2 posts tagged “model”

In Basics: Introductory A) I made some points and raised some questions around my answer to 'What is the real difference between the 'holistically minded teacher/practitioner' and the 'non holistically-minded teacher/practitioner'?'

Here I want to re-introduce the one-sentence version of my model and raise around it some issues and questions. There are several versions of the one-sentence model - but they are essentially the same.

Some questions: What constitutes a holistic model of education? What elements, systems, concerns etc. must it have to qualify as holistic?  What would 'fail' a model?  Is there any justifiable rank order of importance?  How and in what ways can intellectual rigour be ensured/guaranteed/improved within a holistic model of education?

Here is a 'vertically presented' version:

The SunWALK model of spiritualizing (or humanizing) pedagogy sees education as:

nurturing

capabilities through the

storied development

of meaning, which is

constructed, and de-constructed,

physically

mentally and

spiritually, through

Wise &

Willing

Action, via

Loving and

Knowing - developed in

Community, through the

‘Dialectical Spiritualization’ of

Caring,

Creativity &

Criticality discourses, all undertaken in the light of the

‘Sun’ of chosen higher-order

values and

beliefs, using best available, appropriate

content.

This in one sentence covers most of what I think is essential for any educational model (or school, or system) that claims to be holistic.

Over the next few days/weeks I will comment on each concept-element and then move on to comments and questions on the 30 unit course.

The educational model is itself based on a model of being human. Being human is seen as having capabilities in caring, creativity and criticality (the 3Cs) - acquired and expressed via the agency of the human body.

We all need to make a decision as to whether we are essentially material beings or spiritual beings. My choice is to see the human as spiritual - caring, creativity and criticality are seen as capabilities of the human spirit - but in this world they are more or less dependent on the agency of the human body.

The true 'subject matter' of the teacher is the human spirit hers/his and the students'. The goal is the nurturing of the human spirit - just as Tai Chi masters nurture each student's chi or life-force.

This of course is done 'in community' and for the purpose of living well. Living well is itself a matter of debate. I choose to be inspired by the perennial wisdom of the great wisdom traditions. A fine book that focuses on the essential nature of those traditions is Essential Spirituality by Roger Walsh.

These spiritual teachings of course nurture the moral voice. Philosophy and science are particularly nurturing for the IT voice of the objective. Creativity is particularly nourishing for the I voice of subjectivity.

The list of key concept-elements in the one sentence version of the SunWALK model.

My argument is that all of these concept elements need to be accounted for in any educational model that claims to be holistic.  AS such SunWALK is both a means for evaluating any model and in itself a meta-model.  Many courses, such as MA courses, in effect require the student to articulate the model that each of us has implicit in how we approach the study of and practice of, education.

Such courses require us to articulate that which in us might be vaguely conscious and we do this against ideas found in public theory. 

The concept-elements then are:

model

spiritualizing/humanizing)

pedagogy

education

nurturing capabilities

storied development

meaning

constructed/ion de-constructed/ion

physically

mentally

spiritually

Wise/Wisdom

Willing/volition

Action

Loving

Knowing

Community

‘Dialectical Spiritualization’

Caring,

Creativity

Criticality

discourses

the light of the ‘Sun’ of chosen higher-order values and beliefs

content - best available, appropriate

After the series of mini-articles on the key concept-elements in the one-sentence version of the model the next set of Basics articles will follow the subjects of the units in the 30 unit course

SEE http://spiritofholisticeducation.org.uk/content/category/12/38/61/ 

Massimo Introvigne has a very interesting paper entitled Fighting the three Cs: Cults, Comics, and Communists The Critic of Popular Culture as Origin of Contemporary Anti-Cultism--www.cesnur.org

 The paper is here http://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=14719&sec=44&con=52

 A flavour of the paper can be gained from this paragraph;

 The Frankfurt theory, as re-elaborated in the United States, argued that vulnerable members of the society, including children in general and members of the working classes with limited education, are at first implicitly prepared and later subtly indoctrinated into totalitarian and authoritarian worldviews through the triple agency of authoritarian, cultic religion (that Fromm finally distinguished from the type of religion he called humanistic), popular culture, and black-and-white political slogans. To some extent in this criticism medium and message coincided: authoritarian (later called cultic) religion, the simple ideology of popular culture, and Communism (or Fascism) were both the medium and the aim of totalitarian influence. It is also the case that, in traveling from continental Europe to the U.S., the Frankfurt theory of totalitarian influence was somewhat reduced in scope. Not all religion was believed to predispose to totalitarianism, only the cultic variety. Not all political black-and-white slogans were evidence of totalitarianism, only Communist (and Nazi, but the latter were no longer an actual danger). Not all popular culture was bad: the powerful American movie industry was largely left alone. The U.S. version of the Frankfurt theory became the theoretical support for a struggle against what one may call the three Cs: cults, Communism, and comics.

 The site as a whole - http://www.wwrn.org/mission.html - says this about itself:

 WorldWide Religious News

Mission Statement

 WorldWide Religious News is a non-profit service to provide the international academic and legal community (as well as various government agencies) with up to date religious news from around the world. WWRN was initiated with the goal of promoting religious freedom and tolerance.

Its objectives are:

 To instill values of religious tolerance and understanding on an international basis. WWRN holds the principle of religious freedom and tolerance to be one of the most important essential human rights as stated in article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

 "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and the freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

To provide accurate up-to-date information for professionals and academics interested in religious freedom issues and legislation being enacted around the world affecting religion.

To provide a source of information for academics and professionals interested in trends relating to new religious movements, their growth and presence around the world and interaction with society at large.

As an information resource, WWRN also provides information on "anti-cult" and "counter-cult" trends, their interaction with government and media in attempts to suppress religious movements

To provide links to other Web sources supplying information on religion, government reports on religion and human rights, academic profiles on religious groups, etc.

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SunWALK is a framework to help you articulate your model of (holistic) education & evaluate others.

What then is the real difference between the 'holistically minded teacher/practitioner'

and the 'non holistically-minded teacher/practitioner'?

 
After thinking about this for the last 14 years my best answer to date is that;

the holistically minded practitioner is trying to do each particular thing, theoretical

and practical, with consciousness of connections with, and between,

all pertinent contexts - environmental context, social justice context etc. -

right up to and including

some sense of the eternally mysterious Whole.