Individualized and Collaborative Learning:

Towards Integral Studies Curriculum at AUM

Beloo Mehra, Ph.D.

Antioch University McGregor

 

“Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, which means “In the Name of Allah Most Gracious and Most Merciful,” as I utter and write these words my heart melts as I remember that I am a spiritual being that has a divine origin. As a Muslim, these words help me remember that all things and beings around me are divine.”

This is how Riyad Ahmed Shahjahan begins his paper that just appeared in October 2004 issue of Journal of Transformative Education. To open an academic paper with an invocation to the Divine is certainly a long departure from the days when anything that smelled or looked spiritual was seen with suspicion and mistrust in the halls of American Academy that emphasized Reason and Rationality. But before we begin to celebrate, let us read a few more lines from Shahjahan’s article. Acknowledging that even writing a paper on marginalization of spirituality in academy is challenging, he writes:

“I am aware that spirituality means different things to different people, which makes it a challenging topic to discuss within the academic framework…Nevertheless, the topic of spirituality cannot be left on the margins and must be brought to the center of discussion in the academy. We need to acknowledge that it is very important to many people’s lives…. Yet the spirituality of people has been silenced and put at the margins of the academy, where people cannot express it and can only practice it outside its walls…. Academics may fear that their spirituality will be ridiculed within the confines of academia as an embodied practice or discourse…” (p. 295)

Shahjahan’s paper provides a growing list of references for anyone interested in learning more about this emerging new discourse on spirituality in higher education in North America. One particular author he cites, Bell Hooks, has been a personal inspiration for me because of her influential work on Black feminism in the US and her work on anti-oppressive and anti-racist pedagogy. Shahjahan quotes the following from Hooks’ Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope –

“It is essential that we build into our teaching vision a place where spirit matters, a place where our spirits can be renewed and our souls restored... To me the classroom continues to be a place where paradise can be realized, a place of passion and possibility, a place where spirit matters, where all that we learn and know leads us into greater connection, into greater understanding of life lived in community.” (p. 308, as cited in Shahjahan, 2004)

Elsewhere, Hooks has said –

“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine way to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.” (Teaching to Transgress, 1994, p. 207)

Such voices calling for openness of mind and heart, for moving beyond boundaries, for viewing learning as a practice of freedom, and for understanding ‘knowing’ as that which leads us into greater connection and greater understanding of life challenge the rigid dichotomy of mental knowing (or knowing by logic, reason) and other forms of knowing including experiential, contemplative, and intuitive. Other voices in the field of transformative learning guided by a keen passion for social transformation and informed by the critical pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, antiracist education and critical multicultural literature have focused on challenging power relations based on social structures of race, class, gender, or sexual orientation.

However, as Tisdell and Tolliver (2003) point out, most of the social transformation discussions within the field of education, especially in the Western context, have given little attention to the role of spirituality in the process. They see this as a bit surprising, “given that these social transformation discussions are heavily influenced by the pioneering work of Paulo Freire, who was a deeply spiritual man (Horton & Freire, 1990). Pointing at the beginnings of some direct discussion of the role of spirituality in social transformation, the authors cite Edmund O’Sullivan’s 1999 work in which he argues “any in-depth treatment of “transformative education” must address the topic of spirituality and that educators must take on the concerns of the development of the spirit at a most fundamental level. Contemporary education suffers deeply by its eclipse of the spiritual dimension of our world and universe.”(p. 259)

As an Indian educator in the American higher education system, I find this discourse on spirituality in academy heartening. I am beginning to learn more from the various voices including Parker Palmer, Elizabeth Tisdell, Arthur Zajonc and David K. Scott among others.

Another ongoing and somewhat encouraging development in American higher education discourse hasbeen the increasing acceptance of “multiple ways of knowing.” There have been several studies documenting the importance of the affect or emotion as an important element in the transformative learning process. Many educators have critiqued the hegemonic nature of an epistemology that privileges rationality and call for an equal emphasis on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning (Yorks and Kasl, 2002).

