Metaphors in yoga education research

This chapter draws together three seemingly distinct and disparate traditions namely metaphor, educational research and Yoga philosophy and examples how such a synthesis can provide new understanding or appreciation of these fields. As this chapter will demonstrate, however, these traditions have been and remain closely linked. This chapter refers to a qualitative study on how Yoga teachers incorporate the notions of spirituality within their Yoga teacher trainings. Yoga philosophy and its education have utilised metaphor to explain its spiritual underpinnings for a long time. This chapter initially discusses the concept of metaphor and then provides examples of its use within the literature of Yoga. Then, the research project is described. Finally an ancient Hindu model which views the individual as a series of interconnected and interdependent characteristics will be utilised as a metaphor to help provide both a pathway to educate novice Yoga teachers as well as a way to inform the analysis interview data

Ravilious Wood Engravings (Book Review)

This is a book review of Ravilious Wood Engravings, James Russell (author), Tim Mainstone (editor), Norfolk, UK: The Mainstone Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-0957666559. Dimensions: 24.6 × 18.9 cms. RRP £20.0

Understanding modern Yoga pedagogy and curriculum: exploring sense-making by senior Western Yoga teacher-trainers

This study explored senior Western Yoga teacher-trainers’ sense-making in the context of her or his Modern Yoga teacher-training programs. Through senior Western Yoga teacher-trainers’ sense-making of her or his interpretations and applications of non-Western Yoga philosophies and traditions, meaning-making was generated. Sense-making here denotes the participants’ understandings, while meaning-making refers to the understandings that I generated as the researcher. The term Modern Yoga is used in this study to represent a Western understanding and application of non-Western Yoga philosophies and traditions that are referred to here as Premodern Yoga. The aim of this research was to construct a greater understanding and appreciation of senior Western Yoga teacher-trainers’ considerations when conceptualising, planning and implementing Yoga teacher-training. The research questions focused upon the senior Western Yoga teacher-trainers’ spiritual-ethical reflections and her or his pedagogical and curriculum priorities. This research contributes significantly to the body of scholarship related to the pedagogical and curriculum world of Yoga teacher-training and Yoga teaching. In this trans-philosophical, transnational and transcultural research project, I have sought to disrupt various dichotomous understandings. These binaries were considered under two broader umbrella binaries: East-West and Mind-Body. I drew upon the Sanskrit language to construct neologisms to provide me with a scaffold with which to disrupt the limitations and preferential treatment of either/or thinking of Western and non-Western philosophies and meaning-making, while revealing contextually rich, non-binaristic meaning-making. These neologisms represent an intended important contribution to theoretical and methodological knowledge. The conceptualising and methodological application of these research neologisms afford researchers an insight into re-appreciating traditional research nomenclature. In this study, face-to-face interviews were conducted in Australia and the United States of America with seven senior Western Yoga teacher-trainers during two dedicated excursions. With the intention of disrupting an East-West binary thinking, I constructed a contextually derived interpretation of narrative research that I have called the citta-kosha-narrative-restructuring model. This model draws upon the Eastern Yogic construct of kosha and a Western academic way of knowing via narrative research. The kosha model represents the integral, interconnected and interpermeating understanding of the human body. Consequently, this citta-kosha-narrative-re-structuring explored the interview transcripts through five lenses: body, energy, mind, intellectual discernment and spiritual consciousness. The citta-kosha-narrative-re-structuring model represents a further contribution to theoretical and methodological knowledge. Considering the axiological nature of Yoga and Yoga teaching, the study emphasised ethical considerations and decision-making. Specific compounded Sanskrit terms were used to construct more nuanced, contextually specific ethical deliberations for this study. The emphasis on axiology and ethical considerations and decision-making, and the construction of neologisms to reflect this emphasis, represent a contribution to theoretical and methodological knowledge. The conceptualising and operationalising of the six new terms for ethical deliberation demonstrate the possibility of reconsidering ethical considerations in research. The findings from this research provide new theoretical insights into the spiritual-ethical considerations of Western Modern Yoga teacher-trainers, highlighting that, although cultural context and nomenclature have shifted from those of Premodern Yoga teachers, the practice and instruction of Yoga still revolve around consciousness development and the union of perceived disconnections. This significant finding supports the argument that Modern Yoga, although it has been influenced by transnational, transcultural, trans-philosophical and syncretic forces, is still perceived and taught as a spiritual practice. Further, the study identified new theoretical and practice-based insights regarding the participants’ pedagogical and curricular priorities. The findings included the pedagogical importance of language considerations, oration and physical demonstration; the curriculum priorities of developing intention, facilitating reflexivity and creating an embodied, self-discerning Yoga practice; and the importance of incorporating other knowledge in Yoga teacher-training programs. These significant insights provide foundational understandings for future academic discourse in the field of Yoga pedagogy and curriculum design. In summary, this study has drawn upon Eastern philosophical and theoretical knowledge to interpret senior Western teacher-trainers’ understanding and application of an Eastern Spiritual tradition. Through a trans-philosophical lens, key insights surrounding the pedagogical and curricular priorities of Modern Yoga teacher-training have been established. The challenging of many previously unconsidered binary constructs has effectively rendered Modern Yoga’s pedagogical and curriculum considerations and concerns more academically responsive and theoretically informed. The construction and application of Sanskrit ethical neologisms function as both an ethical barometer for researcher trustworthiness and an analytical data lens, demonstrating the benefit of this trans-philosophical theoretical and methodological approach. The utilisation of the Eastern Yoga kosha model, transposed into an analytical narrative research model, highlights the theoretical and methodological effectiveness of merging Eastern and Western knowledge. The successful construction and application of the Sanskrit neologisms and the citta-kosha-narrative-restructuring framework reinforce the study’s efficacy and potential for innovation for future trans-philosophical research

