Learning And Living Together

This open access book discusses how cultural literacy can be taught and learned through creative practices. It approaches cultural literacy as a dialogic social process based on learning and gaining knowledge through emphatic, tolerant, and inclusive interaction. The book focuses on meaning-making in children and young people's visual and multimodal artefacts created by students aged 5-15 as an outcome of the Cultural Literacy Learning Programme implemented in schools in Cyprus, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, and the UK. The lessons in the program address different social and cultural themes, ranging from one's cultural attachments to being part of a community and engaging more broadly in society. The artefacts are explored through data-driven content analysis and self-reflexive and collaborative interpretation and discussed through multimodality and a sociocultural approach to children's visual expression. This interdisciplinary volume draws on cultural studies, communication studies, art education, and educational sciences. Tuuli Lähdesmäki is an associate professor at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Jūratė Baranova was a professor at the Department of Continental Philosophy and Religious Studies, Vilnius University, Lithuania. Susanne C. Ylönen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Aino-Kaisa Koistinen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Katja Mäkinen is a senior researcher at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Vaiva Juškiene is a junior researcher at the Institute of Educational Sciences, Vilnius University, Lithuania. Irena Zaleskienė is a senior researcher at the Institute of Educational Sciences, Vilnius University, Lithuania.

With a view to deepening our understanding of sources of hatred and prejudice, this book uses a developmental and evolutionary perspective to explore and explain the process by which our beliefs are conveyed to the youngest members of society. Discussing the psychological obstacles to peaceful relations between groups, the authors focus on the developmental processes by which we can work to diminish ethnocentrism, prejudice, and hatred, which children learn from a very early age. Until now, scholarship and practice in international relations have gravely neglected crucial psychological aspects of these terrible problems and have not yet explored the educational opportunities related to them. Addressing these promising lines of inquiry and innovation, this book fosters a more humane and less violent development in childhood and adolescence. Educators, religious leaders, developmental and social psychologists, will find this a valuable resource, as will a socially concerned segment of the public who are looking for practical ways to work for peace.

Philosophising, as Spinoza conceives it, is the project of learning to live joyfully. This in turn is a matter of learning to live together, and the most obvious test of philosophical insight is our capacity to sustain a harmonious way of life. Susan James defends this interpretation and explores Spinoza's influence on contemporary debates.

This book is devoted to the issue of how we can learn to live together in the face of division and conflict. It is dedicated to the life and work of a remarkable human being, Dr Epimenidis Haidemenakis, scientist, statesman, visionary leader, President Emeritus of the International S.T.E.P.S. Foundation and founding father of The Olympiads of the Mind (OM). The monograph consists of a collection of papers presented at the 8th and 9th Olympiads of the Mind held in Washington, DC and Chania, Crete respectively. Distinguished international scholars, government and corporate representatives, leading researchers and academics from multiple disciplines and Nobel Laureates Leon Lederman (Physics, 1988), Martin Perl (Physics, 1995) and Yuan T. Lee (Chemistry, 1986) address a broad range of issues all with the aim of improving the human condition and achieving cooperation among the people of the world. The topics include the environment, sustainability and security; diversity and how to achieve integration and peace among people in a fractured world; the important role of brain research; how to overcome poverty and inequality; how to enhance creativity and improve education at all levels; and how new technologies and tools can be used for common benefit. The culmination of the book is a call to action, to join what one might call the “OM Movement”—bringing the best minds in the world together to create solutions to world issues so that we can all live together in harmony.

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.

This volume brings together perspectives from scholars of different scientific backgrounds endeavouring to understand and debate the interactions and relationships between humans, nonhuman species and natural ecosystems in order to overcome the classic human/environment dichotomy. Through discussions informed by the humanities, arts, social and natural sciences, the book deals with the way different disciplines approach this relationship. These diverse perspectives are compared to enable a cross-cutting analysis of human/nature interface throughout history. Changes forced by the utilization of resources and habitats, as well as climate changes are analysed and discussed, enhancing the importance of a multifaceted approach for a better understanding of the complexity of both the human/world relationship and diverse interspecies connections and impacts.

Based on the presentations and discussions from a national symposia, Just Living Together represents one of the first systematic efforts to focus on cohabitation. The book is divided into four parts, each dealing with a different aspect of cohabitation. Part I addresses the big picture question, "What are the historical and cross cultural foundations of cohabitation?" Part II focuses specifically on North America and asks, "What is the role of cohabitation in contemporary North American family structure?" Part III turns the focus to the question, "What is the long- and short-term impact of cohabitation on child well-being?" Part IV addresses how cohabiting couples are affected by current policies and what policy innovations could be introduced to support these couples. Providing a road map for future research, program development, and policymaking. Just Living Together will serve as an important resource for people interested in learning about variations in the ways families of today are choosing to organize themselves.

Contents: International Conference on Education for all for Learning to Live Together: Contents and Learning Strategies-Problems and Solutions, Document to Assist the Discussions during the Workshops of the International Conference of Education, General Overview of the Forty-sixth Session of the International Conference on Education, Conclusions and Proposals for Action Arising from the Fortysixth Session of the International Conference on Education (ICE), Proceedings of the Conference, Introduction, Responding to Educational Needs, Towards a Shared Vision of Education for Living Together, Contents and Strategies for Learning to Live Together, Some External Conditions for Teaching Learning to Live Together, Agreement on the Guidelines for on Learning to Live Together, Postface: Learning to Live Together : Have we Filed?