Core Curriculum

THE CONVERSATION: Do yoga teachers need to cover any standard content, or a “common core”, based on where yoga is today? If so, what basic knowledge should every yoga teacher share to ensure quality and safety and to honor yoga’s past?

Standards Review Project Survey: Attitudes and Beliefs of Yoga Professionals and Practitioners Worldwide 2018, Edge Research.

Through the working group specific to Core Curriculum, there were a few recommendations that “rose to the top” including:

• Revised standards must include hours and competencies as well as assessments of knowledge, skills, and experience
• Revised standards must emphasize safety, competency, accessibility, inclusion, inspiration, and aspiration
• Revised standards must still be inclusive of diverse lineages

To learn more about this working group’s recommendations, please download the Core Curriculum Working Group Paper here. As a reminder, Yoga Alliance brought together a diverse spectrum of expert advisory voices to maximize the perspectives and resources within this area of inquiry. They represented one stream of input in the process, albeit an important stream.  We thank them for their participation and dedication.

Note: these working group papers provide expert recommendations to Yoga Alliance and the yoga community for consideration as the Standards Review Project continues. They are not prescribed actions but rather insights from an experienced and dedicated group of subject matter experts. They were written by an independent third party. At this point in time, no decisions have been made regarding standards updates, and we welcome and encourage your feedback and comments regarding the entirety of the SRP process.

Advisors In This Group:

Jafar Alexander

Jafar J. Alexander, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, believes that "practice is what happens on the mat, and yoga is what happens in life.” His belief is “Yoga is yoga. No need to complicate it, it’s quite simple. Breathe, move, and find your ...
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Marla Apt

Marla Apt is a Senior level Iyengar Yoga teacher and was highlighted by Yoga Journal magazine as one of twenty-one young yoga teachers helping to shape the future of yoga. She has been involved with medical research studies at UCLA on ...
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Susanna Barkataki

Susanna Barkataki, M.Ed. Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Core Community of Interbeing, is known for her passion for decolonizing yoga - practicing yoga not just as poses but as a way of life. She ...
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Jasmine Chehrazi

Jasmine Chehrazi is founder of Yoga Activist, a nonprofit outreach organization dedicated to improving accessibility and trauma sensitivity in yoga and mindfulness instruction. She trained with teachers from a wide variety of yoga traditions (including Dharma, Power, Bhakti Flow, Kundalini, ...
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Mayte Criado

Mayte Criado, E-RYT 500, E500H, T500H, is a yoga teacher trainer registered with Yoga Alliance and the European Yoga Federation. She participates as a delegate in Spain for The World Community of Indian Culture and Traditional Disciplines, is a member of ...
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Gary Kraftsow

Gary Kraftsow has been a pioneer in the transmission of yoga for health, healing and personal transformation for over 40 years. He began his study of yoga in India with T.K.V. Desikachar in 1974 and received a Viniyoga Special Diploma from ...
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Brahmani Liebman

Brahmani Liebman, MSEd, E-RYT 500, is an internationally recognized yoga teacher in the Kripalu tradition. She founded the Rivertown Center for Yoga and Health and was director and head teacher for over 20 years. Brahmani is currently co-creator & director (with Jashoda ...
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Heather Peterson

Heather Peterson is the Chief Yoga Officer and the longest continuous staff member at CorePower Yoga. She has been teaching yoga since 2002 and was hired as the second studio manager for the company in 2003. Throughout her tenure, Heather has served ...
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Nivedita Ashok Pingle

Nivedita Ashok Pingle, M.B.B.S., M.Sc., is a yoga therapist and the founder of the Millennium Concept, a yoga therapy clinic. Since 1998, she has assisted over 3,000 patients with yoga therapy to control chronic disorders especially affecting lT professionals, such as cervical spondylosis, ...
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Swami Ramananda

Swami Ramananda is the President of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition who has been practicing yoga for over 35 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the ...
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Mark Singleton

Mark Singleton’s research interests lie in the intersection of tradition and modernity in yoga. He was a research assistant at the Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research, University of Cambridge, in 2002-3, and went on to complete a Ph.D at ...
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Sierra Rose Stange

Sierra Rose Stange, Ancient Historian, 200hr Yoga Instructor, 300hr in-Progress. Sierra currently teaches Kirtana Classes with Stories from the Puranas, Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata to give students an opportunity to experience Bhakti and Jnana Yoga. Sierra practices and teaches a Vinyasa ...
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Judy Weaver

Judy Weaver, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, YACEP, is a yoga therapist and a yoga “teacher of teachers." She is widely recognized for her expertiseand knowledge of yoga and other body-mind disciplines and regularly conducts certified yoga teacher training classes, facilitates workshops and lectures ...
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Cora Wen

Cora Wen, E-RYT 500, YACEP, has built her reputation as an internationally acclaimed yoga practitioner and teacher over the past 25 years. She is a follower of the great Indian Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, who passed away in August 2014. Toward the end ...
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