A Commitment to Hygge: Building and Embracing Student Engagement in the Classroom

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Friday, September 27th, 2019
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

When used in English, the Danish word hygge refers to cosiness and comfort, and describes places, people, and lifestyle choices that create contentment. But what does hygge mean in the classroom? In the first presentation of this year's VIU Arts & Humanities Colloquium series, Dr. Amelia Horsburgh from the English Department will explore techniques she uses to create a contented and engaged atmosphere for students and faculty, using storytelling to reveal her hygge-esque teaching practice.

It’s probably true that most of us like to feel cozy and comfortable in our everyday lives. There are arguably not many feelings as satisfying as coming home after a long day at work or school, say, and putting on your favourite reading socks or curling up in front of the fire with a good book (or in front of Netflix!). Most of us, by the same token, would not necessarily associated such comforting feelings with going to work or being in the classroom. The classroom—and particularly the university classroom—is more often seen as a space of strenuous effort, one in which a lot is at stake and where many people expect to feel stress or anxiety. The grey, gloomy fall and cold winter that the academic year encompasses don’t help matters in this regard.

However, these commonplace assumptions are precisely what Dr. Horsbugh wants to challenge, both in her Colloquium presentation and in her teaching at VIU more generally. And this is where hygge (pronounced HOOG-ah) comes in. Traditionally associated with practices that create feelings of contentment, warmth, and happiness in a domestic or everyday setting, hygge is also something that Dr. Horsburgh believes can transform the classroom and campus life overall. Ultimately, making students (not to mention faculty, staff, and administrators) feel as though they are valued, and that university is a place that can foster contentment along with knowledge, wisdom, and critical thinking, is something that Dr. Horsburgh sees as a crucial element of her pedagogy.

Dr. Horsburgh is an instructor in the Department of English at VIU. Her research focuses include 20th century Canadian women’s short fiction, and the scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly practices that embrace Universal Educational Design such as equity, inclusivity, and accessibility. Her teaching philosophy is nurturing and the learning environment is hygge-like: in her classes she wants students to feel supported, validated, and appreciated in their knowledge-building. Dr. Horsburgh also notes that she is “an accomplished coffee-drinker, a killer of house plants and wine bottles, as well as the winner of the prestigious 1990 Green Giant Corn Festival Lip Sync Contest.”