Wilmette Institute

Transforming Education: Knowing, Learning, and Being

In this course, participants will gain an academic and experiential appreciation of the centrality of education in building a prosperous society.

Academic Calendar

Duration

16 weeks

Weekly Study

8.5 HOURS

Dates

Jan 21-May 12

Clock Hours

135

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In this course, participants will gain an academic and experiential appreciation of the centrality of education in building a prosperous society. During the course, participants will walk with a local educational endeavor to apply concepts they are learning in the course to practice in the field through dialogue and collective reflection. Within the experience gained, participants will consider education founded upon several key ideas, including a nobility-based approach to students, how multiple ways of knowing and being nourish material and spiritual aspirations, how capacity building relates to community building, and how academic and grassroots endeavors can be mutually beneficial. Participants learn to read their reality in relation to educational endeavors and together engage in a pedagogy of social transformation in light of local and global trends in education.

Who is the course for?

Applicants should either have a prior bachelor’s degree, or be a student in an undergraduate program at junior or senior level. The Wilmette Institute will provide support for students who wish to petition their institution of higher education to obtain credit. Space is limited to 25 students per course.

What will you achieve?

You will learn

Develop a vision of education that is framed within an understanding of spiritual and material prosperity and based on the oneness of humanity and justice.

Identify and critically analyze aspects of our current formal education system that perpetuate oppression and identify appropriate responses to these forces.

Explore contemporary issues in education as an expression of a vision of education for prosperity.

Tap into multiple ways of knowing and being and multiple sources of knowledge.

Become grounded in patterns of learning where new knowledge emerges from initiatives at the grassroots.

Develop critical understandings that are informed by the twofold moral purpose – personal and collective change.

Examine an emerging pedagogy of social transformation drawing upon the experience of the global Baha’i community.

“Eschew any trace of prejudice and paternalism” in education and develop a nobility-based perspective toward all humanity, especially toward historically oppressed populations.

Orient their educational practices to raise the capacity of all people to read their own reality, define the needs of their local and global community, and become protagonists in addressing these needs.

Meet Your Faculty

Justin Scoggin, PhD

Justin has worked extensively in education in Ecuador and Colombia, serving as a teacher and program administrator with FUNDAEC, a principal at two K–12 schools, a course developer and professional development facilitator for the Education for Sustainability in Galapagos Program, and for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. He earned a... See Faculty Bio

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