Focusing on the pedagogical discourse and practice in adult education, Yorks and Kasl (2002) suggest that although many adult educators are interested in promoting multiple ways of knowing, they do not have a theoretical map to guide them and therefore often struggle with trying to integrate emotion and feeling into the learning experience. Instead of relying on a pragmatist view of experience, which ultimately casts affective knowing as an object for reflection, and which permeates adult education discourse, these authors argue that John Heron’s phenomenological integrated theory of human psyche in which he treats experience as a process, an encounter with the world, allows educators to consider experience as a verb. Such framing of a “felt encounter at the base of learning, is a useful theoretical perspective that can provide a foundation for practitioners in intentionally designing learning processes that provide for balance among multiple ways of knowing” (p. 185). They recommend that fostering the artful interdependence of four ways of knowing—experiential, presentational, propositional, and practical—supports learners as whole persons and ultimately supports their capacity to learn deeply.

Before I begin to connect these ideas to the central theme of my paper, let me also say a little bit about another aspect of American higher education which also provides some information about the context of my professional practice. I am referring to the concept of self-directed learning.  Situated within the idea of lifelong learning, self-directed learning puts the locus of control on the learner for decision making about the objectives and means of learning. Self-directed learning situation occurs when learner, and not the educator or the institution, controls both the learning objectives and the means of learning.

“Self-directed learning focuses on the process by which adults take control of their own learning, in particular how they set their own learning goals, locate appropriate resources, decide on which learning methods to use and evaluate their progress” (Brookfield, 1995). Many students who choose self-directed learning as their preferred mode of learning are adult, non-traditional students with a keen interest in their chosen field. While many of them may already be practitioners in their fields and are using self-directed learning to gain appropriate credentials for professional reasons, there are several adult self-directed learners whose first interest in “going back to school” is a quest for learning, self-development and self-understanding. For them individualized and self-directed learning becomes a means for their individual transformation.

These discourses in American adult education help create enough spaces to enter into the conversation on where and how to situate the curricular innovations based on the contributions of Indian psychology and Indian ways of knowing and being. It should not come as a surprise to many that most of the work in the above-mentioned discourses on “transformative learning,” “multiple ways of knowing” and “spiritual ways of knowing” is situated in more West-centric understandings of these ideas. It should also be noted however, that it is recently that attempts have begun in the direction of positioning Indian ways of knowing, learning, being, individual and social transformation in the context of these discourses in higher education – both in the West or in India. Reasons for that are not unknown to anyone present here.

AUM-ILPS

Curricular innovations that take into account the global and the local, multiple ways of knowing, doing and being, and which allow for the integration of a diversity of academic and cultural traditions are the need for the day. To date, few Indian Integral Studies programs exist in the United States, and none of them pursue the unique combination of individualized study, face-to-face and distance instruction, course offerings through national and international educational institutions, and transformative practice driven by the value of social responsibility.

As a progressive, future-oriented liberal arts institution Antioch University McGregor (AUM) has a strong tradition of being on the vanguard of curricular innovation and experimentation. At AUM we value life-long learning and a quest for knowledge for betterment of self and society. Our values of emphasizing cultural diversity and a global perspective are reflected in all of our educational programs including the graduate program in Individualized Liberal and Professional Studies (ILPS).

The ILPS program is a limited residency, individualized master’s program serving students who identify themselves as self-directed learners. Our students design and implement individualized curricula in the liberal and fine arts and in the social sciences. They are responsible for identifying academic resources and learning opportunities that will help them meet their educational goals. As a program we are responsible for verifying and approving the quality and credibility of these self-identified learning opportunities. We value rigorous scholarship, self-reflective practice, specialized and interdisciplinary learning. We understand individualized learning as learning that is meaningful, suitable and appropriate to the individual learner.

In Education for Tomorrow, Kireet Joshi (1996) reminds us that an individual, although a member of a group, and although sharing the commonness of the group, is still an individual with a special and unique combination of qualities, latent or active, which follow a special course of development towards the fulfillment of a specific and unique function. In Indian terminology, we may say that each one of us has our own swabhava (one’s own disposition or innate nature) and swadharma (what one must do corresponding with one's own innate psychic tendency or nature and what is precisely required for one’s growth). A learning process that answers to the rhythms and cycles of swabhava and swadharma is what may properly be called individualized learning. ILPS program attracts students who are on a journey to discover their special and unique qualities (swabhava) and to build upon them to fulfill a specific and unique function (swadharma). We see our primary role in the program as of guiding these students along this journey by helping each one of them design a unique and individualized learning program and process.

