Three Pedagogical Principles

How Integral Education takes form/shapes itself will have endless variations, based on the cultural setting, the creativity of teachers, and the needs and interests of students. Yet there is a solid foundation that sets this educational approach apart from other approaches, through which it can be identified. There are three pedagogical principals that lay the foundation for an Integral Education, forming the core of its expression and methodology. These three principles define the roles of the teacher and student, base themselves on stages of human development, and introduce learning as a process. The aim of such an education is for the student to develop self-knowledge and to learn to connect their thoughts and actions to a space of deeper consciousness. These principles will be visible in every school or educational institution that has dedicated itself to this process of transforming education.

The pedagogical principles are:

  • Nothing can be taught
  • The mind must be consulted in its own growth
  • Working from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be

It is important to be aware that our old educational terminology is redundant and no longer representative for these new practices. For lack of new terminology, these terms are still used here. The term school derives from Greek, standing for a group to whom lectures are given, and the term teacher means one who provides information. Neither of these meanings apply in an Integral Education context, and they need to be replaced with a new internationally recognized terminology. The term education has two different Latin roots, educare – meaning to train or mold, and educere – meaning to lead out. The difference is significant, and in an Integral Education it is the second meaning that is more applicable.  

Nothing can be taught

By Maya Shakti

WHAT? Being and becoming

The child from birth to age three can be seen as a spiritual embryo. It can seem like the infant, at birth, is nothing, without pre-established psychic qualities, motionless and empty. Yet inside the infant are the immense potentialities to determine her/his development, a global power striving for purposeful activity and reasoning, and containing the creative essence of humanity. Real knowledge is already hidden inside the child.1 Plato acknowledges that knowledge is something humans are born with. But he saw an educational paradox of being and becoming. According to Plato we cannot search for knowledge unless we know what we are looking for. At the same time, if we already had the knowledge, we would not have to look for it.2 Therefore there is only one thing that the learner has to learn: to remember that she/he already is in possession of the required knowledge. 3A movement of research where all teaching is revealing and all becoming is an unfolding.4

Based on this view of the individual’s autonomy, Integral Education is only possible if the student is free and self-active, and, at the same time, in order for the individual to become free and self-active, an education to develop one’s self-awareness seems to be necessary. 5 Through this understanding, the educational leadership of teachers need to recognize and treat students as if they are already free (reflective, capable, trustworthy) in order to reach the ability to grow and act, less based on outer influences of the expectations of society. Educational leadership therefore lies and emerges from within the individual student, and education is a “recognition-based invitation, intervention, provocation, a disturbance or expectation concerning the student’s relation to herself/himself, the world and others. Teaching is then about recognizing the student as if they are already capable of doing what they are supposed to become capable of - and to act accordingly.”6 The student just has to learn to remember that she/he can strive towards gaining insight- the learner has to learn to connect to something that already exists within. So somehow, education is that which supports an individual to come into being.7

WHY? Development of consciousness

The aim of an Integral Education is to lay the foundation for an Unending Education throughout life, to support the active participation in our human evolution – individually, locally and globally. Growth and development through self-activity is nature’s greatest miracle, as is the ability of awareness. The human being is a great builder, with a power, an intelligence and knowledge. There is within nature, a divine force that enables each individual to construct the Self. 8 Through the process of being and becoming, integral learning aims to develop each individual’s consciousness. The outer perfection of an individual comes through the realization of the perfection that is already within. The instruments for this perfection are that of the mental, vital and physical, psychic and spiritual consciousness. “The more the individual’s most inner truth consciousness (psychic being) is in the foreground and developed, the greater will be the perfection that a human being can realize in the outer world.” 9

HOW? The role of the teacher and student

In an Integral Education the teacher is a researcher and learner. As well as being in an ongoing deepening of the Self, developing her/his own faculties of consciousness, the teacher also has to become an expert at observing and understanding the needs of each individual student, and gaining the skills of how to summon each student to enter a journey of self discovery and formation.10 It is therefore the student who is teaching the teacher how to guide, the teacher is learning through observing the needs of the student, by getting to know the student, by listening to the student’s questions. The work of the teacher is then to guide the student to learning opportunities based on deeper knowledge and understanding of the student’s developmental needs. It requires working with the same students over years, to be able to reach this in-depth connection.

