Holistic, transformative learning to create a sustainable future for all beings

I am completing a Ph.D. with the University of New England (to be completed by September 18 2008). My thesis is “Investigating a harmonious ontology which could facilitate the conditions for holistic, transformative learning within the structures and institutions of a community with a view to creating a sustainable future for all beings”. It encompasses the themes of holistic and transformative learning, ‘meaningful’ work, new approaches to adult learning, development in the community, and sustainability.

My research interest fall squarely in the areas of adult education (including higher education, community education, vocational education and training, and workplace education and distance education), holistic and transformative education, community building, sustainability, wholeness, systems thinking, spirituality and the ubiquitous sapience (omnipresent insight and wisdom) contained within Indigenous cultures and Eastern traditions.

I believe in the transformative power of learning and that everybody should be given the opportunity to access the learning they desire in the manner and timeframe which they desire it. This learning should facilitate a person’s engagement in meaningful work. That is a calling, a vocation (Palmer, 2000) that not only acknowledges the myriad of relationships that each person is immersed in but also celebrates and honours them. I believe that when this work is undertaken using a cosmological frame of reference, this celebration and honouring ensures that no unnecessary harm will come to any entity, relationship or experience through the that work and that there is “balance among individuality, community, and universality” (Oliver & Gershman, 1989, p. 63). That is to say; this learning will benefit the individual, the community and the wider context within which the community exists. That these benefits include both the tangible and the non-tangible, and that they evolve in incremental ways that cannot easily be quantified. I support the Freirian idea that as people understand the things that are impeding their development they are actually moved to create change and address some of those issues and that community plays an important role in that; and that communities are complex living organisms that evolve, unfold and enfold continuously. Finally I believe holistic, transformative learning facilitates sustainability, that is: The multidimensional acceptance that decisions, actions and practices will not and will never adversely affect the balance and harmony that is inherent in the holarchical existence of all life in the universe.