18 Oct Integral Education
Mainstream, conventional higher education emphasizes the cognitive, the rational, the verbal and written word (Wexler, 2011). Wexler also points out that despite this emphasis, students are graduating deficient in writing skills, mathematical understanding, or the ability to think critically. On the contrary, an integral education identifies itself as having transformative and emancipatory potential for the student (Ferrer et al., 2005). In addition, as Esbjorn relates (2010), an integrative education understands the benefits of multiple points of view and their strengths and limits, rather than adopting just one philosophy as the scientific, reductionist education system generally does.
Perhaps the most important feature of an integral education is keeping intellectual rigor and personal growth in balance, as suggested by Wexler (2011), thus serving the holistic development of the student. The Western educational system ignores or has no appreciation for developing the somatic, vital, emotional, aesthetic, intuitive, or spiritual facets of a student’s development (Ferrer et al., 2005), thus is at risk of developing persons with mental pride and arrogance.
The main challenge of an integral/transpersonal education has been the tendency toward anti-intellectualism (Ferrer et al., 2005). The major challenge with online learning is the fact that students’ and teachers’ bodies are not in the same room breathing together, and that if teachers are using contemplative techniques as part of their teaching style, as does Burack (2014), it may be hard to assess if a particular student is experiencing an adverse effect.
In order to facilitate a more integral learning environment for online education, perhaps students could be encouraged to participate in somatic disciplines of their choice plus writing a paper about their experience for credit. Teachers could hold online classes more frequently and include contemplative exercises as suggested by Burack (2014). Experiential exercises such as embodied awareness processes can be shared online. Students could be encouraged to keep journals of their somatic, vital, emotional, aesthetic, intuitive and spiritual growth, as per Ferrer et al. (2005), during a semester as a class requirement. Students could contribute to their online integral learning by doing the above suggested holistic disciplines on their own even without receiving credit as part of their personal and spiritual growth work.
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© 2023 Catherine Auman
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