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.

Department dc:contributor.department

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Alderfer, Daya

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Miller, Jack

• embodied pedagogy
• koshas
• phenomenology
• teacher education
• teacher well-being
• yoga

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1807/149953

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/149953