Yoga as Counternarrative: American Higher Education Rethinks Difference and Interdependency

This article explores how the subject and practice of Yoga is emerging in American higher education as a counter-narrative, or alternative, to mainstream opinions and views. In democratic education, alternative views are important to fueling academic debate, but new views are also resisted. This article will explore the way in which Yoga is simultaneously embraced and resisted to show how counternarratives challenge a deeply pluralistic society. Examining the inclusion of Yoga in America’s higher education system asks us to critically question our assumptions of homogeneity and refashion knowledge in terms of interdependency and co-construction