The teacher’s task is to offer each student opportunities for learning, through situations that invoke the inner knowledge of each individual learner, without fixing a general outcome beforehand. The atmosphere needs to be such that it offers a warm and non-judge-mental environment, to facilitate the blossoming of the individual consciousness, through its mental, vital and physical faculties. The teacher supports the student to become aware of her/his own freedom and ability to realize her/his own aims and full potential. “The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task-master, he is a helper and a guide. His business is to suggest and not to impose…” the teacher “...does not actually train the pupil's mind, he only shows him how to perfect his instruments of knowledge and helps and encourages him in the process. He does not impart knowledge to him, he shows him how to acquire knowledge for himself.” 11 These invitations need to be understood only as an invitation to self-activity, where the teacher has a meditative role in relation to the student, in order to maintain and develop the individual’s self-relations, 12 as one cannot summon someone to gain a state of consciousness.

Integral Education is channeled through the conscious full-spectrum response from the teacher towards each student, each individual connection representing a fractal of the whole paradigm shift in education, gradually leading towards the transformation of what education will come to become. The universal value of this change in education is an integral development – both individual and collective. To shift the systems to transcend existing norms and values of what education is, by questioning that which is, teachers and students need to continually be cultivating their own learning process, developing their consciousness, aligning consciousness and action to be able to create the conditions necessary for continuous unlearning, learning and reflection about a future society, that is yet to be conceptualized. 13

References

  1. Grazzini, Camillo (1994). The four planes of development. AMI international study conference “The Child, the Family, the Future”, July 19-24. Washington DC; Partho (2008) Integral education – a foundation for the future. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society; Prakasam, Gnana (1966). What you should know about your child - based on lectures by Maria Montessori. Madras: Kalakshetra Publications.
  2. Uljens, Michael (2002). The idea of a universal theory of education - an impossible but necessary project? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 3(36).
  3. Uljens, Michael (2002). The idea of a universal theory of education - an impossible but necessary project? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 3(36).
  4. bShiksha:Education, http://saccs.org.in/texts/sama/ipyccomp-6.php
  5. Stoll Lillard, 2007
  6. Ylimaki & Uljens, 2017, p. 214
  7. Uljens, Michael (2002). The idea of a universal theory of education - an impossible but necessary project? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 3(36).
  8. Prakasam, Gnana (1966). What you should know about your child - based on lectures by Maria Montessori. Madras: Kalakshetra Publications; Stoll Lillard, Angeline (2007). Montessori - the science behind the genius. New York: Oxford University Press.
  9. Neeltje (2015). Psychic education - a workbook. New Delhi: Sri Aurobindo Society, p.133.
  10. Neeltje (2015). Psychic education - a workbook. New Delhi: Sri Aurobindo Society; Joshi, Kireet (2012).  Philosophy of Indian pedagogy. Delhi: Popular Media; Partho (2008) Integral education – a foundation for the future. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society.
  11. Aurobindo, Sri (1972). The hour of god and other writings. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, p.204.
  12. Ylimaki, Rose & Uljens, Michael (2017). Theorizing Educational Leadership Studies, Curriculum, and Didaktik: Non Affirmative Education Theory in Bridging Disparate Fields. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 16(2), 175-227.
  13. Ylimaki, Fetman, Matyjasik, Brunderman, Uljens, 2017

The mind must be consulted in its own growth

By Maya Shakti

WHAT? Evolution of human consciousness

Lifelong learning is a term used commonly in the field of education today, and refers to the ongoing learning and adaptability that is needed for a rapidly changing world. It is for example used when referring to the 21st century skills of the neoliberal, ambition oriented educational movement that is seen globally today. This is not to be confused with the term Unending Education, which is an integral journey through different stages of development of human consciousness, ongoing throughout all the phases of life.

The first step towards an Unending Education is acknowledging that learning and growth happens in stages of development. An Integral Education during childhood and adolescence aims to set the foundation for an Unending Education throughout life. Following the expanding maturity of each individual student, an Integral Education aims to develop individualism not at the cost of others but through awareness of oneself, others and of the environment. By widening through a curiosity to see that there are different perspectives and solutions, and that no one perspective is complete, comes an interest to connect the dots and find long term solutions. This expansion will grow the individual understanding of the impact of one’s own thoughts and actions, and bring forth a responsibility for these. Being guided by one’s truth consciousness comes by  being able to see without judging, blaming and criticizing, but going beyond and rising above this into values of open-mindedness, understanding complexity and the bigger picture, and to be able to solve problems at their root. It is an education aiming to connect each individual to their inner wisdom, replacing fear and judgment with curiosity and care. 1

