NEW DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING, no. 134, Summer 2013 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/tl.20053
41
4
Birthing Internal Images: Employing the
Cajita Project as a Contemplative Activity
in a College Classroom
Vijay Kanagala, Laura I. Rendón
Everything is gestation and then bringing forth. To let each impression and
each germ of a feeling come to completion wholly in itself, in the dark, in the
inexpressible, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own intelligence,
and await with deep humility and patience the birth-hour of a new clarity:
that alone is living the artist’s life: in understanding as in creating.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1954), Letters to a Young Poet
Recently, there has been a surge of interest in employing contemplative
teaching and learning practices in college classrooms. We de ne contem-
plative pedagogy as a teaching and learning experience that involves the
learner in a participatory epistemology characterized by a deeply immersed,
insightful learning experience fostered through carefully selected re ective
practices that complement the learning assignment.
The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (n.d.) website offers a
working de nition of contemplative practices:
Contemplative practices are practical, radical, and transformative, develop-
ing capacities for deep concentration and quieting the mind in the midst of
the action and distraction that  lls everyday life. This state of calm centered-
ness is an aid to exploration of meaning, purpose and values. Contemplative
practices can help develop greater empathy and communication skills,
This chapter addresses the growing interest in employing
contemplative teaching and learning practices in college classrooms.
The authors introduce the cajita project, a contemplative activity,
which they have employed in their classrooms to help students
become re ective, socially conscious scholar–practitioners in
student affairs.
42 CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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improve focus and attention, reduce stress and enhance creativity, supporting
a loving and compassionate approach to life. (para. 2)
Contemplative practices may be integrated into one’s daily life in many
ways. These practices may include sitting in silence; mindful walking
in nature and man-made environments; meditation; contemplative prayer;
yoga; and a variety of artistic forms of expression. We view pedagogy as
the approach that considers both the professor’s own philosophical orienta-
tion, as well as the selection of appropriate teaching and learning strategies
to set up an in- and out-of-class context for learning to occur. Contempla-
tive practices are the tools that foster a re ective, insightful dimension to
the pedagogic experience. In this chapter, we describe our experience
employing a contemplative, arts-based pedagogy known as the “cajita
project.”
The Cajita Project
In graduate-level classrooms where we have taught courses such as
Foundations of Student Affairs, Students in American Higher Education,
Advanced Research Methods in Higher Education, Counseling, and a semi-
nar on Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation, we have
employed a contemplative activity known as the cajita project developed by
Professor Alberto Pulido, who is chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies
at the University of San Diego. Technically speaking, cajita is a Spanish
term for a small box, but Professor Pulido has broadened the de nition,
which speaks of a cajita as a sacred box, a knowledge canvas, a creative ves-
sel, or an artistic canvas. In his Chicana/o and Latina/o studies courses,
Professor Pulido has asked students to imagine and create a knowledge
canvas he calls a cajita. As he teaches culture, rituals, and traditions of the
Latino community, Professor Pulido asks students to develop a cultural
autobiographical story told in carefully selected artifacts such as family
photos, personal jewelry, green cards, newspaper articles, candles, food,
and prerecorded music. The stories students create through their cajitas
honor ancestry, family struggles, and triumphs, as well as the contributions
of different family members (Pulido 2002).
Professor Pulido (2002) elaborates:
These cajitas are literally boxes of various shapes, forms, and sizes made out
of wood or cardboard. The assignment is introduced at the beginning of the
fall semester and continually discussed throughout the months of September
and October to recognize and honor El Día de Los Muertos (The Day of the
Dead) celebrations commemorated and observed the first and second of
November throughout Mexico and the United States. Traditionally,
November first is known as El Día de los Angelitos to celebrate children
whereas November second honors those who died as adults. The students’
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cajitas become the centerpiece of a one-day campus-wide celebration held
yearly in commemoration of the Day of the Dead. (71)
Because the courses Professor Pulido teaches focus on cultural identity and
religion, the cajita project becomes a conduit toward understanding cul-
tural practices that originated with indigenous practices and progressed
into the creation of modern-day altars that honor Latino cultural icons
such as Selena, Cesar Chavez, and Tito Puente, among others.
