View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Bilingual Publishing Co. (BPC): E-Journals Journal of International Education and Practice | Volume 01 | Issue 01 | 2018 Journal of International Education and Practice http://ojs.bilpublishing.com/index.php/jiep/ ARTICLE Holonic Theory and Holistic Education Josep Gallifa* FPCEE Blanquerna. Ramon Llull University, C. Cister 34, 08022 Barcelona, Spain ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: This paper presents the holonic theory, which is an attempt to develop in a single model the Received: 18 December 2018 explanation of the evolution in the physic, biologic and cultural dimensions. The purpose of Accepted: 27 December 2018 this development is to understand the traits of nowadays common holism, which is considered Published: 18 January 2019 a necessary thinking practice in different domains, among them education. A phenomenolog- ical study has been developed connecting diverse noospheric holons. The results allow for a Keywords: characterization of the holonic structure of a holistic consciousness act. This characterization is Holonic Theory used to define holistic education: An education with the dimensions of preservation, profundi- Holistic Education ty, projective action and span. This article can also be interpreted as a contribution to provide Holistic Pedagogy the ontological and epistemological bases for going beyond the modern and postmodern worl- Phenomenology dviews. These findings help in providing a framework for today's holistic pedagogical debates and developments. 1. Introduction ed, in a simple way, as recovering the 'subject', by present- n the most part of professions that involve human ing a suitable model of consciousness. The bias towards relationships and, more generally, in contemporary the 'objective' knowledge let the legacy of premodern intellectual perspectives there is a common need: to traditions aside. Recovering the 'subject' in the context of I the nowadays modern and postmodern worldviews is thus think comprehensively, globally, holistically. Effective- [1] ly, today's problems rarely can be approached only from another related important need. Wilber presented an in- only one specialty, and integrated or integral approaches tegral theory to integrate these worldviews and traditions are needed in order to grasp the complexity of issues and in a single model. Particularly meaningful is the contri- phenomena. Education is in the midst of this contempo- bution of Wilber presenting a model for the evolution of rary trend. Nevertheless to create holistic or integral kinds the subject, in the form of a spectrum of consciousness, of thinking there is a previous need to be addressed and in which he described the levels of evolution of the sub- focused on, which is to have a well-defined ontological jective consciousness. The model of Wilber was used to model, able to accommodate integrated and holistic -in- substantiate in turn different approaches: Beck and Cowan [2] stead of fragmented- perspectives. Therefore a first ques- in the value-memes of a culture, Esbjörn-Hargens or tion to be discussed is: Is there an ontological system as Murray in integral education,[3] Laloux in the evolution of inclusive as possible of multiple perspectives? organizations,[4] Thomas in integral leadership,[5] among On the other hand, there is another important need in many others. All of these approaches are founded on sub- intellectual and practical endeavors that can be formulat- jective acts of holistic consciousness. Another question, *Corresponding Author: Josep Gallifa, Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, C. Cister 34, 08022 Barcelona, Spain E-mail: [email protected] 36 Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/jiep.v1i1.415 Journal of International Education and Practice | Volume 01 | Issue 01 | 2018 therefore, open to be answered and important is: Is there paradigm is an alternative not only to the scientistic any pattern for modeling and understanding holistic con- reductionism of the modern age but also to the intel- sciousness? lectual reductionism of postmodern thought. Holistic In education, these tendencies helped to develop what education is a humanistic as well as a spiritual critique has been known as holistic education. Holistic education of the dominant culture".[15] is another way to refer the Early 20th. Century movement Holistic education encompasses a wide range of peda- of "progressive education", carried out by Montessori, gogies and philosophical or spiritual orientations. Holistic Steiner or Dewey, among many others. Their pedagogies pedagogies try to include any significant aspect of the emphasized imagination, aesthetics, organic thinking, human experience, "the different aspects of the individual practical engagement, creativity, and spirituality.[6] In the (intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional, social and aes- 70s diverse approaches emerged being "critical of the for- thetic), as well as the relationships between the individual mal, modernist 'factory-model' of mass education. Most and other people, the individual and natural environment, sought to broaden education beyond the simple informa- the inner- self of students and external world, emotion tion-processing model based on a mechanistic view of the and reason, different discipline of knowledge and different human being to a more holistic, creative, multifaceted, form of knowing, holistic education is concerned with life embodied and participatory approach".[7] These perspec- experience, not with narrowly defined "basic skills".[16] tives were out of the dominant worldview of mainstream Nevertheless, in holistic perspectives, sometimes there is education. At the beginning of the 21st. Century appeared an implicit -or sometimes explicit- worldview or meta- many pedagogical approaches related to the evolution of physical approach. A defining feature of holistic pedagog- consciousness. Among them: aesthetic and artistic edu- ical perspectives is the relationship between education cation, complexity in education, imaginative education, and consciousness evolution. This relationship has been integral education, postmodern and poststructuralist ped- promoted "pointing to the emergence of more complex, agogies, social and emotional education, or spirituality in dialectical, imaginative, self-reflective and spiritual ways education.[8] These approaches, pedagogically well found- of thinking, living and loving".[17] Nevertheless, there isn't ed and structured, usually referred to the methods used as a unified systematic characterization of holistic conscious- holistic pedagogies. ness, neither a characterization with minimal metaphysical In a strict sense, holistic education designates some references. This is the aim of this work: to find a general perspectives developed following a single pedagogue. model for holistic consciousness to relate it to holistic ed- It's the case, for instance, of Steiner's model of education, ucation and pedagogies. which "provides an integrated, holistic balance of intellec- These aforementioned developments have relevance tual/cognitive, artistic/imaginative and practical/life skills in today's general pedagogical debates, in a diversity of education".[9] This approach includes Steiner's notion of ways. For example, in the curricular field, there is a need imaginative teaching using diverse methods: drama, ex- to promote complex curricula, as opposed to the mod- ploration, storytelling, routine, arts, discussion, and empa- ernist oriented curriculum.[18] This means that nowadays thy.[10] Another example, using similar methodologies, is there are new -or not so new- expected curricular stan- Krishnamurti's holistic education, which "reminds us that dards: constructivist views of learning, social inclusion, we should not be dogmatic or doctrinaire in our educa- and respect for diversity, a view of the process as being tion".[11] Some author-dependent holistic education devel- as important than product, lifelong learning outcome, the opments become in time –unfortunately- "too narrow and significance of metacognition and motivation in learning, rigid" [12] in their approaches. or promoting multiple intelligences.[19] "Curriculum the- In a more general sense, holistic education can desig- ory and practice are faced by new uncertainties, and such nate any pedagogy that incorporates principles of spiritu- uncertainties require new approaches to practice and new ality, wholeness, and interconnectedness along with prin- ways of thinking".[20] One trend is framing of the new cur- ciples of freedom, autonomy, and democracy.[13] Doing so ricula around capacities or core/key competencies. Thus, holistic education perspectives highlight eight broad prin- for example, Scotland specifies that the curriculum should ciples: spirituality, reverence to life/nature, interconnect- enable young people to become:[21] successful learners, edness, human wholeness, individual uniqueness, caring confident individuals, responsible citizens, and effective relations, freedom/autonomy, and democracy.[14] contributors. Students are expected to play a diversity of "Holistic education is a radically non-reductionistic roles in different dimensions of human evolution. And it approach based upon a person-centered, ecological, means that there is a need for comprehensive curricular global and spiritual worldview. As such, the holistic agendas. Another