What are the aims and purpose of higher education? What should the higher purposes of schooling be?
Some countries would foreground economics and workforce development; we need to cultivate human capital that can bolster strong economic growth on the road to progress. Profit and gross national product are the targets and reign supreme.
Some would argue that the aim of a higher education should be to bolster science, technology, mathematics and engineering.
Yet other citizens and educators might advocate for a higher education that promotes a powerful democratic citizenry, engaged in all levels of governance and the co-creation of vibrant, pluralistic democracies.
And let’s not forget the arts, an appreciation for truth, beauty, love and aesthetics – should these be the aims and purposes of higher education?
An alternative vision, such as gross national happiness, a relatively new metric that involves well-being for people and the planet, might reframe the conversation, and beg a question – What might education for human well-being and ecological flourishing look and feel like?
All of these aims do not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive or framed in competition. There can be room for a range of purposes and aims in higher education. And clearly there are a plethora of them.
In a world riddled with complexities of ‘wicked problems’ – such as the climate crisis, structural racism, global health pandemics, gross disparities among the wealthy power elite and the masses – we need a higher education focused on regenerative approaches, systems thinking and making a real difference by providing solutions for some of these most pressing issues of our time.
Preparing students to solve ‘wicked problems’
What if higher education was aimed at cultivating students as peacebuilders who tackle and transform ‘wicked problems’? What would that look like in terms of courses, programmes, degrees offered? How might university mission and vision statements, strategic plans and priorities, and assessment processes align to achieve the promises of a higher education? What type of values, behaviours and thought leadership would be modelled by educational leaders in higher education?
With the aim of fostering peacebuilders, I have taught courses on contemplative and inclusive leadership for sustainable peace to students at James Madison University in Virginia in the United States, and from around the world in a UNESCO masters programme at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
We use a variety of contemplative pedagogies and practices, including meditation and nature immersion, to discern our own core value orientation as related to leadership beliefs and behaviours.
This course aims to foster self-awareness as leaders and other awareness through exploring the life, contexts, challenges and successes of global peace leaders such as Wangari Maathai of Kenya, Vandana Shiva of India, and-or Autumn Peltier of Canada, to name just a few.
We enhance systems awareness in this course by examining the socio-cultural, political, economic and environmental realities that circumscribe the work of these activists. Additionally, we connect the global and local through examining global initiatives such as the United Nations 17 Goals to Transform Our World – the UN Sustainable Development Goals – and the Earth Charter.
On the road to becoming contemplative and inclusive leaders in various respective future career contexts, my students and I actively seek out local, community-based sustainable peace leaders who are dedicated to the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.
Peace leadership is not just out there – it’s in our local community and capacities are also inside of us: Plants the seeds, nurture them and they will grow.
We sometimes do small service-learning projects with local peace leaders and their businesses. For example, we have gotten our hands dirty planting potatoes and kale, shovelling mulch and pulling weeds in a process of learning about sustainable food systems aimed at creating healthy ecosystems, an equitable society, a vibrant economy – the concept behind the Washington State whole systems approach to education for sustainability.
Contemplative Leadership for Sustainable Peace is an introductory course, so we have modest goals and intentions. Student impact in these courses is promising – as I elaborated with Destin Webb in a 2019 Journal of Peace Education article.
But one course is not enough. Sequenced courses, programmes, degrees and university resourcing dedicated to studying and actualising regenerative and sustainable peace leaders are needed.
Perhaps the University for Peace in Costa Rica and programmes like Rotary International Peace Fellowships are headed in the right direction.
Co-learning centred approach
Creating adaptive, flexible, resilient and regenerative peacebuilders through higher education might require a different kind of learning and teaching, one that focuses on co-learning at the core of an education of the head, the hand and the heart – to paraphrase Gandhi.
Content knowledge, teacher knowledge, learner knowledge all still have their place in regenerative peace pedagogies, defined here as educational approaches that aim to heal and co-evolve the planet, from a systems approach that assumes that the illusion of separation toward the realisation of unity is the path forward.
A co-learning centred approach in higher education that assumes an interdependent ontology, that holds our vulnerabilities and relationships as most precious, and that assumes collaboration is king, might lead us forward in fostering peacebuilders in higher education.
Yet education systems, including institutions of higher education, are often set up to maintain the status quo – the ideological, socio-cultural, political and economic hierarchies that benefit the global and local power elite.
Education for all to live with dignity and prosper, including the more-than-human world (think plants, animals, ecosystems), all too often is forgotten in the competition and inherent power dynamics of a status quo reproduction enterprise that benefits a few at the exclusion of many.
Powerful actors and forces are at play and the power elite, knowingly and unknowingly, benefit from certain kinds of teaching and learning.
How can higher education cultivate students as peacebuilders? What should the ideal purposes of universities be?
John P Miller, a significant thought leader in the global field of holistic education, suggests in the International Handbook of Holistic Education (p5) that “Holistic education, then, is about educating the whole person – body, mind and spirit – within the context of an interconnected world”. If we are to achieve the lofty ideals of forging peacebuilders in higher education through holistic and regenerative approaches, we need to aim differently and choose our targets wisely.
Perhaps as my friend Norbert recently said, we need to move from the illusion of separation toward the realisation of unity. This realisation indeed just might be the higher education that is needed to cultivate peacebuilders who tackle and transform the wicked problems of our times.
Dr Edward J Brantmeier is a professor at James Madison University, Virginia, United States, and editor of the Journal of Peace Education.