Educating for humanity and the holistic principle: A paradigm for 21st century schooling and early childhood education. A gathering of voices.

The UNESCO International Commission (1972) declared that the ultimate aim of schooling and lifelong education is the education of “the complete man” (sic) (Faure, in UNESCO, p.vi), who is physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically integrated (p.156), and who participates responsibly in human destiny (Faure, in UNESCO, p.xxv, p.xxxix). The title of the Commission Report is “Learning to be”. The thesis tests the UNESCO (1972) proposition for early childhood education and schooling internationally. It identifies particular elements in the proposition requiring conceptual investigation: Aims for education, human ‘being’, human learning, human integration and completeness, and human participation in the world. The Chapters of the thesis examine each of these elements by conducting textual analysis of the diverse scholarly and professional documents which inform 21st century early childhood education and schooling. In response to the UNESCO (1972) proposition and the linguistic landscape of educational documents, the thesis offers a paradigm conceived in ‘whole’ and ‘holistic’ terms. The thesis accepts the UNESCO ideology of an ultimate aim for education, and of striving for human completeness and integration, but reframes each of these concepts. The ultimate aim of education is conceived in terms of ‘educating for humanity’ (Seymour, 2004). Human ‘completeness’ and integration of physical, intellectual emotional and ethical ‘dimensions’ are conceived in terms of human ‘wholeness’ and integration of ‘domains’ of both human nature and learning. These are extended to include aesthetic, social and spiritual domains. The domains of learning are conceived as corresponding to domains of human nature. The thesis offers a paradigm of a ‘holistic principle’ linking these concepts of whole child and holistic learning with a concept of whole world. The UNESCO Commission (1972) offered a vision to the world of education which is still current (Bokova, in UNESCO, 2015). The thesis responds to that vision by constructing a conceptual mosaic from the diverse landscape of contemporary educational theory, research and practice. It gathers consonant voices in extensive quotation to articulate how 21st century early childhood education and schooling can aim to ‘educate for humanity’.