The Relational Route to Unleashing the Potentials of Education
In addition to its numbing effect on learning, and its toll on student wellbeing, public education fails to prepare students for the rapidly emerging challenges of global survival. The existing educational system is largely based on an industrial model of over a century ago. Vital to the future is a move from the factory model to a relational orientation to education. As I will propose, relational process is the major source of knowledge, reason, and value. While traditional education stifles the potentials of this process, by nurturing it we open enormous potentials for inclusive, variegated, engaged and future-promising education. Special attention will be directed to current and emerging practices contributing to these ends.
Kenneth J. Gergen
Kenneth J. Gergen is a Senior Research Professor in Psychology at Swarthmore College, and President of the Taos Institute. He is internationally known for his contributions to social constructionist theory, technology and cultural change, and relational theory and practice. His major writings include, Realities and Relationships, The Saturated Self, and Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community. His most recent book is Relational Evaluation: Beyond the Tyranny of Tests (with Scherto Gill). Gergen is listed among the 50 most influential living psychologists in the world, and has received numerous awards for his work, including honorary degrees in both the U.S. and Europe.