Gandhian Education in Bali: Globalisations and cultural diversity in a time of fundamentalisms

Abstract

The paper presents findings from a research project undertaken at the Taman Rama Gandhi School in Bali during the first anniversary week of the Bali Bombings in 2003. It explores the school's response to four key components of Gandhi's model of Basic Education (Nai Talim) and shows that the claimed curriculum is framed by two contradictory discourses: a globalisation from above discourse and a Gandhian discourse of tolerance and peace, more consistent with a globalisation from below discourse. The argument is made that the curriculum's commitment to the neo-liberal capitalist values of the globalisation form above discourse may ultimately thwart the emphasis upon peace and tolerance in the discourse from below.