Impact = Transformative Education | Examples
Meridian University, USA:
Integral Development (PhD) Course
Tisiola Lear
Founder, Embracing Women’s Potential, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
"Integral Develoment (ID) has inspired and transformed my thinking in making sense of my own personal journey and of my vision for my professinal life. … I learned the profound significance of what it means to be integral which includes the gifts of the South, North, East, and West. My leanings helped me to redesign and redevelop our organization and to move from the idea of “I, Me, and Mine” to “We, Us, and Ours.” I realised that my own inspiration was first assigned to me and on reflection, after completing the ID course, I realised that what was first assigned to me, was in alignment with the Universe’s purpose for the whole of life."
Jennifer Nelson White
Founder, Dare to Dream Institute, Illinois, USA
"Exploring the model presented by Alexander Schieffer and Ronnie Lessem sparked in me a framework for the curriculum I have been designing for The Dare to Dream Institute. This curriculum for leaders in educational and social science fields designed to transform their knowledge of self-development through their core essence, needed a grounding form. I found this within the design of Integral Development."
Mari Heart
The Genius Alliance, Colorado, USA
"I offer high praise for Integral Development, a thoughtful, brilliant, and skilfully constructed community oriented integral model that includes the realms of Nature, Culture, Spirituality, the Sciences, and Enterprise. … Built upon a foundational Mandala of ancient and indigenous wisdom, it is also imbued with a radiant array of best new practices. The text carefully lays out a vision for the holistic rejuvenation of human society … and points the way toward transformation through integration, offering support to individuals, organizations, and communities to co-creatively fulfil their vast potential. … In sharing this enlivening vision, we are inspired to take the big leap into the next era of human evolution."
This highly interactive course was designed as a long-distance course, using cutting-edge e-platforms to facilitate transformative processes within the participating group and between group and educators.
For this course, designed around the Integral Development process and framework, Trans4m cooperated with Dr. Rama Mani and her Theatre of Transformation approach. Students were thereby encouraged to practically “enact” their own transformative development path and that of their organization or community – to enable faster integration of learnings into the life worlds of participants.
Participants were exposed to key concepts and practices of Integral Development – with a view to actualizing the interconnected potential of self, organisation and society. The course took participants, step by step, through all levels of integral development. An “engagement map” with guiding questions, helped participants to navigate through the course, and the multiple layers of development that are discussed.
The course focused simultaneously on the acquisition of relevant knowledge, deep insights, as well as innovative new practice. Course assignments were designed to enable transfers to the personal development journey each participant is on (and, of course, her particular organisation and society), thereby strengthening the personal capacity to become an “integral” agent of transformation.
Throughout the course, students were exposed to real-life case stories from diverse cultures from around the world, to purposefully draw on cultural and societal particularities. Cases range from private enterprise, to civic society initiatives, to transformative educational institutions, including a cutting-edge leadership laboratory in Brazil.
The course was infused with arts, performance, and poetry, to help create a stimulating and expansive learning and innovation environment within the classroom. The course culminated in the visualisation and co-creation of an “Integral University Perspective”: an educational context that can authentically “care” for the interconnected development of self, organisation and society.