New Publication - Beyond the Material: The human spirit in higher education

The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace is delighted to announce a new publication by our Visiting Research Professor Dr. Tiffani Betts Razavi.

Dr. Razavi has contributed a chapter, Beyond the material: The human spirit in higher education to the volume edited by Mark Warford, Transglobal Humanities: Meeting the Moment with Vernon Press.

Abstract

Although the vast majority of the world’s population identifies with religious belief of some kind, and despite the turn to increased awareness of diversity and inclusion and cultural integration, in many higher education contexts outside specific religious education, there is a bias towards materialist assumptions about human nature and associated ideologies of individualism, competition, meritocracy, and consumerism. In this chapter, I argue that the unchallenged deep influence of such concepts has created an imbalance and that attention to the human spirit is necessary as higher education pivots to the global. Can higher education pedagogies move beyond the material to better meet both students’ and humanity’s needs? I explore the merits of opening the academy to the acknowledgement of the spiritual dimension of human identity through two ideas –the human spirit and human unity– which provide an alternative lens through which to view the purpose of higher education and the responsibility of educators. Drawing on concepts elaborated in Bahá’í texts, I briefly describe these ideas and outline a corresponding conceptual framework for a unity-centered pedagogy, illustrating its application with examples from an undergraduate peace education course at a secular public university in the United States. I explore how the broader inclusivity of this conceptual shift beyond materialist assumptions might influence pedagogical research and practice in higher education and discuss how incorporating these two ideas can allow us to ask new questions and generate new understanding about identity and diversity, meaning and purpose, motivation and capability.

The chapter is available to read as a pre-print here.

The book is also available to purchase from https://vernonpress.com/book/2192 with a 24% discount using the code: CFC657352D12