The outcomes Professor Pulido expects in his Chicana/o and Latina/o
studies courses include having students develop hands-on experiential
knowledge about Latina/o cultural expression and allowing students to
connect academic knowledge with that of everyday life experience. In
doing so, students take abstract intellectual knowledge and connect it to
their personal lives, making learning come alive. In Professor Pulido’s phi-
losophy, students and teachers resemble artists, ready to illuminate images
symbolic of their journeys and lived experiences (Pulido 2002).
We do not teach ethnic or religious studies courses, but we have
employed a revised version of the cajita project with signi cant success
with our graduate students majoring in higher education leadership and
student affairs. In our classes, we have asked students to construct their
own cajitas re ecting their life journeys and containing images of past,
present, and future. The life paths of our master’s and doctoral students will
place them in professions such as student affairs administrators, commu-
nity organizers, social activists, educational policy analysts, college presi-
dents, and college professors. In essence, students are going to meet the
world as it is and seek to transform it.
We believe it is important for all students who are going to engage in
the world in a socially conscious way to adopt a contemplative practice of
their own, to have a deeper understanding of who they are and what they
bring to their profession, and to become re ective scholar–practitioners.
We seek to have students acquire some way of getting deeper into the inter-
nal and external learning experience, some way to re ect deeply on what
they are learning and to connect the learning experience to issues of mean-
ing, purpose, the interconnectedness of life, and social change.
Consequently, the cajita project becomes our way of employing a con-
templative, sentipensante pedagogy (Rendón 2009), a sensing/thinking
approach to teaching and learning that activates the mind and the spirit.
When Orlando Fals Borda, a Colombian researcher and sociologist and one
of the founders of participatory action research, wanted to study the
essence of culture of the  shermen of the Colombian coast, he approached
his learning inquiry not only by observing the  shermen; he actually lived
with them to authentically experience their rhythm of life where culture
was about employing intelligence to know when and how to fish and
acknowledging the heart of their work to act with wisdom and respect for
life. The  shermen said that they were “sentipensantes,” acting with heart
44 CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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and mind; theirs was the art and structure of living at the foot of a river
(Ricobassilon 2008).
Birthing Internal Images: Employing The Cajita Project
Creating a cajita can be a very powerful and liberating contemplative expe-
rience when and if it is implemented with great care and preparation. In
this section, we outline the steps we have taken to employ the cajita project
in a course focusing on higher education leadership in student affairs. We
connect the cajita project to developing two key competencies student
affairs administrators should master: (1) developing social and personal
responsibility and (2) becoming a re ective scholar–practitioner.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
(2006) has advocated that students should master personal and social
responsibility as exempli ed by:
• Developing a strong work ethic
• Recognizing and acting on a sense of academic integrity
• Recognizing and acting on the responsibility to contribute to the larger
community
• Recognizing and acting on the obligation to take seriously the perspec-
tives of others
• Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning (para. 3)
In a 2007 report, AAC&U recommended expanding student learning
to include “serious engagement with questions of values, principles, and
larger meanings” (23). Further, Eaton and O’Brien (2004, 4) discuss the
important role of self-re ective activities. They indicate that:
Providing opportunities for self-re ection seems to enhance students’ sense
of responsibility and motivation for their own learning as the re ection and
assessment processes connect directly with the students’ own work.
Re ection asks them to think about how theory relates to application in the
“real world,” and also helps students view their own experiences as impor-
tant enough not to be taken for granted. Through re ection, students (and
faculty) recognize that learning from examined experience is as important an
instance of learning as from a text or lecture, and that not all learning hap-
pens in an abstract environment distant from their lives in the world.
Connecting students’ lives with their academic and intellectual work may not
only improve attainment of learning goals, but may also contribute to
enhanced student engagement with the university program, potentially lead-
ing to improved retention, academic performance and/or time to degree—all
important factors in building a vital and effective campus.
In allowing students to be reflective and socially conscious scholar–
practitioners in our classrooms, we create a space that invites and values
BIRTHING INTERNAL IMAGES 45
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“inner knowing (deep wisdom, wonder, sense of the sacred, intuition, and
emotions)” as well as “outer knowing (intellectual reasoning, rationality,
and objectivity)” (Rendón 2009, 27). Therefore, this space created through
self-re ection acknowledges students’ life experiences and provides an
opportunity to construct deeper meanings of these experiences in their
lives.
