Papers by Alok Mathur
Learning without burden: where are we a quarter century after the Yashpal Committee Report, 2023
The contemporary world is replete with moral challenges. To understand the demands of ethical lea... more The contemporary world is replete with moral challenges. To understand the demands of ethical learning and character development a complex view of human nature is presented. The notions of moral values, virtues, social-emotional learning and ethical learning are examined, and conditions that make it possible for character and goodness to develop in a human being are indicated. By surveying the changing socio-historical contexts of India and the world, a diversity of perspectives on moral education are highlighted. It is suggested that schools have a key role in enabling young people to grow in goodness and respond to the stark moral challenges of the 21st century.
This paper identifies key educational questions that the philosopher and peripatetic teacher, Kri... more This paper identifies key educational questions that the philosopher and peripatetic teacher, Krishnamurti, enjoined his audiences to engage with, and indicates how his inquiry into the human condition finds expression in the setting-up of schools located in varied geographical and cultural contexts. The aims of these schools and the values and practices that flow out of these aims are briefly discussed in the context of Krishnamurti’s approach to the complex and urgent crises experienced by peoples across the globe. The paper posits two interconnected and generative notions deriving from Krishnamurti’s educational work: ‘philosophy in practice’ and ‘school as a centre of inquiry’. The meanings of these notions are explored in a school setting, along with implications for the lives students and teachers in the contemporary world.
‘Philosophy in practice’ is shown to have multiple possible meanings in the context of a school, which are however tied together by a few distinctive and vitalizing features. As it manifests in schools, ‘philosophy in practice’ is seen as being generative across the poles of ‘vision’ and ‘present awareness’. The possibility of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ is however contingent upon the structuring of the school as an institution, and is directly influenced by the axes of 'authority-autonomy' on one hand and that of 'competition-cooperation' on the other.
The notion of ‘school as a centre of inquiry’ is shown to be the cumulative resultant of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ at multiple levels in the school - individual as well as collective. It encompasses in its ambit a range of inquiries, from curriculum, school practices and discipline, to a widening engagement with individual, social, environmental and global issues that a school community is willing to become cognizant of.
The paper attempts to place these notions in the wider framework of the calls for educational reform and renewal in the 21st century.
Conference Presentations by Alok Mathur
This paper identifies key educational questions that the philosopher and peripatetic teacher, Kri... more This paper identifies key educational questions that the philosopher and peripatetic teacher, Krishnamurti, enjoined his audiences to engage with, and indicates how his inquiry into the human condition finds expression in the setting-up of schools located in varied geographical and cultural contexts. The aims of these schools and the values and practices that flow out of these aims are briefly discussed in the context of Krishnamurti’s approach to the complex and urgent crises experienced by peoples across the globe. The paper posits two interconnected and generative notions deriving from Krishnamurti’s educational work: ‘philosophy in practice’ and ‘school as a centre of inquiry’. The meanings of these notions are explored in a school setting, along with implications for the lives students and teachers in the contemporary world.
‘Philosophy in practice’ is shown to have multiple possible meanings in the context of a school, which are however tied together by a few distinctive and vitalizing features. As it manifests in schools, ‘philosophy in practice’ is seen as being generative across the poles of ‘vision’ and ‘present awareness’. The possibility of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ is however contingent upon the structuring of the school as an institution, and is directly influenced by the axes of authority-autonomy on one hand and that of competition-cooperation on the other.
The notion of ‘school as a centre of inquiry’ is shown to be the cumulative resultant of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ at multiple levels in the school - individual as well as collective. It encompasses in its ambit a range of inquiries, from curriculum, school practices and discipline, to a widening engagement with individual, social, environmental and global issues that a school community is willing to become cognizant of.
The paper attempts to place these notions in the wider framework of the calls for educational reform and renewal in the 21st century.
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Papers by Alok Mathur
‘Philosophy in practice’ is shown to have multiple possible meanings in the context of a school, which are however tied together by a few distinctive and vitalizing features. As it manifests in schools, ‘philosophy in practice’ is seen as being generative across the poles of ‘vision’ and ‘present awareness’. The possibility of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ is however contingent upon the structuring of the school as an institution, and is directly influenced by the axes of 'authority-autonomy' on one hand and that of 'competition-cooperation' on the other.
The notion of ‘school as a centre of inquiry’ is shown to be the cumulative resultant of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ at multiple levels in the school - individual as well as collective. It encompasses in its ambit a range of inquiries, from curriculum, school practices and discipline, to a widening engagement with individual, social, environmental and global issues that a school community is willing to become cognizant of.
The paper attempts to place these notions in the wider framework of the calls for educational reform and renewal in the 21st century.
Conference Presentations by Alok Mathur
‘Philosophy in practice’ is shown to have multiple possible meanings in the context of a school, which are however tied together by a few distinctive and vitalizing features. As it manifests in schools, ‘philosophy in practice’ is seen as being generative across the poles of ‘vision’ and ‘present awareness’. The possibility of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ is however contingent upon the structuring of the school as an institution, and is directly influenced by the axes of authority-autonomy on one hand and that of competition-cooperation on the other.
The notion of ‘school as a centre of inquiry’ is shown to be the cumulative resultant of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ at multiple levels in the school - individual as well as collective. It encompasses in its ambit a range of inquiries, from curriculum, school practices and discipline, to a widening engagement with individual, social, environmental and global issues that a school community is willing to become cognizant of.
The paper attempts to place these notions in the wider framework of the calls for educational reform and renewal in the 21st century.
‘Philosophy in practice’ is shown to have multiple possible meanings in the context of a school, which are however tied together by a few distinctive and vitalizing features. As it manifests in schools, ‘philosophy in practice’ is seen as being generative across the poles of ‘vision’ and ‘present awareness’. The possibility of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ is however contingent upon the structuring of the school as an institution, and is directly influenced by the axes of 'authority-autonomy' on one hand and that of 'competition-cooperation' on the other.
The notion of ‘school as a centre of inquiry’ is shown to be the cumulative resultant of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ at multiple levels in the school - individual as well as collective. It encompasses in its ambit a range of inquiries, from curriculum, school practices and discipline, to a widening engagement with individual, social, environmental and global issues that a school community is willing to become cognizant of.
The paper attempts to place these notions in the wider framework of the calls for educational reform and renewal in the 21st century.
‘Philosophy in practice’ is shown to have multiple possible meanings in the context of a school, which are however tied together by a few distinctive and vitalizing features. As it manifests in schools, ‘philosophy in practice’ is seen as being generative across the poles of ‘vision’ and ‘present awareness’. The possibility of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ is however contingent upon the structuring of the school as an institution, and is directly influenced by the axes of authority-autonomy on one hand and that of competition-cooperation on the other.
The notion of ‘school as a centre of inquiry’ is shown to be the cumulative resultant of the emergence of ‘philosophy in practice’ at multiple levels in the school - individual as well as collective. It encompasses in its ambit a range of inquiries, from curriculum, school practices and discipline, to a widening engagement with individual, social, environmental and global issues that a school community is willing to become cognizant of.
The paper attempts to place these notions in the wider framework of the calls for educational reform and renewal in the 21st century.