EDUCATION SERVING THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS?! An interview study of the educational foundations, challenges and opportunities in Auroville, India

Abstract: Auroville, in India was created to become a living laboratory for a new way of living and being on Earth. In this context, education in Auroville has a specific purpose. According to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa (Aurobindo, 1977; Appendix 1), Auroville should strive to serve the purpose of the evolution of human consciousness individually and collectively, to enable children and youth growing up today to develop capacities needed to solve the wicked problems their generation are left to solve. This study aims to look at if Auroville’s education serves its purpose, by understanding the foundations, challenges and opportunities of Auroville schools. Three research questions are answered through the study: 1) How do Auroville schools define Integral Education? 2) What are the challenges and opportunities for teachers/schools in Auroville? 3) Can teachers and parents become agents of transformational leadership through education? Through an interview study with teachers representing the Auroville schools, material is collected and analysed using Critical Theory and Hermeneutic Phenomenology as a theoretical framework. A literature review studying the premises needed for a new universal education and the challenges that come with manifesting change is the base for the interview questions, in three areas: Education serving the evolution of consciousness, Present realities, Towards a paradigm shift in education. Using Hermeneutic Phenomenology, the material gathered through the interviews was sorted under these areas, and further analysed into different themes: Individual consciousness, Collective consciousness, Structures/Systems/Practices, Education in Auroville today, Resistance to change, Confirming the role of education in Auroville, Transformational Leadership. These areas were then processed through Critical Theory, looked at through perspectives on: Thinking to understand and transform, Judgement/resistance in how to relate to the world, Social condition under which knowledge about itself is articulated. The results from this process are discussed, showing that the there is no clear definition of what Integral Education means in the Auroville schools. Common understanding exists in relation to terminology on a more surface level, but there is a gap in a deeper understanding of the larger aims of Integral Education, of the meaning of the terminology used, as well as in how to transform it into practices. Challenges show that more collective work needs to be done to lay a foundation for a new education to form, such as work with parents and resistance to change. Opportunities come with the fact that everyone who has joined Auroville is there by choice to work towards a transformation of society. Transformational leadership requires training of teachers, and areas for such professional development were suggested, as well as areas of research to progress the work. The study showed that more connections need to be made, between teachers, schools and Auroville as a whole, but also connecting to the larger aims of Integral Education as a universal education building a global consciousness.