Education for meaning and social justice
Our Partners
The Transformative Learning Foundation is a leading facilitator for wisdom in education, awakening potential for the evolution of our consciousness. Since the beginning of compulsory education, the definition of what learning looks like has become increasingly narrow with each passing decade. In the past 20 years, there has been greater emphasis on compliance, following the prescribed curriculum, direct instruction, and standardized testing.
Our current education system is out of step with the needs of learners and what they must know to be able to develop their gifts and talents to their fullest potential and make meaningful contributions to society. We create safe learning environments to support transformational learning and deepened self-awareness. Within these containers, previously held patterns and frameworks are unlearned and re-organized into deeper meanings that inform one’s identity and action in the world in new ways. While learning begins with the individual, it is also centered on the understanding that human beings live within webs of living systems: family; community; ethnic, religious, and national groups; humanity; ecological niche, bioregion, and planet. With this understanding, wisdom grows. In the context of learning in community, we access collective wisdom, rejuvenation, and resiliency in support of diversity and equity.
Antioch University’s MA in Individualized Studies, Social Sciences is proud to offer a concentration in Transformative Learning Communities, in partnership with the Transformative Learning Foundation. This program is centered on the understanding that we have the capacity to author our own lives from a place of resourcefulness, creativity, and possibility. This is the central insight that guides the Concentration in Transformative Learning Communities (TLC) – providing a learning environment where each learner can engage in their own process of self-authoring, within a self-renewing learning community of colleagues and faculty mentors.
The TIES M.Ed roots date back to the 1990’S when Philip Snow Gang founded the Global Alliance for Education. The seminal document, Education 2000: A Holistic Perspective became the principles on which The TIES program was organized.
Program founders Philip Snow Gang and Marsha Snow Morgan both earned their teaching credentials in Bergamo, Italy when it was the only place worldwide where one could learn the Montessori method for children between the ages of six and twelve. During the 70’s Gang helped form a group to explore Montessori’s concept of “Erdkinder” – learning environments for adolescents. The NAMTA Journal published “A School for my Children,” an article by Gang that “imagined” the Erdkinder. This led to a 1976 intimate gathering with key people in the Montessori movement. An audio recording of this meeting was transcribed and circulated reaching both Mario Montessori (Maria Montessori’s son) and his son, Dr. Mario Montessori Jr. Gang’s relationship with both Mario Sr. and Mario Jr. was born.
•To exist as a source of inspiration and hope for teachers, scholars, and other educational leaders;
•To serve and give heart to all who seek a better way for the education of future generations;
•To support the pursuit of wisdom and compassion in teaching and learning; and,
•To deepen our understanding of the human potential through education.
The Center for Holistic Education is located in the Education Department of Southern Oregon University in Ashland, OR.
