Holistic Learning And Spirituality In Education

In Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education, scholars from around the globe address the theory, practice, and poetics of holistic education. Some of the topics explored include educating the soul; partnership education; nourishing adolescents' spirituality; education and the modern assault on being human; the Eros of teaching; personal creativity as soul work; pedagogies of compassion; and meditation, masculinity, and meaningful life.

The book comes out of the ecumenical movement and is one outcome of the Holistic Education Study Process of the World Council of Churches. It contributes to a dialogue between education philosophy and religious education, spiritual education and the search for peace and justice, reconciliation and healing as a yearning of all human beings.

This memoir describes the journey of John (Jack) Miller. The book explores how his personal journey is related to the work he has done in holistic education, contemplative education, and spirituality in education. In holistic education the personal and professional are connected. Professor Miller’s journey includes events, books, teachers, and the many factors in his life that have contributed to his work, which includes more than 20 books and extensive travel around the world. An example of the relationship between the personal and the professional is that Jack began meditating in 1974 and this practice has provided the foundation for much of his teaching and writing. Professor Miller’s book, The Holistic Curriculum, first published in 1988 along with the publication of the Holistic Education Review have been seen as the beginning of holistic education as a field of study. Since his journey has been connected with so many other holistic educators, this book can serve as one perspective on how the field has unfolded over the past 35 years. Besides this historical perspective the book includes a chapter on his meditation practice as well his beliefs. There is also a chapter on his teaching and how he attempts to embody holistic education in his classroom. Praise for A Holistic Educator's Journey: "Rarely does a field-builder allow us the opportunity to journey into the life-long journey leading to the formation of the work. With bold transparency, Miller shares his enormously rich professional and personal journey of seven decades with an open hand. He shows us the terrane of his inner and outer life." Lisa Miller, Author The Spiritual Child Teachers College, Columbia University "Whether in the classroom, writing books, keynoting, or being a friend, Jack Miller’s life journey exemplifies his multi-dimensional embracing of “the way of nature” and accepting of the mysterious. Always acknowledging the Indigenous roots of holistic education, he managed to bring parts of the Indigenous worldview into schools in ways that accommodated all cultures. This book gives testimony to his great contribution to understanding why we must return to our interconnected way of being." Four Arrows, Author Sitting Bull’s Words for a World in Crises

This book discusses the possibility of a holistic approach to religious education, taking into account religious and cultural diversity, different aspects of secularisation and different academic disciplines that inform the subject. Issues discussed are the view of children as spiritual and religious subjects, identity formation, the concept of child theology, the relationship between faith and morality, the meaning of spirituality, the notion of wonder as an inroad to learning, religion as culture, and the meaning of holism. A point of departure is taken in a typology of attitudes to religion in public education, and the line of reason ends in a search for viable metaphors for holistic religious education. Sturla Sagberg (born 1951) is professor of religious education and ethics at Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education in Trondhem, Norway. He has a doctoral degree in theology, and has for many decades taught and done research related to teacher training as well as to church education. He has published several books in Norwegian, of which the latest translates into Religion, Values and Formation: Children and the big questions in life. Many of his articles in books and journals are written in English.

This book calls for an expanded vision of holistic education that emphasizes togetherness and harmony through the discovery of oneself, others, and the larger society. It brings together teachers’ voices, experiences, and practices for such an education with Southern Knowledge, philosophy and ideologies proposed by Indian philosophers and spiritual leaders like Aurobindo, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Krishnamurti, and Tagore. The book reconceptualizes and extends UNESCO's "Learning To Live Together" to emphasize "Learning to Live Together Harmoniously" (LTLTH) and develops a novel conceptual framework for it. The book also explores how LTLTH can be translated into practice; calling for a continuum of harmonious lived experiences created through experiential and project based pedagogy, systems and processes for autonomy and autonomous behaviour regulation, empathetic teacher student relations, schoolwide ethos of harmonious living, and teachers’ ways of living and being.

With emphasis on preparing students for jobs, standards, and achievement testing, many think that North American education has become inwardly deadening, yet this book provides a counterbalance as it offers a way to nurture the soul in classrooms and schools.

Holistic education is concerned with connections in human experience – connections between mind and body, between linear thinking and intuitive ways of knowing, between academic disciplines, between individual and community, and between the personal self and the transpersonal Self that all spiritual traditions believe exist beyond the ego. First published in 1988, The Holistic Curriculum examines the philosophical, psychological, and social foundations of holistic education, provides an outline of its history, and discusses practical applications for this type of learning in the classroom. This revised and expanded second edition concisely describes how holistic thinking integrates spiritual and scientific perspectives, drawing on romantic, humanistic, and other radical alternatives to the atomistic worldview of the modern age. The role of the teacher, the issue of accountability, and strategies for implementing the Holistic Curriculum are also discussed.