Providing a comprehensive overview of holistic education’s history, conceptions, practices, and research, this Handbook presents an up-to-date, global picture of the field. Organized in five sections, the Handbook lays out the field’s theoretical and historical foundations; offers examples of holistic education in practice with regard to schools, programs, and pedagogies at all levels; presents research methods used in holistic education; outlines the growing effort among holistic educators to connect holistic teaching and learning with research practice; and examines present trends and future areas of interest in program development, inquiry, and research. This volume is a must-have resource for researchers and practitioners and serves as an essential foundational text for courses in the field.

First published in 1992. At one level, this book is about the care and education of children with very special needs. The needs result from emotional damage which impinges on their lives both at school and at home. At another level, it is about the development of a holistic approach to education – applicable to all children generally. The first part of the book describes the Raddery experience – a school set up in 1979 based on a holistic and therapeutic community approach to children with special needs. The second part of the book examines the implications of the Raddery experience for educational and child-care policy and practice at a time when there has been growing emphasis on integrating children with special needs into mainstream schools. Are the needs of the children at Raddery very different from others who have been successfully retained in normal classes? If Raddery, and schools like it, have a particular contribution, what is their secret? Can it be shared with ordinary schools?

Holistic education is concerned with connections in human experience - connections between mind and body, between linear thinking and intuitive ways of knowing, between individual and community, and between the personal self and the transpersonal self. First published in 1988, The Holistic Curriculum examines the philosophical, psychological, and social foundations of holistic education, outlining its history and discussing practical applications in the classroom. This revised and expanded second edition concisely describes how holistic thinking integrates spiritual and scientific perspectives, drawing on romantic, humanistic, and other radical alternatives to the atomistic worldview of the modern age. The role of the teacher, the issue of accountability, and strategies for implementing the Holistic Curriculum are also discussed.

The Holistic Care and Development of Children from Birth to Three provides students and practitioners with the knowledge and understanding they need to meet the complex needs of babies and toddlers. With a focus on the fundamentally holistic nature of young children’s development, and emphasising the role of play, and the emotional and physical environment throughout, the book shows its reader how to maximise each and every opportunity for learning when caring for the under threes. The text addresses both theory and practice, foregrounding the vital link between the two as the reader learns how to integrate theoretical approaches into their own setting and ways of working. From personal, physical, social and emotional development, to cooperation with parents, SEN and enabling environments, a wealth of topics are discussed in the depth and detail required to ensure that children can be given the best possible start in their critical first three years. Throughout the book, the following features help the reader to reflect on, and develop their own practice: ‘Case Studies’ put key topics in context ‘Reflective Questions’ help the reader test and consolidate their knowledge of key topics ‘Review your Practice’ boxes invite the reader to reflect on their own practice ‘Further Reading and Research’ suggestions inspire independent study in key areas. The book is also supported by a companion website featuring links to relevant videos and articles, as well as an interactive flashcard glossary.

This volume broadens the horizon of educational research in North America by introducing a comprehensive dialogue between Eastern and Western philosophies and perspectives on the subject of curriculum theory and practice. It is a very timely work in light of the progressively globalized nature of education and educational studies and the increasingly widespread attunement to Eastern educational theories in the West. By introducing Eastern perspectives, this book questions taken-for-granted thinking in Western educational thought about the foundations of teaching and learning, curriculum theory, educational policy, and educational issues such as teaching for social justice, service-learning initiatives, human rights and environmental education, and the teaching of content area subjects. It provides an important opportunity for scholars from different countries and different disciplines to establish a solid yet accessible foundation of East-West inquiry that furthers the scope and depth of curriculum studies and to disseminate the insights from this book in the venues in which they work. Researchers, faculty, and graduate students in the fields of curriculum theory, curriculum and instruction, educational foundations, philosophy of education, international/comparative education, and multicultural educational studies will welcome this book. It is appropriate as a text for upper-level courses in these areas.

This book proposes a new way of categorizing curricula in the holistic educational traditional. This is an idea that goes back in the Western tradition at least as far as Plato, and Lao Tzu in the Eastern tradition. It is certainly present in Spinoza and Schopenhauer. It is called a “holarchy”. The idea of a holarchy gives rise to Integrative Curriculum Theory, which, with major modifications, draws on Ken Wilber’s in his evolutionary model of the development of consciousness at personal, cultural and ontological realms. Integrative Curriculum Theory will: 1) Prove a useful addition to the holistic repertoire of systematic and, above all, humane terminologies and “technologies” for making and evaluating specific curricula as well as for theorizing the curriculum at a time when “scientistic,” “technist” and profit-driven views of education have commandeered the podium, policy, and praxis and 2) address some areas of concern that with certain holistic models of education, and 3) address some problems in Wilber’s integral model of psychological, cultural, and spiritual evolution.

In Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education, scholars from around the globe address the theory, practice, and poetics of holistic education. Some of the topics explored include educating the soul; partnership education; nourishing adolescents' spirituality; education and the modern assault on being human; the Eros of teaching; personal creativity as soul work; pedagogies of compassion; and meditation, masculinity, and meaningful life.