WHY? For each individual to reach their highest potential

The possibility of reaching full potential within each stage of development, requires the student to be supported in the process of becoming aware of herself/himself and the other individuals as being free in their growth.2 This freedom allows the individual’s mind to be consulted in its own growth 3 and be guided by this self-knowledge. When teachers recognize the student as a free, autonomous agent, they also foster this within the student. Forms of recognition are respect, esteem, love, friendship - and will influence how the student will develop self-awareness, self-confidence, self-respect, and self-esteem.4

Such an education is based on choice, where each student engages through intrinsic motivation, rather than extrinsic motivators of comparison or rewards (grades), where the inner satisfaction of growth and development becomes the drive.5 Therefore the idea of hammering the student into the shape desired by the teacher is a barbarous and ignorant superstition. It is the student who must be induced to expand in accordance with her/his own nature.6 The process of such an education happens through free progress, where the student “is consulted at every stage, free to express his preferences and his aim, but it is a freedom leading to progress towards full mastery of his highest possibilities - not the opposite of these.” 7 By building this capacity from birth, by the time the individual reaches adolescence it will be well established and enable them to lead their life and development from this space in themselves.8

The aim of education is growth and development, and inside each individual there is an inbuilt energy, striving to learn. This vital force, when mastered and channeled by the psychic being, is what will drive the potential of the individual, to gradually acquire the enabling ability to take on even the most difficult things.9 Then the goal of education and the process of education are the same thing. As the future is undetermined, it's the individual's reflective capacity of self-awareness and self-determination that education must have as a main focus.10 Education can no longer be seen as something preparing for later life, instead it is a continuous unfolding and the purpose in the present life.

HOW? Freedom to grow

Integral Education institutions need to look at human development as the lens through which practices, cultures and systems are shaped and influenced, and acknowledge the importance of these in their organizational structures. Teachers then operate with a clear view of what the developmental stages look like, and nurture and guide students through them. The teacher respects the unique developmental learning path of each individual student, and fostering in themselves a genuine knowledge of human development. The teacher will both pay individual attention to each student, and respect and encourage the particular ways in which each individual unfolds to make progress.11

These stages of development are used as a cornerstone in forming the practices for life and for education. Time in schools should be dedicated to that which arises and needs the time. This opens up freedom through a responsive recognition of what is going on and is alive in each individual student as well as in the group. It has immediate meaning, and the work is therefore relevant to all parties. Instead of preparing for future needs that the student now is completely disconnected from, and may never need, education should deal with the present developmental needs.12

This is deeply linked with learning to discipline the vital part of the being - energy, emotions, impulses, desires, enthusiasm, violence, dynamic energy, depressions, passions and revolts. This is an energy that can set things in motion, to build and to realize. But it can also destroy, and this is the most important, and also the most difficult part to work on in education. The stronger the connection to one’s inner truth consciousness becomes, the less will be the pull of the destructive energies, and here lies progress and transformation of the human beings consciousness. 13 “Progress may be slow, relapses may be frequent, but if a courageous will is maintained, one is sure to triumph one day and see the difficulties melt and vanish before the radiance of the truth-consciousness”.14 It is through this work that freedom can evolve. “Freedom, in its true sense, evolves out of awareness, choice and responsibility. If I am not in a position to choose my course of action out of my own understanding and awareness, and if I cannot assume full responsibility for what I choose, then I cannot be regarded as a free individual at all”.15 Unending Education is being free to navigate the transformation of one’s own human development consciously, over a lifetime.

References

  1. Spiral Dynamics – The next evolution,  https://www.thenextevolution.com/spiral-dynamics/
  2. Ylimaki, Rose & Uljens, Michael (2017). Theorizing Educational Leadership Studies, Curriculum, and Didaktik: Non Affirmative Education Theory in Bridging Disparate Fields. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 16(2), 175-227.
  3. Aurobindo, Sri (1972). The hour of god and other writings. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
  4. Ylimaki, Rose & Uljens, Michael (2017). Theorizing Educational Leadership Studies, Curriculum, and Didaktik: Non Affirmative Education Theory in Bridging Disparate Fields. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 16(2), 175-227
  5. Stoll Lillard, Angeline (2007). Montessori - the science behind the genius. New York: Oxford University Press.
  6. Aurobindo, Sri (1972). The hour of god and other writings. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
  7. Monod-Herzen, G. & Benezech J. (1972). The free progress experiment (Pondicherry-India). International commission on the development of education. Series C:Innovations. No. 17. UNESCO, p.5.
  8. Stoll Lillard, Angeline (2007). Montessori - the science behind the genius. New York: Oxford University Press.
  9. Mother, The (2012). On education. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press.
  10. Ylimaki, Rose & Uljens, Michael (2017). Theorizing Educational Leadership Studies, Curriculum, and Didaktik: Non Affirmative Education Theory in Bridging Disparate Fields. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 16(2), 175-227.
  11. Neeltje (2015). Psychic education - a workbook. New Delhi: Sri Aurobindo Society.
  12. Reinventing Education Podcast, https://reinventingeducationpodcast.podbean.com/
  13. Mother, The (2012). On education. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press.
  14. Mother, The (2012). On education. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, p.7.
  15. Partho (2008) Integral education – a foundation for the future. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society, p.285.

