Learning to Live Together Harmoniously Spiritual Perspectives from Indian Classrooms

This book calls for an expanded vision of holistic education that emphasizes togetherness and harmony through the discovery of oneself, others, and the larger society. It brings together teachers’ voices, experiences, and practices for such an education with Southern Knowledge, philosophy and ideologies proposed by Indian philosophers and spiritual leaders like Aurobindo, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Krishnamurti, and Tagore. The book reconceptualizes and extends UNESCO's "Learning To Live Together" to emphasize "Learning to Live Together Harmoniously" (LTLTH) and develops a novel conceptual framework for it. The book also explores how LTLTH can be translated into practice; calling for a continuum of harmonious lived experiences created through experiential and project based pedagogy, systems and processes for autonomy and autonomous behaviour regulation, empathetic teacher student relations, schoolwide ethos of harmonious living, and teachers’ ways of living and being.

Jwalin Patel is the President and Co-Founder of the Together in Development and Education (TIDE) Foundation in India. This book is based on the research he conducted during his PhD and postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in the UK, the experiences of teachers from holistic schools in India, and the grassroots interventions carried out by the TIDE Foundation.