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Holistic
Education from a Humanist Perspective
Author: César Enrique López
Arrillaga
Universidad
Latinoamérica y del Caribe, ULAC
Caracas, Venezuela
Abstract
This essay intends to approach the basic concepts of Holistic Education
(Barrera, 2013) and a brief conceptual journey and main postulates of the
humanist theory considered by the author on personality, (Carl, 1961), to
establish the possible link of holistic education from a humanist perspective
in the meeting of the postulates of Humanism in the teaching practice that
allows the humanization of education, centered on human beings taking into
account their abilities, abilities and skills, in a few words a tour of some
important theoretical topics that will help build a vision of Hologogy in
teachers.
Keywords: humanism; personality; teacher; education.
|
Date Received: 16-10-2017 |
Date Acceptance: 09-01-2018 |
La Educación Holística desde una
Perspectiva Humanista
Resumen
El presente ensayo
pretende aproximarse a los conceptos básicos de Educación Holística (Barrera,
2013) y un breve recorrido conceptual y de principales postulados de la teoría
humanista considerada por el autor sobre la personalidad, (Carl, 1961), para
establecer la posible aproximación teórica de la educación holística desde una
perspectiva humanista en el encuentro de los postulados del Humanismo en la
práctica docente que permita la humanización
de la educación, centrada en los seres humanos tomando en cuenta sus
capacidades, habilidades y destrezas, en pocas palabras un recorrido de algunos
tópicos teóricos importante que coadyuvaran a construir una visión Hologogica
en los docentes.
Palabras clave: humanismo; personalidad; docente; educación.
|
Fecha de Recepción: 16-10-2017 |
Fecha de Aceptación: 09-01-2018 |
1. Introduction
Today's society is going through
postmodernity in its historical moment in which the globalization of processes has
gained ground in the social work of the XXI century, where barriers have been
promoted in the interpersonal relationships of human beings, however, it has
also been provided the necessary connectivity through the tics that promote the
link on a global scale and snapshots.
Likewise, education does not escape the process of
globalization, it has also been observed that, although there are many
significant contributions to transform and reorient the educational process,
dilemmas still prevail that do not allow the humanization of education at all
levels of the education system.
Therefore, this essay will address holistic education, as
defined (Gallegos, 1999, page 25): holistic education promotes the evolution of
our consciousness through the dynamic spiral, since according to the attitudes
and actions we have we are located at a certain level or meme of the spiral,
and it is the work of each one of us to evolve our consciousness.
Therefore, we will link holistic education with the current of
humanism, since it focuses on its fundamental principles in the human being as
the main objective with the pillars of love and spirituality, which lead to
create your own personality, which establishes (Carl, 1961a, p.135), in his
theory of personality.
2. Development
2.1. The Holistic Education
Holistic education has its origins in the
90s and can be located in two historical moments, one is the Declaration of
Chicago on Education in 1990 and the International Conference on Holistic
Education, held in Guadalajara since 1993.
Likewise, for the year 1990, led by Philip Snow Gang, they met
in Chicago to proclaim an integral educational vision that would potentiate the
perennial human virtues, social justice and sustainable development, who propitiated
a ten-principle statement known as: "Education 2000: a holistic
perspective".
Holistic education is the new educational paradigm of the 21st
century, it is a multipedagogic vision that creates a great synthesis that
includes the best of education and knowledge in general, relates, without
confusing, tradition and novelty, science and spirituality, the global and the
local, etc. The heart of holistic education is spirituality.
Likewise, up to now the discussions on the change of the
educational system have focused on formal aspects of the academic regime, that
is, the entry and exit profiles, the objectives and content of the subjects,
the priorities, the requirements, among others.
However, today it is necessary to incorporate other aspects that
are also important to define a new education, such as pedagogical strategies,
be they teaching or research, that favor fundamental and elementary changes in
the way that the current educational event is concretized to respond to knowledge
and training needs of students.
Therefore, promote changes in the classroom that mean
considering education, rather than an act of transmitting the teacher's
knowledge to the student, perceive the student as a recipient, who only
receives the lessons in classes.
On the other hand, the fragmentary vision of knowledge has
influenced also fragmentation of training practices, with the effects of this
vision has had in different disciplines, which leads to a teaching practice divorced
from the reality of the student.
