FROM CRADLE TO KOSMOS
Exploring the leading edge of educational theory and practice
August 2–7, 2009
Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island
Washington State
Integral education stands out as one of the most pertinent and practical means of creating positive change in ourselves and the world.
This seminar will bring educators of all age groups together from around the globe, educators who are seeking the necessary vision, skills, and processes to fully serve students and the world that we inhabit.
Integral education is an emerging field, propelled by people who seek to push the envelope of what education can be. The seminar will provide a perfect environment to meet with colleagues and to network with a small but growing community that clearly understands that addressing a more complete spectrum of personal, cultural, and systemic realities at play in education is one of the most powerful ways to begin effecting the changes we hope to see in the world.
Some of the core questions we will be asking ourselves are
John Gruber, M.S., holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and a graduate degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. As an undergraduate faculty scholar at Brown University he worked to integrate studies in biology, geology and environmental science, and received the C.F. Ma Research Fellowship for Natural Products research as a graduate student. In 2001, he was a Teacher Recognition Awardee in the United States Presidential Scholars Program. As a science teacher and long-time student of evolutionary biology and natural history he is particularly interested in ways to apply integral thinking to the secondary school classroom. Having taught a botany seminar for twelve years, John uses that particular class as an experimental ground, a place to explore the application of integral approaches to teaching with a group of willing and interested students. He emphasizes field-work, experimental observation, and direct perception alongside conceptualization in his science courses, and continues to develop ways to build interior and exterior experiences into his science teaching.
In addition to his work and research as an educator and administrator, he is involved in an active research program in insect ecology and systematic biology of moth species.
John is one of the directors of Next Step Integral, and currently he also serves as Chairman of the Upper School Science Department and the Director of the Summer Science Institute at Friends’ Central School, an independent Quaker day school where he has taught for sixteen years.
Miriam Mason Martineau, M.A. Miriam’s formal training lies in the areas of psychology, dance, choreography, and voice. She has a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Zurich, with a specialization in Youth and Child Psychology, and is also a certified teacher of Laban Modern Dance, as well as a singer and vocal instructor.
Miriam works in private practice as an integral therapeutic counselor for adults, couples, youth and children. She is vice-president of Next Step Integral, an organization that applies integral consciousness to parenting, education, ecology, and community. For the last 15 years she has studied and researched how parenting can be pursued as a spiritual practice. This has led her to offering courses on the topic, working as a coach for parents, and writing a book (forthcoming) titled Integral Parenting. She also leads workshops on authentic voice and movement, and has performed both as a soloist and in a variety of choirs such as the Swiss National Television Choir and the Stiftschor Einsiedeln. From 1992-2002 Miriam lived in an integrally-informed intentional community and there honed the skills of group facilitation, conflict resolution and generative dialogue.
Terri O’Fallon has a Ph.D. in Integral Studies with a concentration in Learning and Change in Human Systems, and a Masters Degree in Special education. Terri has been an educator for over 40 years and has been in a variety of teaching and administrative positions in elementary schools, high schools/school districts, colleges and universities. Terri has specialized in online teaching for adults and has been involved in creating advanced degree programs involving philosopher Ken Wilber’s integral framework. She is presently one of three principals for Pacific Integral, an LLC that uses and teaches this framework. One of Pacific Integral’s services is a two-year certificate program called Generating Transformative Change in Human Systems. Terri also is involved in chairing and serving on PhD dissertation committees for two institutes (the California Institute of Integral Studies and the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology) and consulting, including international work in Kosovo.
All of this work supports a commitment to evoke the Sacred within learning ecologies, from birth to death, from local to global, using face-to-face teaching and contemporary online approaches.
