How can teachers be the change they wish to see in the world?

We’ll sit with this question as a group: in the full circle, in smaller breakouts, and in paired listening. You might explore, for example, how you relate to the idea of being an “agent of change,” what you notice in your body when you support change in others, or how you recognize change in your students and in your classes. There are no right answers, only what’s alive and present in you.

In embodied arts teaching, this shows up as an ongoing conversation: teachers and facilitators as people who support change through practice and presence, often at the intersection of personal work and collective or social change. That can feel like a calling and also like a weight. We’ll make space for both the sense of possibility and questions about responsibility and pressure. This circle is a chance to meet that conversation with your peers and explore what wants to be said.

• Session summary — March 5, 2026

  The circle opened with Jennie framing the Embodied Arts Teacher Circle as an open, inclusive space for teachers across practices to explore transformational learning. The format was 60 minutes on a theme followed by 30 minutes of open forum. The guiding question was How can teachers be the change they wish to see in the world? Jennie offered this from Gandhi: "We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do."

  Takeaways for teaching and life

  Change can be small and personal: practices like dancing for peace (or dancing alone), self-care, and putting yourself in a better place before you teach. It can also look like being a steady presence, holding space for students and clients without taking on their distress. Change doesn’t have to be effortful; it can be passive or organic (“wu wei,” going with the flow). Many in the room found it a relief to hear that not feeling fully “ready” to be an agent of change is OK, and that change need not match the scale of what’s wrong in the world; it can live in how we tend to ourselves and how we meet others.

  In small groups, the threads touched identity and pressure around “agent of change,” felt experience (active vs. passive), responsibility and recognition of change, and lineage. From that, two practical takeaways stood out: teaching without having all the answers or all the preparation is valid, and responding in the moment to one student’s needs is enough. Several people wished for more time in breakout rooms; conversations felt like they were just getting started.

  The pairs practice, Conscious Listening/Being, asked one person to have the floor (words, movement, or stillness) while the other held space without fixing, advising, or filling silence. The takeaway was how rare and useful it is to simply be with someone and how powerful it can be to witness another’s silence. One participant brought in Harper Lee: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it." (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960) – a lens teachers can carry into holding space and understanding students.

  The session closed with strong appreciation for the community being built. Suggestions for future circles: more time in small groups and a brief round of introductions in the large group so people can put names to faces before going into the theme.

• Further Reading & Listening

  Articles

  1. "Be the Change You Wish To See in the World" — Quote Investigator
  https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/10/23/be-change/

  Gandhi’s actual words name the body: "We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change." This piece clarifies the quote’s origin and how it was shortened over time. It grounds the circle’s question in the idea that change begins in our own embodied life.

  2. "Somatic Learning for Liberation: Engaging the Whole Person in Education" — Creative Praxis
  https://www.creativepraxis.org/post/somatic-learning-for-liberation-engaging-the-whole-person-in-education

  The article describes somatic learning as body-centered education: listening to the body, building awareness of sensation and emotion, and responding with intention through breath, movement, grounding, and reflection. It links that work to liberation and to change at the intersection of personal practice and collective or social change, speaking directly to embodied arts educators who want to "be the change" by teaching from the whole person.

  3. "What it means to ‘hold space’ for people, plus eight tips on how to do it well" — Heather Plett
  https://heatherplett.com/2015/03/hold-space/

  Heather Plett defines holding space as walking alongside another person without judging, fixing, or controlling the outcome, and offers eight practical tips (e.g. giving people permission to trust their intuition, keeping your ego out of it, creating a container for complex emotions). For teachers and facilitators, it supports "being the change" through how we show up: presence, listening, and willingness to not fill every silence.

  4. "Developing Your Classroom Presence" — Edutopia
  https://www.edutopia.org/article/developing-your-classroom-presence

  The piece defines teacher presence as alert awareness, receptivity, and connectedness to the individuals and the group. It links presence to authenticity, relationships, and confidence. Although it uses "classroom," the ideas apply to any teaching space—studio, lesson, or circle—and to "being the change" through the kind of embodied, attentive presence that participants can feel and learn from.

  Book

  1. Designing and Leading Life-Changing Workshops — Ken Nelson
  https://kripaluonlineshop.org/products/designing-and-leading-life-changing-workshops-pb

  A blueprint for leading workshops, trainings, and retreats that help participants learn, change, heal, and grow. Drawing on stories, science, and wisdom traditions, it covers designing interactive techniques that open the heart and inspire self-discovery, showing up as your authentic self, building trust for safe inquiry and dialogue, and igniting original thinking and group wisdom. Includes exercises, templates, worksheets, and checklists. Ken Nelson, PhD, is Kripalu Legacy Faculty and has offered workshops worldwide since 1975.

  YouTube Videos

  1. Prentis Hemphill — "The Story Being Told Through Our Collective Body"
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To2MIZmf_5c

  Prentis Hemphill explores how our collective body holds and tells stories—including trauma and healing—and how change happens in relationship, not only inside one person. The talk connects individual embodiment to collective transformation and healing justice, framing "being the change" as something we do with and through our bodies in connection with others.

  2. Rae Johnson — Keynote at the 2023 Race, Gender & Equity at Work Symposium
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5eyOa32gzA

  Rae Johnson speaks about using the body as the ground for sustainable activism and change: listening to the body, working with "somatic bandwidth," and practicing in ways that reduce burnout. The keynote gives a clear, practice-oriented frame for how educators and facilitators can "be the change" through embodied, body-based practice.

  Podcast Episodes

  1. "The Body Speaks: Rae Johnson on Reconnecting with Ourselves to Transform Society" — To the Best of Our Knowledge
  https://www.ttbook.org/interview/body-speaks-rae-johnson-reconnecting-ourselves-transform-society

  Rae Johnson argues that sustainable social change depends on reconnecting with our bodies, and that activist and educator burnout often comes from disconnecting from body and sensation. The episode is a short, accessible way to connect the circle’s question to embodied practice and sustainability.

  2. "Beyond the Sound — Mickey Wynne on Embodied Listening" — The Embodied Educator Podcast (Episode #57)
  https://theembodiededucator.nl/ (navigate to Episode #57)

  Host Liz Wientjes talks with musician and educator Mickey Wynne about how embodied listening shapes teaching, storytelling, and music—including relaxation, grounding, and a simple movement practice. The episode shows how "being the change" can look in arts-based teaching: through presence and listening with the whole body.