H E N T  N E W S

Holistic Education Network of Tasmania, Inc.

 March 31^st, 2004         Send this email to a friend

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In 2004 the Tasmanian Department of Education is consulting students, parents and the wider community on the values, purposes and outcomes that underpin post year 10 curriculum in Tasmania.

While holistic educators are strong advocates of examining values that underpin curriculum they also emphasise the importance of being explicit about underpinning worldviews. The often unquestioned implicit assumptions and perspectives that comprise worldviews have a profound influence on values, purposes and outcomes. Worldviews and paradigms are strongly related to the domains that are considered to be valid ground on which to build a curriculum.

We need to be more explicit about worldviews and domains when considering values, purposes and outcomes.

Worldviews: Holistic educators promote the questioning of fundamental beliefs and assumptions and being explicit about worldviews. Within holistic education there is a preference for whole systems, holistic, integral, quantum, ecological and transpersonal perspectives and a cautious use of concepts and metaphors borne out of materialism, reductionism, positivism, economic rationalism and modernism.

Domains: Different worldviews can lead to either expanded or limited domains. The domains within holistic education emphasise multidimensionality, wholeness and multiple perspectives. Holistic educators consider the whole person (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) from the intrapersonal to the interpersonal to the transpersonal. Whole systems are considered from the micro to the macro, from the local to the planetary to the cosmic. Studies in subject disciplines include interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.

Do we implicitly teach 19^th century assumptions?

'Billiard-ball' models of reality, 'cause-and-effect' thinking and ‘pull-things-apart’ processes convey a mechanistic reductionistic world view.

How often do teachers use19^th century metaphors such as "wheels of change", "machinery of government", "switched on thinkers", and "runs like clockwork"?

How often do educators use contemporary 'quantum',
'systems' or
'ecological'
metaphors?

Worldviews     Reading

Values: Holistic educators value the whole person, connectedness and caring (love). They value diversity within unity, being and becoming, and social justice. Other core or universal human values form part of a matrix of values that include tensions and dilemmas that need to be resolved, balanced or integrated as they present themselves. Students and teachers are whole human beings with as much to teach as they have to learn.

Quote

"Curriculum development is about personal development."
Unknown

Ref. Miller, John. (1996) The Holistic Curriculum. OISE Press, Canada

Metaphors and Learning

"Images and metaphors are not only interpretive constructs or ways of seeing, they also provide frameworks for action. Their use creates insights that often allow us to act in ways that we may not have thought possible before"
-- Gareth Morgan--

A Multi-Dimensional Multi-Level Educational Model
- Ramon Gallegos Nava

Click on graphic for more information

Some Whole Domains
 

Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Extrapersonal, Transpersonal

Mythic, Romantic, Philosophic, Ironic

Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual

Individual, Social, Community, Humanity

Verbal/Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Musical/Rhythmic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Body/Kinesthetic, Naturalist, Existential

HENT Web Site and Discussion List

HENT has a comprehensive web site and there is a national discussion list on holistic education hosted by EdNA. 

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