively and holistically. They serve as a mode of inquiry and a vehicle for critical thinking, deep reflection, and meaning-making. They help students become aware of and manage emotions and develop teaching approaches that reflect their authenticity.”
“Prospective and current teachers need to engage in experiences that prepare them to effectively teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Part of this is investigating and challenging biases with fierce compassion and cultivating dispositions and habits which have the potential to further social change. These focus points position students for a life in which they have tools to maintain their own well-being, and take actions towards social justice and equity,” she says.
Outside of the classroom, Dorman’s scholarship has been recognized nationally and internationally. She regularly presents and publishes papers on her teacher education studies, including a 2015 article that won a national award from the American Association of Teaching and Curriculum. She was also selected as a 2019 Senior Research Investigator by the international Mind & Life organization. In 2018 she authored chapters in and co-edited a three-volume book series entitled Contemplative Practices, Pedagogy, and Research in Education, which has received worldwide attention as the relevance of this new area of scholarship increases. The first book, Cultivating A Culture of Learning, presents concrete examples of how to integrate contemplative practices in education courses and programs; the second book, Impacting Teaching and Learning, features current research on the impacts of contemplative practices and pedagogy in education; and the third book, The Teaching Self, focuses on educators’ first-person experiences with contemplative practices that honor, support, and deepen awareness of “the self who teaches.”
Dorman has been instrumental in launching FLC’s second graduate program, the Master of Arts in Education: Teacher Licensure, drawing from her past experiences designing and teaching in other Colorado graduate teacher preparation programs that also aimed to bridge theory and practice. Prior to FLC, she co-developed and taught in the Expeditionary Learning Teacher Preparation Program, the Boettcher Teacher Residency (now the Public Education & Business Coalition Teacher Residency), and a similar graduate program at Regis University in Denver. Since arriving to FLC in 2013, Dorman has found strong support and grant funding to continue her learning and development as a scholar and teacher.
“Several years ago, we had a faculty retreat that encouraged us to revamp our syllabi and course activities to focus on what really matters most in our teaching,” says Dorman. “That had a significant impact on me and empowered and motivated me to prioritize the development of social-emotional competence, authenticity, and cultural awareness in all of my courses, while still guiding students to meet the various course outcomes and teacher standards.”
Dorman began teaching more than 30 years ago, contributing two decades worth of foundational and pioneering research in her fields. It was in 1988, as a Peace Corps volunteer and brand new teacher in Chad, Central Africa, that she had her first opportunity to coordinate professional learning conversations among other educators.
“These collaborative and stimulating conversations with my Chadian colleagues planted a seed in terms of my interest in teacher development,” says Dorman. “Just getting together to talk about pedagogy and our approaches to stimulating students’ engagement with our respective disciplines felt like such a generative learning opportunity.”
That experience set the course for Dorman, and her years of service and research since have greatly affected classrooms across the United States. Dorman’s next endeavor is a current yearlong sabbatical project to deepen her expertise and commitments to making positive change in the world through contemplative, social justice education, including exploring how the FLC teacher licensure programs are building prospective students’ social-emotional competence and preparing them for culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.