Higher Education and the Journey of Transformation

Higher education exists in a cultural context, and our universities and colleges were designed to serve and maintain the dominant culture of modernism and technocracy. Holism is a countercultural perspective that contests this worldview, respecting nature’s organic patterns and self-organizing processes. A holistic pedagogy follows, rather than dictates to, the organic unfolding of life, and embraces an open, responsive, flexible, and self-reflective practice. The author describes his efforts to apply holistic principles in higher education and discusses the obstacles he encountered in a conventional college setting. He urges educators to recognize students as struggling, aspiring human souls looking for identity and security in an impersonal and insecure society