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Neohumanist Educational Futures:
Liberating the Pedagogical Intellect
Tamsui and Taipei,
Tamkang University, 2006
Neohumanist Educational Futures breaks new ground by linking
neohumanism (the expansion of humanism to include nature and deep
spirituality) with pedagogy and futures thinking.
Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, all educators, theorize the ethics of
inclusion and exclusion; situate neohumanism in Tantric and transcultural
futures; map out issues in neohumanist pedagogy (including, education for
world futures; from information to wisdom; social cohesion in South Africa;
speciesism and vegetarian pedagogy in Sweden; alternative indicators for
neohumanism; integrated intelligence, peace and non-violence, partnership
education; and the politics of historiography) and provide case studies of
neohumanist educational practice. Interspersed throughout this text are
short pieces by Indian mystic and author, P.R.Sarkar; Gurukul Vice-Chancelor,
Shumbushivananda and an interview with Paulo Freire conducted by social
activist Maheshvarananda.
Along with Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, contributing authors include
Vedaprajinananda Avadhuta, Tobin Hart, Marcus Anthony, Riana Eisler, Marlene
de Beer, Helena Pederson, Vachel Miller, Peter Hayward, Joseph Voros and
Mahajyoti Glassman.
The authors argue that the current paradigms of uni and multiculturalism
have reached their limits (and the tensions between them) – a new approach,
as in neohumanism or transcultural and transcendental sustainability, is
required for humanity to move forward, and while doing so include those it
has pushed aside.
To create this alternative future, a new educational philosophy and practice
is required; one that inspires but does not become yet another method to be
tamed and imitated.
Neohumanism intends to awaken the intellect from its narrow boundaries
(nationalist, religious) toward planetary spirituality. Education in this
future would be holistic – physical, mental and spiritual; ecologically and
technologically driven; global and local in its orientation, and person
based, meeting the changing evolutionary and developmental needs of each
child and adult, teacher and student-learner.
COMMENTS ON NEOHUMANIST EDUCATIONAL FUTURES
"This wonderful book is timely. It enhances education to include those
things which can be readily understood rationally and those things we don't
necessarily have a rational explanation for, but nevertheless have an
intuitive, often nonlocal relationship with, such as a new(er) understanding
of the convergence of science and spirituality, the two as integral to each
other and not separate from each other. The authors have shown us that
Neohumanism through educational futures can offer a needed respite for
organizations from their current addiction to consumerism. Neohumanism as a
vital leadership challenge - how to demonstrate performance management
(rational analyses) but at the same time put this into the context of
purpose and meaning attribution (non rational, post rational, non local).
This, from an organizational perspective, permits us to shift our behaviour
from the current hypothesized, but I believe immature belief, 'that the
business of business is business. No apology required' to behaving as
responsible members, responsible adults, of the global community which
brings with it the welfare of both current and future generations. It brings
hope."
Dr Robert Burke, Program Director, Melbourne Business School, Mt
Eliza
Centre for Executive Education, Melbourne, Australia.
"Provides a refreshing new
future for global education. Inspiring and thought provoking."
Dr. Kuo-hua Chen, Dean, Global Research and Development, Tamkang
University, Lanyang Campus, Taiwan.
"Having taught in
mainstream education for some 15 years before taking the brave step away
from what was safe, comfortable and for the most part relatively easy. I am
excited that such a resource is available for other educators who might be
questioning current practices within mainstream education. Neohumanist
Educational Futures offers invaluable insight into both the theoretical
and practical elements of a curriculum that focuses on human potential
rather than limited quantitative learning. In addition, it affirms many
teachers existing belief that there are better ways to educate and live."
Chiray Fitton
Principal, Alcheringa
Montessori College,
Buderim, Australia
"If we wanted to protect
the future for our children and theirs, how would we do it? First we must
imagine better futures, then work out how to create them. But who would we
entrust with such a task? Whose “better” futures?
There’s no-one I would rather trust with the futures of my children and
theirs than the authors of this amazing book, each of them enriched by deep
scholarship and humanity, and refreshingly free of attachment to ego or
dogma. In a dazzling succession of illuminating concepts, they offer new
ways to think about ourselves and our global futures. Together, they
describe a system of wisdom-centred education for global citizens that
really does have the potential to save the future."
Jan Lee Martin, Founding Chair, Future Foundation, Sydney
"Neo-humanist
Educational Futurescontributes to the work of creating a
global renaissance in education and culture. I believe that readers will be
pleasantly surprised to find in neo-humanism the best vision of a bright
future for the world."
Dada Jyotirupananda, Editor, New Renaissance magazine (www.ru.org),
Mainz, Germany and London, England.
"If our planetary future is
to embody anything other than a global commodity culture with recurrent
technological, political, environmental, military and social crises, then
consciousness itself, and the acts of thought that flow from it, must shift
radically. Education is a crucial component of any such "paradigm shift,"
yet current educational discourse is almost exclusively concerned with test
scores, bureaucratic accountability, the standardization of knowledge, and
the preparation of students for the global economy. In this arid landscape,
Neohumanist Educational Futures: Liberating the Pedagogical Intellect
offers a deep breath of invigorating intellectual air. These essays,
synthesising ancient and postmodern understandings of compelling depth and
richness, constitute a 'wisdom-centered' paradigm of educational thought and
practice that might turn us away from the looming dystopian future toward a
dynamic new ethical era of peace, sustainability, social justice, and the
cultivation of human potential."
Dr. Kathleen Kesson, Professor of Urban Childhood Education at the
Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University, and author (with Jim Henderson)
of Curriculum Wisdom: Educational Decisions in Democratic Societies.
"This important book should
be read by all those who care about the future of education. Embracing the
enlightenment of both east and west, the authors of this book offers us a
future worldview that is truly integral--an educational narrative that is
both pragmatic and visionary, both spiritual and rational. "
Roar Bjonnes, Author, columnist, and former editor of Prout
Journal.
"Neohumanist
Educational Futures is a vital new addition to
the emergent literature on educational approaches which honour the inner
dimensions of the child. Although not as well known as the major European
spiritually-oriented educational alternatives, such as those initiated by
Rudolf Steiner and Maria Montessori, the neo-humanist pedagogy developed by
Indian philosopher and mystic P R Sarkar deserves much wider recognition. A
diversity of such integrated approaches are a salve for the global cultural
spirit in these urgent times when the factory model of mainstream Western
education is being insinuated into cultures everywhere, in spite of its
failure to meet the needs of the world's youth. This significant book
elucidates Sarkar's educational contribution to the world, introducing
neo-humanist education to the largely spiritually-starved contemporary
educational discourse. "
Jennifer Gidley, Educational Psychologist, Steiner school founder and
Co-Editor of The University in Transformation and Youth Futures.
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