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Exploring curriculum as an experience of consciousness transformation

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this study is the exploration of curriculum as an experience of consciousness transformation. Moved by a deep concern over education’s inappropriate reliance on classical science, which I believe has contributed to the radical commercialization of human values, I argue for curriculum imbued with spiritual wisdoms. My argument has three parts: First, drawing on the curriculum scholarship of Dwayne Huebner, I identify openness to the transcendent and a non-dualistic worldview as two of the most prominent aspects of spiritual truth that can counter absolutism and objectivism. Second, I explore the relationship between truth and education in light of Martin Heidegger’s interpretation of Plato’s allegory of the cave and assert that the essence and purpose of education can be found in the four-stage transition of the essence of truth assumed by an individual—from taking the mere shadows as the ultimate reality to suspecting and penetrating the pretended and disguised, and then returning for the ultimate liberation of all the others. For the purpose of verifying the truthfulness of Plato’s allegory of the cave and its existential significance for human beings, my third move is to conduct a dialogue between Buddhism and quantum physics and to demonstrate a startling convergence of the two branches of thought regarding the true nature of consciousness, self and reality. On the basis of Huebner’s and other curriculum theorists’ works, Heidegger’s explication of Plato’s allegory of the cave, the dialogue between Buddhism and quantum physics, I propose the transformation of consciousness as the essence and purpose of education. Drawing specifically on the concepts and process of Buddhist spiritual practices, I explore six elements of consciousness transformation that may be helpful to educators, including understanding the nature of consciousness, self and reality, learning to appreciate human temporality, cultivating impartiality and bodhicitta, becoming responsibly responsive, cultivating selflessness, and learning to embody a non-dualistic worldview.

Text

2016-10-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/59485

Curriculum Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/