NB Please be patient whilst I transfer, re-format, and revise the course. The course is presented in outline form i.e. it doesn’t contain all of the content that I use in running a course or all of the texts. However it is sufficient to use as a platform for self-study or for conversion to a professional field other than education.
Introduction to 30 Unit Course
Foreword & Introduction
‘The Holism of Negative Space as the bringing in to practice what is usually left out’
“If there is only empty space, with no suns nor planets in it, then space loses its substantiality.” – Buddha
The Foreword and Introduction to the Course/es and Unit-sessions and the
methodological approach of ’sifting 3 levels of concepts’ to develop your own model
NB
To include all, or a set of the Unit-sessions in your institute’s programme please contact
Dr Roger Prentice Email rogerprenticeATbigfoot.com (substitute @ for AT)
Foreword – ‘Bringing in what is usually left out‘ – How I look at this course as being different:
The course is about the holism of holistic education – applied to education, or to your particular profession. It is about what is often left out of courses – a sense of the relatedness of things, the connectedness of things, the contextualizations of things – up to and including some sense of the whole.
The idea of ‘negative space’ is here used as a metaphor for what is special about Holistic Education. It is worth exploring definitions of ‘negative space’ but here is one for now;
- In art, negative space is the space around the subject of an image. Elements of an image that distract from the intended subject, or in the case of photography objects in the same focal plane, are not considered negative space. Negative space can be used to depict a subject in a chosen medium by showing everything around the subject but not the subject itself. Usage of negative space will produce a silhouette of the subject. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_space
Metaphorically then holism is seen as the space not occupied by that which in education is given (nearly all of the) attention. The course is pointing more to the mortar than the bricks, in psychological terms it is the field rather then the object. The concern is with a sense of the relatedness of things, the connectedness of things, the contextualizations of things – up to and including some sense of the whole.
More recently I heard the following:
Interviewer: (to famous young Shakespearian actor) How do you prepare for a new part?
Actor: I read the play…..… Then I read the play again as though the character isn’t there – to see what’s missing
BBC 4 10.50am 25th March 2006
A much more ancient reference to negative space might lie in the idea that the shape of the wind is the shape of the branch around which it flows.
Why have on the site three treatments of the concepts, namely the 30 Unit-Sessions, the Key Principles and the Dictionary? I am still asking myself that question! However the 30 Unit-sessions are the, bricks’, the postive space in the above described analogy. The Key principles are my reflections on the ‘negative space’ of the relationship of Unit-sessions to each other, and to contexts up to and including the’Whole’. The Dictionary is the repository of materials found that can inform either the positive space or the negative, the yin or the yang or their relationships and contexts. New stuff or re-thought issues I put on the blog
If the course is successful it teaches holistic thinking. If it is very successful it teaches holistic feeling and thinking. If it is wholly successful it will help you achieve a greater sense of integration as a person and enable you to act more effectively in the world – as well as improving your feeling and thinking! Much depends on you – as well as on the course.
It requires certain things from its students. The first and most important is a sense of respect for others who hold different world-views. This does not mean you have to agree. It does mean that you are expected to use the inspiration of your sources – be they religious, artistic, Humanistic, atheist, eclectic, Marxist or other philosophy – to underpin your good manners, empathic listening, sense of team-work, nurturance of others etc. Proselytization will not be tolerated. We look to work on the broadest canvas – one on which all great teachers and leaders would recognize the inner core of their teachings within the mozaic of the whole canvas.
In addition to a sense of respect for other world-views we do expect you to have some source of spiritual nourishment – We also expect you to utilize some form of contemplative practice – it can be very simple, and it can be eclectic. . It can simply be the use of periods of silence, or the daily practice of walking meditation – something that quietens the chatter of the mind.
There should be a form of contemplation to suit everyone at;
SEE here 
Don’t forget to look at the reports on the use of contemplation in Higher Education
For those a bit more interested in religion Clifford Hill at Columbia Uni. also has a course in contemplative practice -
SEE here 
A good account of a Quaker approach is also interesting -
SEE here 
and here 
This works for me:
Walking Meditation SEE http://www.orednet.org/~jflory/practice.htm#D
Many people have watched the graceful movements of the Tai Chi player and resonated with the silence embodied in this movement. While Tai Chi may not be an option for all of us, we shouldn’t overlook the walking meditation which is available to most of us and offers us many of the benefits of Tai Chi Chuan. Recently Westerners have been introduced to walking mediation by attending Buddhist meditation retreats.
Walking meditation can be very enjoyable. We walk slowly, alone or with friends, if possible in some beautiful place. Walking meditation is really to enjoy the walking. Walking not in order to arrive, just for walking. The purpose is to be in the present moment and enjoy each step you make. Therefore you have to shake off all worries and anxieties, not thinking of the future, not thinking of the past, just enjoying the present moment. You can take the hand of a child as you do it. You walk, you make steps as if you are the happiest person on Earth.
