Integral Development and Educational Renewal in Saskatchewan: A Visionary Process

Authors

  • Barbara Wotherspoon University of Saskatchewan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2011.v17i1.91

Keywords:

integrated education, transformative education

Abstract

“We must educate to survive, critique and create.” (Berry, as cited in O’Sullivan, 1999, p. 8)

Transformative educators such as Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, and Edmund O’Sullivan believe that the time has come for a shift away from the dominant Western educational ideology that focuses on achievement, individualism, and material success.  They propose that education must become more than a system of banking information and standardized testing, and educators must be prepared to operate out of a much larger integrated worldview.  They suggest that schools must provide balanced non-dualistic education that values students more for who they are than what they can achieve.  In June 2008, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education published a document which addresses similar concerns to those raised by Berry, Swimme, and O’Sullivan.  The document entitled Renewed Objectives for the Common Essential Learning of Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) and Personal and Social Development (PSD) recommends a number of key changes to existing educational policy in the areas of emotional, social and spiritual formation.  The recommendations place emphasis on spiritual development, environmental awareness, ecological principles, human diversity, creative-ability development, and community-based achievement.  This paper analyzes the educational need for renewal of current Western ideology and it supports the revamping of policy as proposed by the 2008 Ministry of Education document.  It also discusses how the three principles of O’Sullivan’s (1999) integral development theory towards transformative education may be helpful for enhancing the effective implementation of the 2008 CCT and PSD Ministry of Education document.

Keywords: integrated education; transformative education

Author Biography

  • Barbara Wotherspoon, University of Saskatchewan
    Barb Wotherspoon is a U of S PhD student in the area of Adult Transformative Education. She has a background in arts education, differentiated learning, spiritual direction and multidisciplinary studies. Barb was the keynote speaker at the 2008 Learning in Practice Conference and she was a presenter at the Regina and Saskatoon STF Showcase in 2008. Results of Barb's 3 year Action-Based research study on the effects of integrating the arts into compulsory subjects are published in the 2007 Dr. Stirling McDowell Research Project report entitled ACE IT! Currently, Barb is conducting theoretical research on Transformative Education with a concentration on Edmund O'Sullivan's principles of Integral Development,which build on Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme's Cosmocentric thought on mutually enhancing human-nature interconnectedness.

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Published

2013-01-14

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2011): Spring 2011

Section

Articles

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