According to the author, he states: "The traditional
educational practice is marked by the mechanistic and generational version of
modernity that conceives the human being as a producer of stages" (p.27).
Hence, the fragmentation of education such as childhood,
puberty, adolescence, youth, adulthood and senescence are dealt with separately
in the educational system regardless of the immediate past history or the
future perspective of the student, which deprives an integral formation of
person.
On the other hand, Barrera (2013a), raises:
Human life is,
transits, occurs is a continuum, constitutes a process that each person lives
as a being in becoming as being that lives a permanent possibility of realization,
in spite of, or with the favor of its biophysiological, psychological, social
and Ethics (p.29).
In this order of ideas, education must be related to
human life unfounded in respect, in solidarity and in the affirmation of our
own values, therefore, it should promote culture as a universal proposal to
accept changes and link stages of life and its incidents.
That it guide the new educational processes that strengthen the
personality, identity and encourage students in the extensive interpersonal
relationships in the daily experience in the creation and exchange of knowledge
and knowledge collectively, for the consolidation of an integral and
integrating process of the educational fact and its actors.
Undoubtedly, some of the aspects that make the formative
activity difficult according to the author, are the different states of mind,
such as the attitudes expressed by the participants of the educational task, of
which we can mention pessimism and apathy.
Therefore, currently students and teachers go through situations
and moments of adversity that limit their respective practices in education,
which in many cases prevent reaching the ends of education and educational
purposes.
Likewise, the author states: "Ideological domination
constitutes one of the greatest distortions of education and represents one of
the most reprehensible forms, since it corresponds to the instrumentation of
brainwashing or crowd manipulation" (Barrera, 2013b, p.44).
In another form, the ideology must be considered as the set of
ideas that can be constituted in beliefs, valuations and opinions accepted to
base philosophical concepts of a given social subject, in the case of the
author, the author assumes the ideology as "the body of ideas" and
values imposed as unique and exclusive for a group and social context with
hegemonic intent and with tax characteristics "(page 45).
For the author, Hologogy: "is the continuous educational
process, the instructive praxis that integrates the human being in its broadest
perspective, from an integral, holistic anthropology, which sustains the
permanent formative activity" (p.51).
The Hologogy, therefore, expresses the need to design a
harmonious educational structure, which responds to each one in his needs that
he possesses in each of the stages of life, a formative process from the
understanding of the human being in his anthropological perception,
psychological and social wider.
For this reason, the author defines Hologogy as "education
developed from the holistic understanding of the human being" (p.53),
which implies the vision of the person principle, center and purpose of
education; as a whole, as a reality, integrates, integral and in turn
transcendent.
The holistic understanding of the human being requires an
appreciation of the educational fact also holistic, continuous and
transcendent, not the product of parts or occurrences, rather a unique and
integral process in which the person has the time and place full of possibilities
to be realized.
Finally, it corresponds to live according to the moment,
according to the circumstances, with the characteristics of the age, the
opportunity and the historical moment in which the educational opportunities
must focus on the needs and interests of integral formation of the students
understanding your environment and personality.
2.2. Humanist theory
From
the various theories, humanism incorporates the following notions of
existentialism:
· The human being is elective,
therefore, capable of choosing his own destiny;
· The human being is free to
establish his own life goals; Y
· The human being is responsible
for his own choices.
In
accordance with the above, we can say that the human being has a freedom of his
own in the decision-making and elections that builds his own destiny and
advances in a very personal rhythm, in addition with a unique responsibility in
his actions with his peers.
Therefore,
the educational process must be aimed at responding to the educational needs
and interests of human beings in their process of integral formation, in which
the teacher must expand his vision where he allows the natural development of
the students in the scope of the significant learning competences.
In the same
sense, there are common postulates to most humanistic psychologists, namely:
a).
The human being is a totality. This is a holistic
approach, whose objective is to study the human being as a whole and not
fragmentarily.
From the perspective
of holistic education, it focuses on the human being aligned with an
educational process centered in its totality, interacting with all its aspects
and interests, thus allowing an integral formation without barriers.
b).
The human being has a structured central nucleus. This
nucleus is your "I", your "self" (self), which is the
genesis and structure of all your psychological processes.