Step I. Introducing the Cajita Project. It is important to contextual-
ize the cajita project, including its origins and goals. We introduce the proj-
ect at the beginning of the semester including it as a key re ective learning
activity in our syllabus. We tell students that they will be expected to con-
struct their own cajitas. A cajita is a personal re ective box that represents
who each student is as a person, and the special talents she or he brings to
the student affairs profession. Students may select artifacts that represent
individuals (in and out of college) who have influenced and validated
them, the kind of student affairs administrator they hope to be, and how
they hope to make a difference in the lives of students and in the world of
college.
To provide a background to the project, students are encouraged
to read Professor Pulido’s article, “The Living Color of Students’ Lives:
Bringing Cajitas into the Classroom” (2002). An in-class discussion of
the article and the project is critical to ensure that students realize the
nature and scope of the class assignment, to recognize the expectations of
the project, and to clarify any questions that the project stimulates among
students. We have also found it helpful to invite former students who have
engaged in constructing cajitas to visit the class and to share their
experiences.
Basic questions that we have encountered in our classes include but
have not been limited to: Should the cajita be only a box? Can I think out-
side the box? How big should the box be? Should it be a pretty box? Can
the box be of any shape other than a square? What material should the box
be: cardboard, plastic, wood, and so forth? We have emphasized to students
that they have complete freedom to create their cajitas, which are so per-
sonal that no two can ever be similar. Students sometimes articulate
“deeper” questions that percolate in their hearts and minds, which revolve
around their own life experiences—personal and professional, as well as
belief systems they value or are exploring or questioning. Some students
also wonder if it is indeed possible to express their experiences, thoughts,
and feelings through a small (or big) box. Engaging these questions allows
an opportunity for the instructor(s) to soothe student anxieties, to validate
their experiences, and to ask them to trust the re ective process.
Step II. Conceptualizing and Creating the Cajita. The instructor(s)
and the students should realize that the cajita project is designed to
assist each participant to become a re ective, socially conscious scholar–
practitioner. Understanding that the cajita is a highly personal re ective
box that one designs and builds using one’s own creativity and life
46 CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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experiences is imperative. Each cajita is unique to each individual. Thus,
no two cajitas are alike. To demonstrate that learning and teaching are bi-
or multidirectional, we as instructors also engage in designing and sharing
our own cajitas. We make it a practice to bring our own cajitas to class.
This serves as an opportunity for the instructor(s) to experience what it
means to conceptualize a cajita and to deal with the emotions that one
experiences while re ecting upon and building a cajita.
It was one such emotional and re ective journey for Vijay Kanagala,
coauthor of this article, who developed his cajita as a doctoral student in a
class focusing on sentipensante (sensing/thinking) pedagogy (Rendón 2009)
and social justice. Not knowing where to start, how to embrace the project,
what to focus on, or who to include in his cajita, Vijay wrestled with the
questions from the day he was introduced to the project. The assignment
required the student to create a cajita that demonstrated her or his peda-
gogy and philosophy of education. The following is an excerpt from Vijay’s
personal journal entry that illuminates the epiphanous, emotional moments
that led to creating his unique cajita.
What a serendipitous day it has been! Not sure why Amma [mother] wanted
to clear the garage in this super cold weather but she did. And boy, am I glad
she did! After a few minutes of trying to organize stuff, I decided that it was
probably easier to just declutter by discarding or donating things that we did
not need anymore. That old tattered suitcase lying in the corner for the
longest time had to go! I took and tossed it into the dumpster outside our
apartment. Amma sure wasn’t happy. I always teased her that she was a secret
hoarder! She wanted it back. She really wanted the ripped suitcase with a
broken wheel back, and would not stop yelling at me until I dived into the
dumpster to get it back for her.
That’s when Amma explained. She wanted the suitcase back not because
it has any utility value left but because of the emotional value Amma attached
to the suitcase. Amma reminded me that this was the  rst suitcase that our
family had bought, and used as we immigrated to the United States back in
the early 90s. I was in tenth grade. I remembered vaguely but not really.
That’s when it hit me, today. We, as a family, have never processed our
family’s immigration journey from India to the United States. We have nei-
ther talked about the  nancial challenges that Nana [father] and Amma faced
nor have we discussed the emotional scars we had to endure for leaving our
extended family behind. All of us lacked social and academic capital when
we immigrated but still somehow we believed that this was the land of
opportunity. I guess our unwavering belief that we will eventually  nd suc-
cess in this distant land helped us make it.