“The central knot at the core of individualized learning lies in the inter-twining of three needs in a meaningful process of learning, namely - the need for self-learning, the need for different kinds and degree of help from the teacher, and the need for a group or a collaborative study or work-experience. These needs are interlocked, and yet the organization demanded by each is so different from the one demanded by the other” (Joshi, 1996).

Through experimentation and constant reflection on our practice in ILPS, we have developed a system that reconciles these various needs of the total process of learning accurately and harmoniously. But we realize that this is a work in progress. So we pay attention to our students’ experiences in the program, we seek student feedback about the program design and constantly adapt and improve our offerings.

Besides recognizing the value of an individualized learning process, many of our ILPS students also seek personal transformation through their learning. This has been reflected in our students’ varied academic interests and fields of inquiry. In the last few years, we have seen many students interested in inter-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary topics in the areas of psychology, spirituality, transformative/holistic learning, philosophy, holistic healing, health and wellness education, adult learning, and human and organizational development. Some of the recent discourse in these fields draws upon the innovative applications of integral approaches that draw upon Eastern and particularly Indian knowledge systems. So one question we are beginning to ask is - are we able to help students learn about the contributions of Indian knowledge systems in these fields?

Integral Studies – Meeting of East and West

The emergence of a postmodern worldview in the West has challenged the notion of a rational, objective and value-free humanistic science. While this does not mean that postmodernists have given up on the pursuit of knowledge per se, they suggest that the creation or acquisition of knowledge does not necessarily lead to transcendental, inviable truths. A postmodern position thus necessitates an assumption that there is no one ‘Truth’ but many competing truth claims. Pluralism, relativism and heterogeneity reign in this worldview.

In questioning a fixed, essential, individualized, rational and coherent self (and society), postmodernists including post-structuralist feminists see all experience as having no ‘inherent’ meaning and emphasize that language gives meaning to an experience. Discourse is thus socially and culturally constructed and constructs both our “subject positions” and “subjectivity.” In other words, the emphasis in these frameworks is more on analyzing and articulating the constructed nature of discourse rather than the ‘true’ meaning of experience.

Sardar (1998) demonstrates the insufficiency of western intellectual traditions in dealing with the challenges that have shaken modern Western thought, and states: “... non-western cultures are not only aware of the diversity of realities but they have also developed criteria for the validation of different realities. The universe is not as meaningless as postmodernism would have us believe.” Referring to the capacity of non-western cultures to “validate different realities” Sardar concludes: “The point is that postmodernism is not what 'inevitably happens' when people discover that there are many realities and many ways of knowing…[many] non-Western people have always known this.” For example, the Vedic idea of “Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahudha Vadanti” (Truth is One, sages call it by many names) suggests a framework that allows for multiple truths to exist within a Universal, Absolute Truth.

An increasingly globalized world calls for the development of integrative curricula that experiment with ways of knowing, being, feeling, doing and relating that give justice to a multitude of social, cultural and philosophical traditions. There is an emerging interest in holistic and integral approaches to knowing and being. These approaches value a worldview that provides a framework that can uphold, support and integrate many, if not all, ways of knowing, being, feeling, doing and relating including philosophical, scientific, religious, and artistic.

It has been argued that postmodernism can be a major pointer towards changing the modus operandi of knowledge pursuit in the West, especially the study of mind, consciousness and psychology in an objective way. One way to resolve this impasse generated by the recognition of relativity and the postmodernist paradox can be to look at non-Western knowledge systems. 

Indian traditions have certainly made important contributions in this regard. But it is equally important to note that the Indian knowledge system is a living and growing system, in the sense that these philosophies are the foundation of a living civilization. This brings up important issues of how these knowledge systems, philosophies, and practices are studied and taught both in India and especially outside India. There are genuine concerns of misrepresentation, appropriation, de-contextualization and even degradation of original ideas and sources. However, some of this can be addressed by making these issues part of the academic discourse for learners and educators.