We walk all the time, but usually it is more like running. When we walk like that, we print anxiety and sorrow on the Earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on Earth. Everyone of us can do that provided that we want it very much. Any child can do that. If we can take one step like that, we can take two, three, four, and five. When we are able to take one step peacefully, and happily, we are for the cause of peace and happiness for the whole of humankind. Walking meditation is a wonderful practice. Thich Nhat Hanh – Being Peace
If you don’t like walking meditation there are 40 alternatives ‘hanging’ on the Tree of Contemplation.
Goodwill and laughter are vital in all of our courses .
Introduction:
To build something you need goodwill, agreement, energy etc – but you also need ‘bricks’. Although our focus is on negative space we need to give some substance to the bricks that occupy positive space – enough yin to give definition to the yang of negative space (or vice versa).
The ‘bricks’ of Building a Better Model of (Holistic) Education are referred to as ‘concept-elements’ – not forgetting that a holistic perpective wants to balance the non-conceptual with the conceptual, affect with cognition, ‘right-brain responding’ with ‘left-brain-responding’ etc. The 30 Unit-sessions are currently available through negotiation between a host institution and ourselves. Later they will be available on-line.
The concept-elements are a list of (some of) the most important concerns that are essential to include in any model that claims to be comprehensive or holistic. The pattern in which you arrange the concept-elements = your model. The pattern at some point should be represented diagrammatically – mine is here. You might even want to try to place the concept-elements in a rank order of importance – stop when you sense signs of madness and a desire to do violent things – you will have discovered the essential conflict between the linear and the holistic! After several years I healed myself from this ‘madness’ – to find out how you need to take in the gist of this whole site!
Depending on the course you are doing – an MA or something more, or less, demanding – you will want to give a more or less thorough account of one, several or all of the concept-elements – as well as challenge what I have included or excluded. In brackets I will eventually indicate where I have given account of each concept-element in my model, SunWALK.
All versions of our courses start with the Overview Lecture. All versions of the course, (except a one-hour introductory lecture with no workshop), include some or all of these units, plus units identified as special needs for each specific group.
All of our ’short courses’ are units within the overall course How to Build a Better Model of Education. The 30 units, starting with an Overview lecture, are;
01 Overview Lecture (In SW see also summary versions of model)
1 CHANGE: What’s Wrong With Education as It Is?
2 HUMAN-NESS: The Human Spirit and the Spirit of Being Human
3 CARING: The Spirit Of Caring In (Holistic) Education
4 CREATIVITY: The Spirit Of Creativity In (Holistic) Education
5 CRITICALITY: The Spirit Of Criticality In (Holistic) Education
6 COMMUNITY: Community, Culture and Content in (Holistic) Education
7 MORAL EDUCATION: Moral Education – A (Holistic) Perspective
8 DIALOGUE: Dialogue and Dialogic Processes in (Holistic) Education
9 CONSCIOUSNESS: Evolving Consciousness of Greater Contexts & others ways of framing ‘holization’ + awe and wonder’
10 LOVE: Love As The Mother Of Knowing in (Holistic) Education
11 INSPIRATION: The Spiritual as Sources of Inspiration in Being and Becoming Human
12 CONTENT: The Arts, Sciences , Humanities and Philosophy in (Holistic) Education
13 IDENTIFICATION: Empathy, Compassion, in Education of the Human Spirit
14 TEXTS and CONTEXTS: Texts and Contexts – the core dynamic in (Holistic) Education
15 MEANING: Meaning, Metaphor and Truth in (Holistic) Education
16 KNOWLEDGE: Knowing, Knowledge and the Unknowable in (Holistic) Education
17 PEDAGOGY: Spiritualizing Pedagogy in (Holistic) Education
18 WISDOM: Wisdom as an essential quality in (Holistic) Education
19 LEARNING and TEACHING: The Spirit Of Learning And Teaching In (Holistic) Education
20 VALUES & VIRTUES: Values & Virtues as well as awe and wonder;
21 CURRICULUM: Developing abilities in a Dynamic Curriculum in (Holistic) Education
22 STAKEHOLDER RELATIONSHIPS: Authority, Empowerment & Consultation – Balancing the interests of all Stakeholders in (Holistic) Ed
23 DEEPER SEARCHING: A deeper look at ‘What is Holistic Education’ – starting with Parker Palmer, Abraham J Heschel & Ken Wilber
24 WILL: Will, Motivation and Leadership in (Holistic) Ed
25 BODY MATTERS: The physical dimension in Holistic Education – inc the New Circus as metaphor for teamwork & embodiment in H Ed
26 STORY: Story in Holistic Education – including Maths and Science
27 MODELS & METHODS: Model-making and Methodologies
28 ACTION: Action, Activism and Behaviours – The WALK in SunWALK
29 BELIEFS: Beliefs and World-views
30 LEADERSHIP: Leadership and management
The course, or sub-sections of it, can be run in short or long versions according to the wishes of the host institution/organization. The shortest = the one hour Overview lecture. The longest = one/two years at e.g. MA level.
