This document contains papers presented at the 2004 International Forum on Integrated Education and Educational Reform, held on October 28 to 31, 2004, at Bosch Conference Center in Santa Cruz, California, USA. The Forum is sponsored by the Center for Global Integrated Education (CGIE).
CGIE is a non-profit organization that promotes, develops, supplies and supports educational programs, studies, products and services intended to introduce and address a new system of integrated education in collaboration with individuals and organizations who are dedicated to providing a comprehensive system of education to children worldwide. We support educational activities that in addition to achieving academic excellence, will help create unity, foster the full human potentials, encourage the preservation of global natural resources, support and bring to life those aspects of culture and moral values that promotes the progress of an ever-advancing civilization.
CGIE is inspired by many of the world’s spiritual luminaries and educators who taught us that human nature is fundamentally spiritual and that spiritual principles, which resonate with the human soul, provide an enormous motivational power for change and progress. Communities that thrive and prosper in the future will do so because they will acknowledge the spiritual dimension of human nature and make the integrated moral, emotional, physical, and intellectual development of the individual, a central priority in their education programs. We understand that education as a whole is the most effective way to shape the values, attitudes, behaviors and skills which make it possible for an individual to function effectively in an integrated world community. CGIE’s goal is to contribute, through specific programs and services, to an educational framework, which facilitates human transformation through simultaneous development of an individual’s intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical dimensions. We hope that such transformation not only produces smart individuals, but helps to create a just and harmonious global society.
One of CGIE’s objectives has been to sponsor and conduct ongoing international forums and seminars and invite leaders of comprehensive integrated education, to discuss the merits of the systems they work with, to identify the obstacles to their implementation, and to evaluate the means for their global promotion and introduction. The 2004 Forum is the first attempt by CGIE to conduct such an event on an international level. The aim of the Forum is to assess the present need for such a system and present available new approaches and programs by introducing an integrative perspective into educational reform in both the East (particularly China) and the West. China has been selected by CGIE for the initial exploration and implementation of integrated education because of its forward-thinking approach towards educational reform. The Forum will explore new ways to go beyond traditional and limited definitions of education and move beyond the now dominant and narrowly focused education systems in both the West and China.
This document presents papers prepared by scholars from China, United States, and the United Kingdom. We felt that the efficiency of the communication and exchange of ideas will be significantly enhanced if the participants of the Forum have all the papers at their disposal upon arrival at the Forum. An attempt was made to translate many of the papers into English and Chinese from its original language. However, due to late delivery of a number of papers and the sheer enormity of the task of translation of approximately 45 papers, we were not able to translate all the papers to both languages. We have however attached translations of the abstracts of all available papers so that the participants in each presentation have an initial understanding of the papers being presented. Furthermore, it would be impossible for the participants to attend all the presentations at the Forum, since up to three sessions will be conducted simultaneously. This document will allow all the participants to be able to read the papers presented at the sessions they were not able to attend in person. Also, all participants will have the opportunity to take the document back with them to their home country to be read and shared at their convenience.
The document is organized in two main sections. Section 1 is entirely in English and presents all the papers submitted in English or translated into English, arranged alphabetically, based on the author’s last name. Section 2 is in Chinese and presents all the papers submitted in Chinese or translated into Chinese. The Forum’s agenda is also enclosed in the beginning of this document.
The Forum is only a step in the bigger process of identification, evaluation, research, fine tuning, and eventual implementation of integrated educational systems all over the world, in the East as well as the West. Our hope is that the Forum creates an atmosphere of cooperation and exchange of ideas which leads into future relationships and continuous communications between the educators who participated in the Forum. We offer our website as a medium that can be used as a clearinghouse for all new research, papers, material, and curricula that can facilitate the understanding and implementation of integrated educational systems throughout the world.
And finally, we can think of this Forum as a microcosm of integrated educational systems that it tries to advocate, which means that we hope that we can engage our bodies, minds, and spirits in an integrated fashion, and make a contribution to the unity of human kind and an ever-advancing civilization. This would require, among other things, that we actively seek to know each other better, care for one another, appreciate our differences, and keep an open mind to new ideas.