The spiritual traditions of India have “specialized for thousands of years in the exploration of the inner worlds and [i]n the acquisition of valid and reliable knowledge of consciousness” (Cornelissen, 2001). Indian traditions include a long history of systematic and rigorous attempts to develop methods of going beyond our mental consciousness. Many of these methods are not just the result of logical reasoning and philosophical thought, but are based in rigorous experimentation by sages and rishis of India. “The parallel for the word philosophy in Indian literature is darshana, which suggests that the thoughts in India do not owe their genesis to speculation and mental reasoning as has happened in the West, but to experience and seeing. The yogis, rishis and munis experienced the subtle realms through the various yogic practices, and then either recorded their experiences or had them passed on to the next generation through the oral tradition that was prevalent in Ancient India” (Kundan, 2002).

Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga is one such approach that brought the ancient worldview of Vedic sages and rishis into the present time. It is a perfectly systematic and logical process to arrive at a state beyond the mind, from where one can study the psychological processes that go on in oneself (and others) in an authentic and objective manner. The central purpose of Integral Yoga is understood as: “Transformation of our superficial, narrow and fragmentary human way of thinking, seeing, feeling, and being into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence and of our ordinary human living into the divine way of life” (Pandit, 1992, p. 127).

Cornelissen (2002) explains the meaning of Integrality thus: “Philosophically, if one wants to find a truly integral view of reality, one needs a worldview that is not just a combination, let alone an amalgamation of a hundred similar or dissimilar scientific and spiritual approaches. One needs something that rises above all of them, something that is capable of holding them all up in a comprehensive, higher order vision.” By taking the best out of modernism and postmodernism and rejecting the extremes in both, many Integral philosophers and theorists in East and West are applying integral ideas in fields such as psychology, human development, healing and wellness, organizational learning and even politics. By attempting to integrate the Eastern and Western ideas on consciousness and human development, theory and practice, inner and outer aspects of life, and individual and social life, we open up possibilities for meaningful application to address our problems of the day.

In the Post-modern condition of the Western Academy, we do find an increasing acceptance of subjective and experiential ways of knowing. But here again, it is important to note that in most cases the object of this knowing is limited to the external reality, as in the case of social scientists who use qualitative forms of inquiry to study experience. Of course, the researcher’s own self – his or her emotions, feelings or interpretations – is not considered outside the inquiry process. But even in those cases where any “inner knowing” is involved such as understanding feelings and emotions, the accepted understanding is that real “knowing” or “understanding” happens only when one applies intellectual or mental analysis on these inner experiences. Just experiencing something in our bodies and inner selves is not considered enough of an academic knowing. So even with the acceptance of subjective ways of knowing, the ‘felt’ knowing is less valued than the 'intellectualized' explanations of the feeling.

Even in situations where the knower is trying to inquire into his or her own inner experience, it should not come as a surprise that this process of intellectualization of experience or “introspection” often results in unreliable knowledge because “one typically looks with one part of oneself at another part of oneself. It is extremely difficult to watch oneself objectively without any bias, fear or expectation” (Cornelissen, 2001). Also, the particular theory or framework used to “situate” this experiential knowing adds another layer of bias to the knowledge. Acknowledging multiple and socially constructed nature of reality and the inevitability of bias in constructing knowledge using subjective ways of knowing, these postmodern approaches to understand human experience, including inner experiences, end up constructing a multiplicity of truths with no framework to integrate these diverse realities in a sense of wholeness or completeness.

In contrast, the practice of Integral Yoga provides not only a path towards turning inward (which, according to the Indian tradition, is itself a noble goal), but also a doorway to finding innovative and more harmonious ways of living within the material world. This reflects the idea that a path to inner transformation and seeking a unity of all things matter and spirit doesn’t have to reject the advancement we have made in the material world. But it also emphasizes the need for personal transformation as a way to achieve success in and harmony with the outer world.

Indian Integral Studies at AUM – Learning by Doing

Transformative learning and practice, future-oriented thinking, and dialogue of civilizations are our inspiration for our ongoing development of Indian Integral Studies program at AUM. A quest for holistic and integral ways of looking at life, experience, reality, and learning about them will be our guiding light as we work towards further development of this concentration.

