This volume presents a scholarly investigation of the ways educators engage in artistic and contemplative practices and why this matters in education. Exploring artistic disciplines such as dance, drama, visual art, performative autoethnography, music, and writing, this book creates respectful spaces for multiple artistic practices and spiritual traditions.

1. Introduction Susan Walsh, Barbara Bickel, and Carl Leggo 2. Lectio Divina: An Invitation To Readers Kerri Mesner, Barbara Bickel, and Susan Walsh 3. Lectio One 4. Writing Witness Consciousness Susan Walsh and Heeson Bai 5. Lectio Two 6. To See, To Know, To Shape, To Show: The Path of an Indigenous Artist Vicki Kelly 7. Lectio Three 8. Companions with Mystery: Art, Spirit and the Ecstatic Celeste Snowber and Barbara Bickel 9. Lectio Four 10. Wrestling with the Angels of Ambiguity: Queer Paths in Contemplative Activism Kerri Mesner 11. Lectio Five 12. Woman Overboard: Pedagogical Moments of Performative Inquiry Lynn Fels 13. Lectio Six 14. Improvising Vulnerability Through Freestyle Rap Inquiry Sean Park and Shahar Rabi 15. Lectio Seven 16. Loving Language: A Poet's Vocation & Vision
Carl Leggo 17. Closing Lectio

Susan Walsh is a writer/poet and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada. Her research involves contemplation, innovative forms of writing, and various artistic practices. Her publications appear in venues such as Qualitative Inquiry, Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), and Teaching and teacher Education.

Barbara Bickel is an artist and Associate Professor of art education and Director of women, gender & sexuality studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA. Her arts-based research appears in venues such as Journal of Arts and Community, Visual Arts Research, and Journal of Motherhood Initiatives, and her art has been exhibited across North America.

Carl Leggo is a poet and Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His books include: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill; View from My Mother's House; Come-By-Chance; Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom; and Sailing in a Concrete Boat: A Teacher's Journey.