Suddenly, it is all coming back. Here I am a son of immigrants, an
immigrant myself, the  rst in my family to enroll in a doctoral program real-
izing our dream—my parents’ dream. That through education, we would  nd
success and happiness. I was living our American dream.
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Who would have imagined that a spring-cleaning project that included
a dumpster dive would provide an answer for my class project? Voilà! I just
found my perfect box for my cajita. That suitcase is my cajita. I did not have
to  ll it with artifacts. Even empty, it is full of meaning. It connects me to my
past in a unique way and grounds me for who I am. I did not know I had
yearned for that connection all these years, but I did. My suitcase cajita is my
identity. (V. Kanagala, personal communication, February 22, 2009)
Step III. Cajita Gallery Walk. By the time students are to display
their cajitas, it is important that the class is functioning as a community of
learners who have fostered trust among each other. On this momentous
day, we begin by inviting students to share a meal. We have provided food
and invited students to bring food of their choosing that they may wish to
share with their classmates. Sharing a meal serves to reinforce community
and to foster bonding among students. We then invite students to partici-
pate in a silent gallery walk.
The cajitas gallery walk involves about a twenty-minute silent walk as
students take the time to observe and “take in” their peers’ cajitas. To create
a mood of reverence and respect, we have played calming, soft meditational
background music during the walk. Following the gallery walk, we open
the classroom for volunteers who would like to present their cajitas. If
comfortable, instructors should consider sharing their cajitas.
We have learned that it is best to set up the classroom as an art gallery
ahead of time. Classroom furniture should be rearranged if necessary, and
each student should be given the option to display her or his cajita for pub-
lic view accompanied by a one-page description of what the artifacts that
make up the cajita signify. The day that the cajitas will be displayed and
presented to the entire class should be approached with signi cant respect
and trust, for the stories students share can be powerful and  lled with
emotions ranging from joy to sadness and anxiety. We begin by telling stu-
dents that it is important for all in class to treat each other with respect and
dignity, that students should share only what they feel comfortable sharing,
and that not everything is public. We ask that students present their cajitas
on a volunteer basis. No one is forced to share her or his cajita. At this time
we also address the do’s and don’ts of sharing a cajita to address questions
such as: Can I touch an artifact? I don’t understand what this artifact
means? Can I get an explanation now? I don’t see a name; whose cajita is
this? Students should be cautioned to be respectful of the cajitas because
artifacts on display may be of very emotional and personal value to the
creator, and therefore priceless. Some artifacts may be controversial and
due care must be taken. Over time, we have learned that the cajitas stu-
dents create are taken home to  nd a special place. At home, the cajitas
serve as memory of the class and, more important, as a symbol of student
life journeys, lived experiences, and hope for the future.
48 CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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Preparation for the Cajita Project. The con uence of three entities
—namely, the individual student, the class as a whole, and the instructor—
is necessary for the successful birthing of a cajita project.
The Instructor. To engage and encourage a group of students to
embrace contemplative practice as a way to foster self-reflexivity, it is
important that the instructor not only understands and values the same,
but also incorporates one or more contemplative practice(s) in her or his
own personal and professional life. In other words, to employ re ective
assignments requires that professors embrace and practice contemplative
ways of knowing. A deep intellectual and personal understanding of
contemplative practice and a willingness to engage not just super cially are
imperative to lend authenticity for the cajita project. Professors must also
be discerning educators, with an intuitive sense of judgment about when
re ective practices are appropriate and not appropriate to employ. It is also
the responsibility of the instructor to create trust as well as a safe classroom
context where emotion, subjectivity, and student voice are welcomed,
respected, and embraced.
Further, it is important to connect the cajita project to one or more
learning goals, and these will vary depending on the course being taught.
In other words, the cajita project should never be employed solely on the
basis that it looks interesting or that it might be fun to try out in class.
Rather, the cajita project, as well as similar contemplative activities, should
be linked to a learning objective(s) related to the subject matter. For exam-
ple, whereas Professor Pulido connected the cajita project to Chicana/o and
Latina/o history and culture, we linked the project to student affairs com-
petencies in the areas of developing personal and social responsibility and
becoming re ective scholar–practitioners.