Working From the Near to the Far, From That Which Is to That Which Shall Be

By Maya Shakti

WHAT? Self-formation

Self-formation refers not just to the individual's learning capacity of plasticity and flexibility, and the openness to change and learn, but also to the ability of reflection to make sense of the world and of individual experiences. This concept helps structure the individual's process of self formation and guide the actions of the teacher. Self-formation can be experienced in an infinite variety of ways, depending on the how the opportunities for learning take form. 1 The infant starts from its body and parental contact, learning about and connecting to that which is in their close and immediate surroundings. From this the individual consciousness step by step widens into awareness of society. The individual develops through reflection, interactions with others, and through physical activity. How a person sees herself/himself and sees the world are closely linked.2 “The basis of a man's nature is almost always, in addition to his soul's past, his heredity, his surroundings, his nationality, his country, the soil from which he draws sustenance, the air which he breathes, the sights, sounds, habits to which he is accustomed.”3

WHY? Learning is a three-fold process

Development often has its starting point in experiencing the immediate, without reflection. This then leads the individual through a process of first having a sense of fragmentation and differentiation, and then leading to integration, to finally experiencing harmony, synthesis and reconciliation with that which was experienced. The world is in a constant process of being interpreted through thoughts and actions. This process never stops, throughout our lives, in a constant dialogue between the individual and her/his experiences. Free and natural growth is the condition of such a genuine development. Learning opportunities based in real life situations offer genuine experiences.4 The student is an active part of the learning process, also creating their own learning opportunities. The teacher can invite but never impose.5

Humans don’t just learn through their interpretations, but also through their actions. When things are done the way one is accustomed to, and the individual then bumps into problems or gets surprised, this leads a need to try to do things differently.6 By doing so, the person’s image of reality is the starting point for learning opportunities, from there one can expand learning outwards by through self-driven curiosity and questions.7 To be able to act differently humans need to reflect on their actions, and find new, sustainable ways of being and acting. Self-awareness is developed through this increasing focus of values of care and responsibility for relations to other people, and the environment. It's a journey back and forth between the particular and the universal. Existing oppositions help to produce new understanding.8 Education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be. Each person is a carrier of the past, the possessor of the present, and creator of the future. “The past is our foundation, the present our material, the future our aim and summit.”9

In Integral Education this process is described further, at a deeper plane of the human being, as a threefold process: self-knowledge, awakening of the true centre of one’s being (psychic being), and an ongoing process of integration and harmony. The work of the individual is to analyze the psychological movements that occur inside oneself, and to understand these with a sense of accuracy, to know which part of one’s being they are coming from. The inner psychological dynamics together with the work of the personality is an ongoing process in an Integral Education, and an essential movement for integration and harmonization. Psychological tools such as self-observation, introspection, mindfulness to gain self-awareness, self-understanding and self-mastery are at the core of implementation of Integral Education.10

HOW? Learning as an ongoing interaction with the Self, Others and the Environment

The word curriculum used in its traditional sense can feel limiting, as it tends to be preset and thus not allowing for the freedom needed for Integral Education. A new framework for curriculum, moving from noun to verb, coining the term currere. Curriculum moves from one of content, to, in this new pedagogy, a process. The method of currere requires the student to be in an ongoing spiral of reflection upon their life experiences so far. The framework has four steps to be followed: the regressive, the progressive, the analytical, and the synthetic. These steps help the student in the journey of retelling the story of her/his educational experiences, imagining future possibilities for self-understanding and educational practice, and  analyzing relationships between one’s past, present and future life history and practice.11

The first regressive step encourages the individual to remember particular educational experiences and how these past experiences have guided and affected them in their development. This allows the person to understand how the past has not only affected them, but also the people and environment surrounding them. The next step is the progressive step which offers an opportunity for the individual to think about the future. After this there is an analytical step to look at the here and now, to create a new, fresh, subjective space of freedom in the present. This allows the student to be able to be in a reflective process, and feel that they are leading their own journey, with the possibility to make new conscious choices to steer the direction. The final step is the synthetic step, which is about analyzing the present in light of the knowledge and understanding gained throughout this reflective process. This individual journey supports the process of becoming - through self-reflection, self-awareness, self-understanding, self-motivation, self-drive, and self-assessment.12