It
is important to point out that each human being, from this humanistic vision
must be considered unique, given that each of the students have a unique self,
structured by multiple factors, within which the personality stands out, which
makes it different from each other.
c).
The human being tends naturally to his formative
self-realization. Put against negative situations, you must transcend them; and
if the medium is defined as auspicious, genuine and empathic, as well as
non-threatening, its potentialities will be favored.
The
human being has naturally developed a resilient capacity that has allowed him to
overcome negative situations, developing values of personal improvement,
strengthening his personal abilities and potentialities in the development of
his life.
d).
The human being is a being inserted in a human
context, and lives in relation to other people.
In
this same order of ideas, the human being has long been considered a social
being, also the relationship with other people and their environment have been
part of their training and knowledge exchange in their learning process
implicit in interpersonal relationships and the context, as Vitgoskys put it in
sociocultural learning.
e).
The human being is aware of himself and his existence.
It is driven according to what it was in the past and preparing for the future.
Therefore,
the holistic education of its vision allows to recognize and accept from its
conception the accumulation of experiences and learning that the student has
prior to the teaching process, starting from this space is provided for the
exchange of knowledge and knowledge adapted to their own interests valuing
mutually the participation of the actors of the educational fact.
f).
The human being is provided with faculties of
decision, freedom and conscience to choose and make their own decisions. These
faculties make him an active being, builder of his own life.
Therefore,
human beings have the individual capacity to build their own lives, however,
there are different factors that intervene and condition decision making, although
it is the person who chooses in full freedom the actions to be undertaken in
accordance with their interests.
g).
The human being is intentional. This means that their
willful or willful acts are reflected in their own decisions or choices.
Therefore,
the actions and actions of human beings are a reflection of their personality
and their own will, full of learning, knowledge, experiences and internal
spirituality that materializes in interpersonal relationships with others and
their social environment, in process of natural interaction.
It is
important to point out that throughout life human beings are continually
exposed to a flow of situations that will force them to adapt to survive. The
goal of this is to find your own place in the world. To this end, we have as
organism the tendency to constantly update: we are motivated to grow and expand
continuously as this allows us on the one hand to survive and on the other to
develop and achieve autonomy and achieve goals.
Also, we learn to evaluate situations
positively or negatively depending on whether they allow us to update them,
approaching the elements that allow us to satisfy ourselves and moving away
from those that make it difficult for us. We are learning to visualize reality in
a certain way and this vision will mark our interaction with the environment.
This tendency is present from birth, trying
to coordinate this development with our being to form a more or less stable I
over time, which will mark our identity and our personality.
Carl (1961b): proposed some ideas about
mental processes in which the freedom of individuals is emphasized when taking
the direction of their lives. According to them, neither biological nor
environmental factors are determinants in our behavior, and do not irremediably
"drag" us towards certain types of behavior. In short, they were not
deterministic.
In particular, the author believed that the
personality of each person was developed according to the way in which he
manages to get closer to (or away from his life goals, his goals.
This idea that personal development and the
way in which the individual struggles to become what they want to be is a
central idea of humanistic psychology, but for the author it is especially important,
because for him it is through personal development how character and way of
being are formed.
2.3. Linking Humanist Theory and Holistic Education
The author affirms that "holistic
education is not the same as liberal education thought, where in the name of a
liberality everyone does what they want" (Barrera, 2013c, p.59).
On the contrary, the Hologogy does admit the sense of freedom
and autonomy of each person and of the educational collectives, in an emotional
tension characterized by dialogue, solidarity and the common purpose of sharing
knowledge, from a proposal born in the needs and of educational desires.
Likewise, the author states that holistic education is
emphasized in self-government: "it is expressed as autonomy and as a
conscious attitude through which each person assumes the leadership of his /
her own educational process" (p.61), in a few words it is observed through
the didactic and the methodology able to enhance the confidence in the own possibilities
and the promotion of the self-esteem.
That is why holistic education reflects on the principle, center
and educational purpose, the human being, as an integral being, in becoming and
in a context with social implications. Hence, that there must be an own
motivation in the process of integral formation in the individual and
collective.
In this same order of ideas, the author states that in the
holistic, "admit the person as a holos,
as a reality that must be seen and understood in its entirety, in each and
every one of the aspects that make up his identity and personality"
(Barrera, 2013d, p.63).