Individual Student. The cajita project is an example of an assignment
that addresses the learner’s full complexity of mind, body, and spirit. The
project works best with students who are open to taking the risk of working
with emotions and intuition, are willing to participate in nontraditional
ways of knowing and learning, and are receptive to contemplative
assignments that engage them more deeply in what they are studying. In
our experience, we have learned that not every student is ready or willing
to entertain perspectives that run counter to deeply held belief systems or
faith principles. These views should be respected, and alternative assignments
should be available for students to complete the class successfully.
The Class as a Community of Learners. Students in any given classroom
come from different backgrounds, cultures, religious perspectives, values,
belief systems, and ethnicities. As a result, students have diverse
worldviews, and the cajitas will be re ective of wide-ranging experiences
and perspectives. Consequently, it is important that the students function
as a community built on trust and respect for difference. In such a
community, the instructor and students agree to create a safe space where
feelings, thoughts, and experiences can be shared without fear of negative
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judgment (though students can agree to disagree) or of disclosure outside
the circle of trust. This can be accomplished by engaging in a class activity
that establishes ground rules to engage in civil and mindful class
discussions.
It is important to understand that although the cajita project may be
construed as a collective project (which it can be), at its core it is also a
very personal, risky, re ective journey that each participating class member
undertakes and shares within the classroom circle of trust. As such, the
cajita should be beyond judgment of the instructor and the rest of the class
community. However, this should not deter anyone from being inquisitive
or asking the cajita’s creator to elaborate about part or all of the cajita (in a
respectful way).
Challenges to Implementing the Cajita Project. Professors should
understand that there will be some students who will not embrace contem-
plative assignments such as the cajita project. Not every student will be
comfortable or ready to participate in this kind of contemplative assign-
ment because of personal reasons relating to faith issues, cultural anxiety,
emotional discomfort, or unwillingness to share personal belief systems
and life experiences. Consequently, the instructor should be open to pro-
viding an alternative assignment (such as creating another arts-based proj-
ect, writing a book review, writing a paper related to the course content) in
consultation with the concerned student(s).
Reflective assignments are quite in vogue these days and typically
involve activities such as journaling and writing personal essays. We wish
to emphasize that assignments involving contemplative activities should be
very carefully designed and implemented. Employing a contemplative ped-
agogy requires that the instructors have: (1) done extensive background
reading to thoroughly understand the nature of contemplative practice, its
uses, potential, and challenges; and (2) adopted some form of contempla-
tive practice in their own personal lives such as meditation, yoga, journal-
ing, or poetry writing, among others. We cannot overemphasize that
contemplative activities should be employed with great care and sensitivity.
If poorly applied, re ective assignments can result in a less than positive
classroom experience for both instructors and students.
Instructors should realize that more often than not students might
have never engaged in contemplative activities during their educational
experiences. As a result, the instructor needs to be keenly aware that sev-
eral basic questions about the logistics of the assignment may arise. A vari-
ety of deeper philosophical questions tend to follow after students
understand the project and are in the process of developing their cajitas.
Therefore, we recommend that the instructor check in with the students
as the semester progresses and revisit the cajita assignment to clarify
questions about the project.
Finally, some students may view the cajita project as not relevant
to their personal cultural experience, perhaps viewing it only as a
50 CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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Latino-speci c activity or considering it to be an appropriation of a certain
culture. However, in our opinion, the cajita project transcends a focus on
only one culture. In our classrooms, students from diverse ethnic, racial,
religious, and sexual orientation backgrounds have successfully worked on
creating cajitas. Although we are personally comfortable employing the
Spanish term, cajita, we also recognize that this kind of project can be con-
ceptualized in a variety of ways. For example, one professor shared that she
had employed a “shoe project” with her students. Her students were asked
to select shoes that re ected their life journeys; and the shoes might also be
lled with different artifacts. Similarly, another professor, who worked with
immigrant students, had asked them to construct images of the homes they
left behind. This home imagery assignment was designed to facilitate self-
understanding and healing within the community of immigrant student
learners. A faculty member teaching any course can come up with a wide
array of creative ways to engage students in contemplative activities that
deepen the learning experience. In giving birth to their images through
arts-based contemplative activities, the hour of clarity gets closer to being
within the students’ reach.
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BIRTHING INTERNAL IMAGES 51
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VIJAY KANAGALA is a lecturer in the department of educational leadership and
policy studies and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Research and
Policy in Education at the University of Texas–San Antonio.
L
AURA I. RENDÓN is a professor in the department of educational leadership and
policy studies and codirector of the Center for Research and Policy in Education
at the University of Texas–San Antonio.