Indian psychology and consciousness studies are indeed very broad fields. Any attempt at curriculum design in these areas will struggle with the questions of narrowing down the content, organizing it into digestible chunks and presenting it in a manner that keeps the integrity of the content but still allows the learner to connect it with the already existing (most likely Western) understandings of psyche and consciousness. This should not be seen as an argument for “thinning down” or “diluting” the content, but as an argument for realizing the need for appropriately situating the manifold and vast amounts of Indian contributions to psychology and holistic wellbeing as equally rigorous alternatives or in many cases the next dimension of what is needed to address the many ills of modern society.

Let me illustrate with some concrete examples. Everybody here knows about the immense popularity of yoga in USA. It is true that most people in the West understand yoga only as a system of asanas and perhaps including a little bit of meditation or contemplation. But what is often not known is that many times this focus on physical postures, fitness, and the stress-relief benefits ends up becoming a starting point for some people interested in yoga to go deeper into learning the philosophical and cultural understandings in which Yoga developed.

We can also see this with students interested in learning about other holistic approaches that include affective, aesthetic, and psycho-spiritual therapies. There is a need for systematic inquiry into the possibility of designing rigorous educational material and both undergraduate and graduate level courses that deal with Indian contributions to such therapeutic applications, including the more popular art and music therapies. Equally important is the need for courses that allow the learner to explore the philosophical and theoretical bases of these therapies across cultures and traditions.

Just recently three new students have joined our program and they are now beginning to develop their individualized curricula that will greatly benefit from courses in one or more aspects related to Indian contributions to psychological and physiological wellness. One student, a certified yoga instructor has chosen Yoga Psychology as her concentration. Another, a licensed Thai massage therapist, wants to study connections between Cultures and Holistic Healing; and the third student is focusing on Vibrational, Energy and Sound Therapies. All of these students have expressed keen interest in studying Indian approaches to healing and wellness, and two of them are even considering spending some time in India as part of their study. Another aspect common to their self-described approach to learning is that they are highly interested in learning the philosophical and cultural foundations and context of these healing approaches.

As per the ILPS program guidelines, all these individualized curricula will have a blend of theory and practice. Given the specific concentration of these students, their programs will also include some self-selected practicum opportunities. As their program advisor I have also recommended that in order to make their learning more integral, they must incorporate in their formal program some contemplative practice such as meditation, yoga, tai chi or qigong. They will be asked to keep a journal of such experiences.

Working with these three students will help us test many of our developing ideas on building this concentration in Indian Integral Studies focusing on Indian contributions to psychology, philosophy, learning, and being. Discussions are ongoing regarding the specifics of courses to be included in these students’ curricula. Efforts are also underway to identify instructors who will be interested in teaching these courses. Given the individualized distance learning nature of ILPS these courses will be primarily taught online if the instructor is not in the same geographical area as the student. Students will be completing the experiential component of their programs in their geographic areas. All courses, instructors and other student-identified learning opportunities will have to be officially approved by the program.

We foresee greater interest in such areas of learning in the future. Over the next couple of years, we hope to make available a core list of courses available for such students interested in psycho-spiritual and contemplative approaches. These courses will be open to all current and future ILPS students, students in other programs at AUM, and all interested individuals not enrolled in any AUM program.

These core courses could provide a good foundation for a Master’s program. Each of these courses will be worth 3 to 5 credits each. At present, all ILPS students attend a 4-day residency on campus, and start working on two foundations courses. Given that we are still at an early stage in our program development, no major changes were made to these foundations courses this time for the three students I just talked about. A special two-hour session titled Dhyana and Dialogue was organized to emphasize the need for incorporating experiential and contemplative knowing. A current ILPS student studying Yoga Psychology who spent almost a year living and studying in Bangalore and Pondicherry was also present there to share his experiences.

For one of the foundations courses these students are currently enrolled in, I included a small packet of reading material covering topics on transformative learning, multiple ways of knowing, and spirituality in American academy. Included in this packet were also a couple of articles that deal with some of the touchy but important issues of appropriation, misrepresentation and de-contextualization of philosophies and practices that has often been the outcome when Western scholars look beyond the Western knowledge paradigm, especially to the so-called ancient or indigenous cultures for answers. We plan to spend some time discussing the ideas presented in these articles in the next several weeks.