From this appreciation, the human being is perceived as a
totality of different thoughts, feelings and realities that make up a defined
personality, which from this perspective develops its capacities from the
interaction with its environment, in which it must be an educational process
that promote more dynamic and relevant teaching processes.
Likewise, Barrera (2013e) mentions that:
the human as a unit
indicates that the anthropological is one, that the dilemma related to the
human is the same dilemma for every human because in a natural sense there are
not two or more humans or one human more than another, but a single human
expressing that condition in all humans (p.66).
Therefore, it can be understood that there is only one
human as human, consequently, a single human race, a single class, the human,
in reference the human is one, the human is one and each one is one. (Barrera,
2013f, p.66).
Given this, born the uniqueness of human beings explained by the
author, refers "to the condition of" unique "that each person
has. Each one is who, and this anthropological characteristic grants special
characteristics, such as the exclusivity of being what it is" (Barrera,
2013g, p.65).
In addition, in the holistic when integrality is alluded to, it
is tried to avoid the division of the human, to propitiate a reflection that,
sustained on the principles of unity, uniqueness and universality within the
framework of an integrative criterion, what the author calls, "The
integral comprehension of the human being" (p.38).
In this way, this rationality supports the human condition of
being social, consequently, it is in the context of their relationships that
the person is realized as a social being, it is for this reason that the human
being is inclined to live in society, to relate, to live together, to share their
lives with each other.
It is necessary to highlight that the human being is a being
with the possibility, the potentiality, the faculty and the capacity to love,
with a high disposition to look for the good, what can be defined that the human
being is a being for love, yes, to love and be loved, to love and be loved.
The above statements, love, definitely, the best environment
for education and the experience of what the human condition means, love as a
driving force that drives the noble towards the satisfaction of needs and
requirements in equal conditions and exchange of experiences.
Within this framework, the author states: "the hologogy
claims love as a necessary condition, because everything that inspires the
educational activity has good as its purpose, and good is love" (p.76).
In effect, the author states that "honors and honor any
current of thought, as author and teacher love is consecrated in professional
practice" (Barrera, 2013h, page 76), so, the teacher should impregnate the
educational fact of love and combine their professional vocation with their
educational practice that corresponds to the interests and needs of the student
in their holistic and comprehensive training.
For this purpose, the holistic attitude must be free of
prejudices and manipulations because the knowledge didactic focuses on what is
to be known more than what is known, even more is the discovery of unknown
knowledge, which guides us to understand a existing knowledge, so that in
holistic education the didactic activity is fundamentally oriented more than to
learn, to create.
From a holistic understanding, he presents the position of the
author that "the transition through educational structuring must occur
without trauma or rupture, since it must be conceived as continuous education,
as permanent education" (p.121).
Then, we must speak of sequences, that is,
dynamics of processes or moments of a progression with each opportunity of the
process with certain situational conditions or context referred to development
of the actors of the educational fact, in the formative sequences are present
the matrices of education, which refers to the fundamental aspects that are in
the entire educational process, which responds to the guiding principles of
education, which responds to each context and not to unique patterns for all,
in a continuous research process.
At the same time, the hologogic process must be seen as the
continuum of a single event, the educational one and whose fundamental
characteristic is the simultaneity of the processes, expressed as sequences. In
the same way, the author proposes sequences of a single formative process for
holistic education, according to the stages and characteristics that the human
being experiences in his formation.
Undoubtedly, in holistic education the training activity does
not correspond exclusively to the legal or formal instances of education, the
whole society participates in the educational activity, according to Barrera
(2013i): "the whole society forms, educates, instructs, inform ..."
(p.138).
In accordance with the attention, humanism plays a very
important role in holistic education starting from the educational fact must be
humanized to provide students with a healthy environment that generates spaces
for their integral formation and in harmony with their learning interests.
On the other hand, in the work the Way of Being, Carl Rogers
(cited in Rebagliatl, 1994). There he affirms that, in humanistic education,
authority figures must feel sure of themselves and their relationship with
others, to really trust in their ability to think and learn for themselves
(p.239).
For which holistic education provides sensitive and empathetic
teachers in the reality that surrounds their students, giving way to the
motivation to participate in the teaching-learning process in a holistic way
taking into account the multiversity of the personalities of each educational
actor.
