Holistic Visions of Education stemming from Alternative Schools in India

Abstract

In the global south, there has been a long-standing interest in holistic education; Indian thinkers such as Gandhi, Aurobindo, Tagore, and Krishnamurti have foregrounded similar ideas. However, there is a limited understanding of how teachers in today’s world perceive these ideologies. The study uses an embedded case study across five Indian schools inspired by aforementioned thinkers to explore teachers’ perceptions of the purpose of education. The findings suggest that teachers pursued education for harmony as the primary purpose of education, and proposes a holistic education for harmony as way of living instead of pursuing it for knowledge or competencies acquisition.