Who Am I When I Am Teaching? Self in Yoga Practice

Authors

Krzysztof T. Konecki, University of LodzFollow

Abstract

The paper shows the situational transitions between the different identities of a teacher in hatha yoga practice: teacher, instructor, trainee, student, and researcher. The analysis is based on self-reports of my feelings about practicing and teaching hatha yoga. The explication is based on the self-observation of my lived experiences and the observation of interactions with hatha yoga session participants. The self emerges from the interactions or lack of interactions. Sometimes I am a participant, sometimes an instructor, and sometimes a student, even in the same yoga session. I analyze my self-reports using the first-person perspective and third-person mode. There are also descriptions of joint knowledge production with research collaborators who comment and give their insight by writing contemplative memos for me as the principal investigator and yoga teacher about my behaviors and identity.

Keywords

first-person perspective, self-observation, self-analysis, mind, body feelings, emotions, teaching hatha yoga, contemplative studies

Author Bio(s)

Krzysztof T. Konecki is a full professor at the faculty of economics and sociology, University of Lodz. His interests lie in qualitative sociology, symbolic interactionism, grounded theory, the methodology of social sciences, visual sociology, human-animal relationships, and contemplative studies. He is the editor-in-chief of Qualitative Sociology Review, and he holds the position of president of the Polish Sociological Association. His most recent book is The Meaning of Contemplation for Social Qualitative Research. Applications and Examples. (Routledge). Please direct correspondence to krzysztof.konecki@gmail.com.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Mark Muirhead for his invaluable help in preparing the last version of the paper and reviewers for their comments. Without my students and close collaborators in the project, Dagmara Tarasiuk, and Aleksandra Płaczek, the paper could not have been written. The research project has been sponsored by National Science Center in Poland, Opus, grant number 2018/29/B/HS6/00513.

Publication Date

11-26-2022

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5469

Recommended APA Citation

Konecki, K. T. (2022). Who Am I When I Am Teaching? Self in Yoga Practice. The Qualitative Report, 27(11), 2623-2658. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5469

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-7370-3490