Based on the experiences and evaluations of our new three students who have just started, we will look into how to revise our foundations courses to include cognitive, experiential and contemplative components. I am also currently building a bibliography of appropriate reading materials to be used for the revised foundations courses in the future. It is important that these materials include Indian contributions to ways of knowing and being. We will also be looking into further formalizing the experiential aspects of the residency to include yoga, meditation and other contemplative practices.

Faculty Collaboration: Globally and Locally

One of the unique aspects of this project is the collaborative nature of the people involved in its planning and design. In the spirit of global collaboration and partnership, and in an attempt to bring East and West closer – an idea in perfect harmony with Integral worldview - we are hoping to collaborate with scholars and practitioners in India.

In this connection, we recently had the privilege of hosting Dr. Ananda Reddy from SACAR, Sri Aurobindo Center for Advanced Research. We learned about SACAR’s various activities and its recent venture of establishing an online teaching facility, namely, The University of Tomorrow (TUT). He informed us that Integral Yoga Psychology and Integral Philosophy constitute the two pillars of TUT courses. He has also suggested that Science of Living courses might also have a larger appeal.

We have been discussing the possibility and process of our collaboration with TUT/SACAR. During this visit I am hoping to work with the TUT facilitators and Director to further these conversations. I am also hoping to discuss with them more about the details and logistics of the ILPS system of narrative evaluations including student’s self-evaluation.

For the experiential and contemplative components of the program, we will be tapping into local and national resources. We are also working with an Integral psychotherapist in Europe to develop some course ideas. As we work with the three students who have just started, we will be identifying more resources to further expand our network.

Challenges in Program Design

Kipling once wrote, “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.” In some ways this idea presents a key challenge in any field of study that tries to integrate the two very different ways of knowing and being in the world. I started this paper by giving references to some of the recent work being done in the areas of spirituality in American academy and transformative learning. But I am also keenly aware of the lack in this discourse of Indian understandings of spirituality, transformation, Knowledge, Self, and Truth. With regard to curriculum design in the fields of inner sciences including consciousness studies, psychology and also in more applied fields such as mind-body-spirit therapies, differences in understandings of Knowledge and Ways of Knowing can and do provide a significant challenge in how these ideas are presented to learners.

An academic paradigm – both in the West and in India – that is heavily grounded in an epistemology of Objectivism, which as Palmer notes, “is morally deforming” and “is an unfaithful rendition of how human beings know the world,” (2000, p. 18) will most likely see the experiential, inner knowing as less valid. In the specific context of how we approach curriculum design in Indian Integral Studies, this issue translates into three specific challenges. First, where and how do we begin to design appropriate learning materials and activities that help learners distinguish and experience various ways of knowing? Second, what should this pedagogy that combines cognitive, affective, experiential, and contemplative forms of knowing look like? And third, will the individuals with ‘inner knowing’ be considered equally credible and/or having the right credentials to “teach” in higher education by a system that emphasizes certain “outside” knowledge? For example, what should be the appropriate balance of “insider” knowledge and “outsider” knowledge for an instructor of a course in Yoga Psychology or Meditation? A related issue is to determine the correct balance of “insider” and “outsider” knowledge experiences in a student’s program.

We pay close attention to every student’s learning goals and we spend time going over the details of each student’s curriculum. Given the individualized and distance-learning nature of our program, and given that our students identify their own learning goals and instructors (of course with input and approval from the program advisor), these issues demand much greater attention as we work through our initial experiences. We hope to find ways to address these and other challenges that we know we are bound to encounter as we move further with our program design, especially as we work towards formalizing a list of structured courses for future students to choose from. This would require networking with interested individuals and organizations, pushing certain limits and at the same time being conscious and reflective of our decisions. The best approach we have been able to find so far is - go slow and experiment. Our experiences with this first small group of students will undoubtedly teach us important lessons for future planning.