On the other hand, Beltrán (2006), argues that:
Our education, by social imperatives must be progressive, understood the
term in the sense of an education for the formation of the integral man in his
position of member of a community, of the free and responsible citizen with the
social economic development, capable of influencing a better and bigger
production, not for the benefit of a few but for greater social benefit (p.4).
According to the above,
Holistic Education, proposed from the humanist perspective, maintains a progressive
value oriented towards the formation of students for the generation of citizens
that society requires, fosters solidarity between human beings and the
acquisition of knowledge from the collective, the construction and exchange of
knowledge by and for all.
3. Conclusions
From the vision of Marcos Barrera the human
"is a being for love" Yes, to love and be loved, to love and be
loved. In this sense, the educational practice must be oriented in the love for
human beings, live the experience of learning from and for love, which promotes
the changes required by the current educational system.
Likewise, promoting changes in the classroom that mean
considering education, rather than an act of transmission, repetition and
memorization of the teacher's knowledge to the student is to open their
perspective to a holistic process in which knowledge is exchanged, experiences
are revealed in a two-way communication between teachers and students.
Finally, the relationship between teachers and students must be
reconsidered, since group social elements must be valued, but not individual,
understanding that the learning process is personal, however, it occurs in a
context of intense human relationship, in a climate of the classroom also known
as the school ecosystem.
In this same order of ideas, humanism is immersed in Holistic
Education with the application of its main postulates, given that the
teaching-learning process centered on human beings as an expression of human
values and transcend the mechanistic educational fact to one more spiritual,
more sensitive and more human, in which the teacher must expand his vision to a
holistic state of understanding the integral and unique of each student as a
social being.
It is important to point out that Carl Rogers maintains that
human beings possess only the opportunity, an enormous capacity to use personal
power in a beneficial and correct way. Within himself the individual has vast
resources to understand himself, to modify the concept of himself, as well as
his attitudes and the direction of his behavior.
What prevents the realization of this development trend is the
control exercised by others over our decisions. Frequently resistance is put to
this form of domination, which reaches its most negative consequences in the
interpersonal relations of domination and excessive control of individuals,
therefore, from holistic education, the educational act is framed from the
humanist perspective, promoting and developing the internal potential that
students possess.
Finally, when Holistic Education and Humanism is considered, it
is to recognize the integral value of the human person and to locate that
education is favored among humans in the educational fact, which allows direct and
live practice between teachers and students with the objective of the common
good and integral education.
4.
References
Barrera, M. (2013a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i). Hologogía. Introducción a la educación
holística. Caracas, Venezuela: Ediciones Quirón. Sypal. Tercera Edición,
págs. 8-78.
Beltrán, L. (2006). El Estado Docente. Colección Claves de
América Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho, Fundación Luis Beltrán Prieto Figuera,
Caracas, Venezuela: Edición Ministerio para la Cultura, pág. 34-42.
Gallegos, X. (1999). Educación Holista: Pedagogía del amor universal. México: Editorial Pax México,
págs. 25-36.
Carl, R. (1961a,b). El proceso de convertirse en persona. Mi técnica terapeuta. Buenos
Aires: Editorial Paidós. 17ma Edición, págs. 195-245.
Rebagliatl, P. (1994). Psicología Humanista, Aportes y
Orientación. El Counseling. Fundación Universidad a Distancia
“Hernandarias”. Buenos Aires: Editorial Docencia. ISBN: 950-9293-54-7, págs.
86-109.
César
Enrique López Arrillaga
e-mail: prof.cesarlopez@gmail.com
Born in La Guaira,
Venezuela. Bachelor of
Education, Mention: Cultural Development of the Universidad Nacional
Experimental Simón Rodríguez (UNESR), Magister Scientiarum in Higher Education
of the Universidad Nacional Experimental de la Fuerza Armada (UNEFA), Doctorate
of the Education Sciences program of the Universidad Latinoamericana y del
Caribe (ULAC) and undergraduate student of Law of the Universidad Bicentenaria
de Aragua (UBA), primary education teacher of the Unidad Educativa Nacional
Bolivariana Guaicaipuro.
The content of this manuscript is
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- Original
Version in Spanish -
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29394/Scientific.issn.2542-2987.2018.3.8.16.301-318