Book chapter
Truth, Beauty and Goodness as Signposts Leading Towards Imaginative Education
Imagination in Educational Theory and Practice: A Many-sided Vision, pp.244-262
Cambridge Scholars Publisher
2010
Abstract
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Jean Gebser (1905-1973) and Ken Wilber (b. 1949) detail their integral philosophies against the backdrop of the expansive canvas of the evolution of consciousness. There is much resonance between their visions; however, Ken Wilber’s integral education theory, inspired by Gebser’s writings on integral consciousness, “is as yet in its infancy” (Gidley, Aug 2007), while Rudolf Steiner’s ‘anthroposophy’ or ‘philosophy of the wisdom of humanity’ provides comprehensive pedagogical guidance. Schools in the Steiner system have nearly a century of experience and experimentation with the cultivation of imagination in education that is worth reappraising. What Wilber cites as the ‘Big Three’ of the perennial philosophy: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful (2000b) are used in the Steiner education tradition as motifs for the three main phases of schooling. A re-exploration of these qualities in the contemporary context illuminates the relationship between imagination and issues as divergent as those associated with the current climate crisis, genetic research, and the values debate in aesthetic and moral education.
Details
- Title
- Truth, Beauty and Goodness as Signposts Leading Towards Imaginative Education
- Authors
- Bronwen Haralambous (Author) - University of Canberra
- Contributors
- Thomas W Nielsen (Editor) - University of CanberraRobert Fitzgerald (Editor) - University of CanberraMark Fettes (Editor) - Simon Fraser University
- Publication details
- Imagination in Educational Theory and Practice: A Many-sided Vision, pp.244-262
- Publisher
- Cambridge Scholars Publisher
- Organisation Unit
- School of Education and Tertiary Access; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99681597702621
- Output Type
- Book chapter
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