***
The course is not designed to go in depth into all of the subjects indicated by the titles of the units. Instead the purpose is to find within each topic elements that provide connections vital for an integrated or holistic approach.
In very general terms holistic education, and other forms of holistic practice, are concerned that education/practice is frequently not concerned with the student as a whole person, or with the world or reality as a whole. So often contemporary education/practice seems to not be based on a humanistic perspective. Nor does it seem to be concerned with deepening the positive aspects of being human. Instead education is overwhelmingly materialistic, fragmentary and mechanistic.
Teachers and schools seem not to have coherent models with which to conduct their work. Most importantly the ‘bits’ belong to no satisfying pattern of meaning – for teachers as well as pupils. Given satisfaction of basic physical needs, security, water. food etc., the human drive is toward the making of meaning.
The units are, consequently, united by this suggested working definition – framed in answer to the question; ‘What in practice is the holism in Holistic Education, or in other forms of holistic practice?’
Short version of our working definition of what it means to practice holistically:
‘holization’ or ‘progress in becoming more holistic’, =
a) ‘consciously realizing meaning-full connections between ever-widening contexts in our world-view, through
b) generating insights, and development, using the dynamic of going back & forth between
i) realizing ‘contemplative encounters’ with the ‘Whole’ and
ii) paying attention to particulars parts’ within one’s world-view
The full version of the working definition is to be found on the first page of this site. The short version is applicable to all of the units.
Students should have the opportunity to critique this working definition, and to develop their own alternative definitions – but an answer to the question, ‘What in practice is the holism in Holistic Education, or in other forms of holistic practice?’ is seen as essential.
Some additional units relating to cultural and aesthetical dimensions can be made available, or specially developed.
For example some in development are:
1 Happiness, Self-understanding and Better Relationships an exploration of the nature of personal development
2 Hard Times, Measure for Measure and the spirit of poetry – A literary take on holism
3 Seeking a friendly face: reflections of holism in contemporary UK art
4 Exploring ‘cinematic language and experience’ as metaphor of holistic reality
5 New Circus – as metaphor and practice of holistic education – via the physical and teamwork
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Method of Teaching Unit-sessions
Sessions consist of the following:
1) A mini-lecture presentation that constitutes the core text, often in the form of a PowerPoint Presentation;
2) A questioning of the text (and lecturer) and devising of questions.
3) A group ‘consultative inquiry’ on the text using the group questions.
4) The issuing of additional reading and a key text for the following week.
The set of ‘core texts’ together = the text-book:
NB With all units the short essay ‘core text’ is presented as a mini-lecture on courses and will constitute a ‘text-book’. Until it is published in a ‘hard’ version the length of the text-book for each group is obviously determined by the level of the course and the amount of time allocated.
One Methodological Approach for student coursework:
Preparation and coursework; sifting three levels of concepts and developing your own model
Assuming a substantial number of units are being covered then in the early part of the process students are asked to put together a ’sketch’ of a whole model of education. Later they may concentrate on a sub-model in depth – e.g ‘The qualities of caring in my work as a midwife’ or ‘ Holistic process in youth leadership’.
One dimension of the course methodology is that of inviting students to ’sift concepts’ at three levels – against values and beliefs that they hold or develop. The sifting through the three stages is so that the students arrives at a core model derived from approximately 15 – 30 ‘most important concepts’.
We have presented a ‘dictionary’ of concepts important in this educational modeling. The students should look through the dictionary (SEE ‘Important Concepts’ below).
Each student should then extract from the Dictionary a list of concepts which s/he sees as ‘Very Important’ (SEE link below).
Finally the student should make a ‘Most Important’ list (SEE link below).
Our lists of concepts may not include some that are important for the individual student – in which case add them and research them!
If the focus of the course is on the articulation by the student of her/his model, or a group model the following four-step methodology can be used:
Step 1
Important Concepts – presented as a Dictionary of Education – students should draw up their personal list from this Dictionary of Educational concepts.
Step 2
Very Important Concepts Sifting here is a matter of selecting the very important from the important
Step 3
Most Important Concepts – sifting here is a matter of selecting the ‘most important’ concepts from the ‘very important’
Step 4
Most important concepts – your selection is for you to arrange as your own model or as the particular focus of your research
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In dealing in concepts we should also keep in mind Heschel’s wonder-full statement:
“Concepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement”
– A. J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone p.7
For Heschel the other side of being human, encounters with the state of being in awe or wonder or radical amazement, could not be defined and therefore was beyond words and beyond the ‘delicious snacks’ of concepts. This speaks of the two sides of being human. Firstly there is the the meditative heart side in which we have experience of the Whole. Secondly there is the side in which we learn, and ‘trade in’, concepts. The first is usually left out of education, but here we see the two has complimentary – like expiration and inspiration.
SunWALK = education as walking the life journey in dialogue with
friends – acting wisely through loving and knowing – in the light of
the ‘Sun’ of higher-order values.
