Transcend and include: Integral educational philosophy for the 21st century (Ken Wilber)

Educational philosophy provides a rationalization and justification for curriculum, teaching methodology, and school administration. It also articulates the ultimate aims of education: practical goals to be achieved and ideals to be pursued. A survey of educational history reveals that curriculum, teaching methodologies, and philosophies of education have been significantly shaped by contextual factors, and have been progressively refined over the course of human history. Highly significant is that educational services have grown in sophistication and expansive embrace as human collectives have increased in size. The present interpretive study reviews this progressive development in educational philosophy from tribal groupings, Greek city-states and the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, to private and public schooling in modern times. Influential teachers and educational philosophers will be highlighted.; The study concludes with an extensive discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber. A planetary civilization has been built upon its tribal, classical, and medieval foundations, and a contemporary integral educational philosophy would be one that recognizes our political and economic interdependence and thereby encourages high degrees of social cooperation, yet honors as well cultural and creative diversity and promotes and applauds individual agency and freedom. A more thorough utilization of contemporary knowledge and technology, and the extension of enhanced educational services to as many as possible, can help humans survive, thrive, and become participating members in their local communities and the greater social world. Pivotal will be the diminishment of traditional barriers to healthy human development: tribalism, ethnocentrism, sexism, coercive authoritarianism, systemic economic deprivation, religious fundamentalism, and competitive nationalism; and the fostering of an ethic of service and compassion that transcends and includes family, tribe, city, church, and nation-state.