The currere has the purpose of defining the milestones or areas of work, and guided by the teacher, a curriculum will emerge for each student, offering opportunities for the development of their faculties of consciousness.  Here the individual development of the personality is entwined with social awareness, local and global responsibility, and curriculum reflections need to merge these areas.  An Integral Education approach would support the complete development of the individual and society, inside and out, and a curriculum would need to support the evolutionary unfolding of an individual and collective consciousness through the stages of development.13

An Integral Education wants to offer learning opportunities to the student by using the questions they are confronted with in their lives as a doorway to growth. The student acquires a relation not only to the given answers, but to the questions behind the answers, and also develops the ability to learn to formulate new answers to old questions as well as new questions to be answered.14 These questions are guided by the teacher to find ways of how the socio-cultural aims of this evolutionary educational philosophy can be translated into educational content in the everyday educational practices.15

This approach prevents the students from unreflectively dedicating themselves to cultural content, practices, specific skills or concepts, as in the traditional educational system. Instead, through such practices curriculum theory starts by not affirming any ambitions such as learning of contents or learning of generic skills or concepts.16 The aims of currere are not on the acquisition of specific knowledge content, but of development of the faculties of consciousness, the physical, vital and mental, through which the truth-consciousness (psychic being) will come more and more to the forefront.  The stronger this presence grows, the individual will more and more experience that which, in the depth of their being, carries a sense of universality, limitless expansion, and term-less continuity.17

References

  1. Uljens Micheal & Ylimaki, Rose (2017). Implications and future directions for a new research agenda on non-affirmative education theory. Leadership and policy in schools. 2(16), 389-396.
  2. Gustavsson, Bernt (2003). Bildning och demokrati – att förmedla det partikulära och det universella. Utbildning & Demokrati, 1(12), 39-58.
  3. Aurobindo, Sri (1972). The hour of god and other writings. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, p.204-205.
  4. Gustavsson, Bernt (2003). Bildning och demokrati – att förmedla det partikulära och det universella. Utbildning & Demokrati, 1(12), 39-58.
  5. Neeltje (2015). Psychic education - a workbook. New Delhi: Sri Aurobindo Society; Stoll Lillard, Angeline (2007). Montessori - the science behind the genius. New York: Oxford University Press; Partho (2008) Integral education – a foundation for the future. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society; Aurobindo, Sri &  Mother, The (1995). A divine life manifesto- an integral education for a divine life. Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press
  6. Gustavsson, Bernt (2003). Bildning och demokrati – att förmedla det partikulära och det universella. Utbildning & Demokrati, 1(12), 39-58.
  7. Egidius, Henry (2003). Pedagogik för 2000-talet. Stockholm: Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur.
  8. Gustavsson, Bernt (2003). Bildning och demokrati – att förmedla det partikulära och det universella. Utbildning & Demokrati, 1(12), 39-58.
  9. Aurobindo, Sri (1972). The hour of god and other writings. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, p.205.
  10. Partho (2008) Integral education – a foundation for the future. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society.
  11. Partho (2008) Integral education – a foundation for the future. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society; Pinar, William Frederick (1975). The method of currere. Annual Meeting of the American Research Association. Washington, D. C.
  12. Pinar, William Frederick (1975). The method of currere. Annual Meeting of the American Research Association. Washington, D. C.
  13. Partho (2008) Integral education – a foundation for the future. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society; Rich, Matthew (2012). Educating towards an emerging future: an integral proposal. To be young! Youth and Future. Finland.
  14. Uljens, Michael (2016). Non-affirmative curriculum theory in a cosmopolitan era? Revista Tempos e Espaços em Educação, 18(9), 121-132.
  15. Ylimaki, Rose, Fetman, Lisa, Matyjasik, Erin, Brunderman, Lynnette, Uljens, Michael (2017). Beyond Normativity in Sociocultural Reproduction and Sociocultural Transformation: Curriculum Work - Leadership Within an Evolving Context. University Council for Educational Administration, Educational Administration Quarterly, 1(53), 70-106.
  16. Uljens, Michael (2016). Non-affirmative curriculum theory in a cosmopolitan era? Revista Tempos e Espaços em Educação, 18(9), 121-132.
  17. Rao, Venkateswara, Peesapati (2019). Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on five aspects of integral education. International Journal of Advanced Research, ideas and innovations in technology. 1(5).