Everybody Counts: A Counting Story from 0 to 7.5 Billion (Book Review)

This is a book review of Everybody Counts: A Counting Story from 0 to 7.5 Billion by Kristin Roskifte, Wide Eyed Editions, Illustrated Edition, 2020. ISBN: 9780711245235. 64 pages, 221mm x 305mm. RRP £12.9

Walk, See, Create: Google-Mapping Collaboration

Walking is integral to creative thought and practice, as highlighted by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Rebecca Solnit. Both Graphic Design and Illustration as subjects encourage students and practitioners to observe the world around us in order to make informed comment. This belief that locative practice is beneficial to students has led to the development of digital mapmaking workshops by the University of Worcester Graphics and Illustration departments. These experimental ‘Psychogeographic’ mapping workshops aim to encourage exploration of the city of Worcester and the surrounding area. In doing so, students record their thoughts and observations through drawing, photography, film and writing. Mapping is the main objective of these walks; the entire groups’ recordings being linked to online maps creating a unique collaborative response to the environment, documenting individual discoveries and routes that have been taken whilst exploring the city. This presentation will reflect on these early project outcomes and discuss the application of this activity in further teaching and learning activities, residencies and potential partnerships with organisations such as the Worcestershire Canal Ring and local schools, creating maps that aim to promote creative events and encourage participation within the wider community. Keywords: Maps, Collaboration, Partnerships, Illustration, Graphic Design, Locative Research, Locative Medi

Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a Mode of Communicating Fact, Fiction and Feeling

Communicating thoughts, facts and narratives through visual devices such as allegory or symbolism was fundamental to early map making and this remains the case with contemporary illustration. Drawing was employed then as a way of describing historic narratives (fact and folklore) through the convenience of a drawn symbol or character. The map creators were visionaries, depicting known discoveries and anticipating what existed beyond the agreed boundaries. As we now have photographic and virtual reality maps at our disposal, how can illustration develop the language of what a map is and can be? How can we break the rules of map design and yet still communicate the idea of a sense of place with the aim to inform, excite and/or educate the ‘traveller’? As Illustrators we need to question the purpose of creating a ‘map’: what do we want to communicate and is representational image making the only way to present information of a location? Is creating a more personal interpretation a form of cartouche, reminiscent of elements within the Hereford Mappa Mundi and maps of Blaeu, and can this improve/hinder the communicative aspect of the map? Looking at a variety of historical and contemporary illustrated maps and artists (such as Grayson Perry), who track their journeys through drawing, both conventional journeys and emotional, I will aim to prove that the illustrated map is not mere decoration but is a visual language providing an allegorical response to tangible places and personal feelings

Tales from the Road: Stories Heard by a Pilgrim (maybe).

Katherine Lack introduces her book, The Cockleshell Pilgrim, A Medieval Journey to Compostela as a “…reconstruction of one man’s attempt to walk from England to Spain, to worship at the shrine of St James at Compostela.” The remains of the man, who Lack suggests was called Robert Sutton, were accidently uncovered in Worcester Cathedral in 1986. These bones were accompanied by the artefacts of a pilgrim and a cockleshell. This object is associated with the Way of St James or El Camino in Spain. If the ‘Cockleshell Pilgrim’ walked to Santiago de Compostela, he would have covered over 1000 miles, travelling through different kingdoms, each with its own beliefs and customs, landscape and climate. At each resting place, stories would be shared with other travellers. Those fireside retellings of miracles, heroes and monsters could have the power to inspire, amuse and terrify the weary traveller. I am researching this journey, drawing the different landscapes through which he passed and the stories, myths and folktales that he may have encountered. This is a process of mapping a medieval pilgrimage by illustrating the different narratives heard whilst on the road. Lack describes her written account in the following way, “The framework, in the other words is ‘fact’, the journey is a ‘fiction’.” I am using the same formula with my own artwork and allowing the characters from these tales to inhabit the ‘real’ world experienced by Sutton. By taking influence from Magic Realism writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Paulo Coelho, I aim to create work that communicates the fear and superstition that would have been encountered whilst on a pilgrimage

Empirical relations for the accurate estimation of stellar masses and radii

In this work, we have taken advantage of the most recent accurate stellar characterizations carried out using asteroseismology, eclipsing binaries and interferometry to evaluate a comprehensive set of empirical relations for the estimation of stellar masses and radii. We have gathered a total of 934 stars -- of which around two-thirds are on the Main Sequence -- that are characterized with different levels of precision, most of them having estimates of M, R, Teff, L, g, density, and [Fe/H]. We have deliberately used a heterogeneous sample (in terms of characterizing techniques and spectroscopic types) to reduce the influence of possible biases coming from the observation, reduction, and analysis methods used to obtain the stellar parameters. We have studied a total of 576 linear combinations of Teff, L, g, density, and [Fe/H] (and their logarithms) to be used as independent variables to estimate M or R. We have used an error-in-variables linear regression algorithm to extract the relations and to ensure the fair treatment of the uncertainties. We present a total of 38 new or revised relations that have an adj-R2 regression statistic higher than 0.85, and a relative accuracy and precision better than 10% for almost all the cases. The relations cover almost all the possible combinations of observables, ensuring that, whatever list of observables is available, there is at least one relation for estimating the stellar mass and radius.Comment: 49 Pages, 17 figures, 11 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

Davies, Andy R. (2020) The Fundamentals of Illustration (Book Review). The Association of Illustrators' Blog

This is a book review of The Fundamentals of Illustration (Third Edition)by Lawrence Zeegan, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, September 2020. ISBN: 9781474240390. 176 pages, 230 x 200 mmm. RRP £26.9