A Final Word

In the above pages I have provided a brief account of the work we are currently engaged in with regard to finding ways and approaches to bring Indian contributions to inner sciences into the learning experiences of our students at Antioch. As described earlier, we are doing this within the framework of our existing program structure and in a way that honors the individual learning goals and preferences of our students. To quote from Kireet Joshi once again, “the central preoccupation of all the modern educational methodology and innovations is to invent a flexible structure of education that would fulfill the demands of individualized learning” (1996). Over the last several years, we have constantly reflected upon and modified our program structure that values and supports individualized learning and we stay open to further needed modifications as we move ahead with the development of Indian Integral Studies concentration.

Anyone interested in exploring ways and possibilities to design learning opportunities and materials based on Indian knowledge systems, especially the ones dealing with inner sciences, realizes that it will require constant learning from experience. But most importantly it requires an acceptance and celebration of the idea that true education requires a balanced and holistic approach that values both mind and spirit. It requires an opening of the minds and hearts to the idea that Academy’s role is to not just help learners learn about theories and ways to apply, critique, and formulate theories. It requires us to bring back the idea that the role of the Academy is first and foremost to be a place where learners experience an opening of their minds, hearts and souls. This starts with the realization that whether learners or educators, we bring our spirituality with us when we enter the halls of Academy. This starts with an acceptance that knowing comes in several ways including a way of not-knowing and un-knowing. And for the Indians present in the room here, including myself, this starts with a curiosity to look at our own traditions for guidance to our process of decolonizing our minds and hearts.

I started this paper with an invocation to the Divine. And it seems only appropriate that I end with another invocation, this time with the one that was a regular part of my morning assembly experience for ten out of twelve years of my schooling in Delhi.

"Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina; Sarve Santu Niramaya; Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu; Maa Kaschit Dukhabhagh Bhavet"

May all be happy; May all be free from disease; May all realize what is good; May none be subject to misery.

Just reciting this takes me back to an experience where times were carved out for us to realize how Indians in the past valued education of the spirit. But unfortunately once this time was over, we went back to classrooms where most of the material taught and learned had nothing to do with Indian contributions to the world of knowledge – outer or inner. It is time we begin to change that for learners everywhere.

References

Brookfield, S. (1995). Adult learning: An overview. In A. Tuinjman (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford, Pergamon Press. Retrieved February 2004 from  http://www.fsu.edu/~elps/ae/download/ade5385/Brookfield.pdf

Cornelissen, M. (2001), Towards an Integral Epistemology of Consciousness: A radical proposal based on Sri Aurobindo's Work. Paper presented at the International Seminar on Consciousness and Genetics, NIAS, Bangalore, India, June 23, 2001.

Cornelissen, M. (2002), Integrality. A talk given at the Cultural Integration Fellowship, San Francisco, April 6, 2002.

Pandit, M. P. (1992). Dictionary of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus Lake Publications.

Hooks, B. (2004). Teaching to transgress. New York: Routledge.

Joshi, K. (1996). Education for Tomorrow. Paper presented at the workshop titled “Education for tomorrow” organized by Sri Aurobindo Research Foundation, Baroda, September 7-8, 1996. Retrieved March 2002 from http://www.ncte-in.org/pub/other/kireet1/eft1.htm

Kundan (2002). Relativism, Self-Referentialilty and Beyond Mind. Paper presented at the International Conference on Mind and Consciousness: Various Approaches 2002, held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, January 9-11, 2002.

Palmer, P. (2000). A vision of education as transformation. In V. H. Kazanjian, Jr. & P. L. Laurence (Eds.). Education as Transformation: Religious Pluralism, Spirituality, and a New Vision for Higher Education in America (pp. 17-22). New York: Peter Lang.

Sardar, Z. (1998). Postmodernism and the Other: The New Imperialism of the Western Culture. London: Pluto Press.

Shahjahan, R. A. (2004). Centering spirituality in the Academy: Toward a transformative way of teaching and learning. Journal of Transformative Education, 2(4), 294-312.

Tisdell, E. J. & Tolliver, D. E. (2003). Claiming a sacred face: The role of spirituality and cultural identity in transformative adult higher education. Journal of Transformative Education, 1(4), 368-392.

Yorks, L. & Kasl, E. (2002). Toward a theory and practice for whole-person learning: Reconceptualizing experience and the role of affect. Adult Education Quarterly, 52, 176-192.