The Embodied Classroom: Exploring the Effects of Yoga on Teachers' Well-being and Pedagogy
This dissertation explores the effects of yoga on teachers’ well-being and pedagogy, guided by the central research question: What are the effects of yoga on a teacher’s well-being and pedagogy? In response to widespread discourses of teacher burnout, this research foregrounds inner awareness as both process and outcome, examining how yoga, understood as a holistic and embodied practice, can support teachers in living, teaching, and relating with greater presence. Framed through the koshas- five layers of being encompassing the physical, energetic, mental-emotional, intuitive, and spiritual, this study draws on phenomenological interviews, kosha-guided journaling, and body mapping with four international school educators. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, embodied inquiry, and thematic coding. Findings reveal that awareness served as a mediating force across all dimensions of well-being, fostering interoceptive sensitivity, emotional regulation, and the ability to reframe stressors. These shifts deepened self-efficacy, boundaries, and compassionate classroom engagement. Breath awareness and intuition anchored pedagogical presence, while self-compassion supported relational teaching rooted in empathy and care. This study reimagines well-being as a dynamic, embodied process intimately tied to the inner lives of teachers. By making visible the often-invisible dimensions of teachers’ emotional, spiritual, and somatic realities, it calls for teacher education that centers care, presence, and the fullness of human experience.
embodied pedagogy, koshas, phenomenology, teacher education, teacher well-being, yoga
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