United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Safety and Deep Listening in a Divided Culture
Ann Merck MacLellan, Ph.D., Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland)
Peter Becskehazy, M.A., Pima Community College (Arizona)
Anne Browning-Aiken, Ph.D., Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland)
2021-2022
Introduction:
You are a part of a collegewide effort to increase access to education and empower students
through "open pedagogy." Open pedagogy is a "free access" educational practice that places you
- the student - at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative
learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in
our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a
renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your
community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Sociology, Political Science and
Anthropology to achieve SDG #16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. With a focus on 17.1517.17: Practices to support conflict mediation and support stakeholders partnerships and respect
for leadership.
Learning Objectives:
Engaging students in contemplative practices to learn how they can use them to support their
studies and evaluate the effectiveness of contemplative practices on national and international
governmental bodies and NGOs in dealing with violence and injustice in a challenging and
changing world impacted by climate change.
Purpose/Rationale:
This active learning practice is designed to improve your research skills, increase global
knowledge on practices used to support calm and peaceful community connections and improve
social justice in our community. This research and approach to intra and interpersonal conflict can

reset and refocus people’s attention within a politically divided culture on issues spawned by the
impact of climate change that can lead to political change.

Instructions:
Students will begin their preparation for this assignment by viewing the following brief video on
divisive politics and the need for institutions to consider contemplative practices toward solutions
in our modern world of ecological uncertainty and divisive politics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNjnd6L7paE.
Students will research the impact of South East Asian contemplative culture as an integral
component of SE Asian countries’ social and intellectual fabric. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist
monk from Vietnam who has also influenced contemplative thought in other parts of the world
with majority religions, other than Buddhist, including Christianity, and even secular sectors.
Students will produce an annotated bibliography on peer reviewed research on the impact of the
use of mindfulness practices on the reduction of anxiety and depression as well as intra and
interpersonal conflict mediation.Students will read and discuss the book, Fear: Essential Wisdom
for Getting Through the Storm, emphasizing the chapter entitled Transforming the Fear Around
Us (pp.91-101) and Chapter 7, Contemplative Senses: Deep Listening and Beholding in
Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and
Learning by Daniel Barbezat and Mirabai Bush (2014).Students will produce a 4-6 page
annotated bibliography on research supporting the use of mindfulness practices (minimum of 5
credible sources) and provide their feedback on these practices as effective strategies for
addressing the divisive “culture of fear” (T.N. Hanh, 2012) after engaging in the evidence-based
practices of deep listening and beholding, and other practices from the Hanh book throughout the
term.

Format Requirements:
Students will submit the annotated bibliography on their research, and can determine whether
they will produce their own podcast, Powerpoint, FlipGrid, Google Slides, Prezi, etc. The
presentation should be between 3-5 minutes.

Safety and Deep Listening in a Divided Culture is licensed by Ann Merck MacLellan, Ph.D.,
Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland); Peter Becskehazy, M.A., Pima Community
College (Arizona); and Anne Browning-Aiken, Ph.D., Community College of Baltimore County
(Maryland) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC)