Abstract
The Gandhian concept of Sarvodaya—meaning the uplifting of all—is a vision of a society wherein both the personal and the common uplifting speak to the duty of bringing equality, and social and environmental justice in the world. Standing on the pillars of truth, non-violence, self-determination, and equality, Sarvodaya challenges the neoliberal imperialistic discourse of dominance and inequity that entails a separation of nature and humanity. A tri-vid pedagogy inspired by such concepts builds students’ agency in questioning monumental givens in an unbalanced and unequal global society.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Dussel (1998, p. 81), postmodern criticism of modernity is important and necessary, but it is not enough. “Up to now, the postmoderns remain Eurocentric. The dialogue with ‘different’ cultures is, for now, an unfulfilled promised” (Endnote 82).
- 2.
Rancière 2009a.
- 3.
Bannerjee 2002, p. 19.
- 4.
Narayanasamy 2003, p. 8.
- 5.
In Buddhism, to believe in ahimsa “means responding to violence with upaya, or skilful means, action appropriate to the time and circumstance” (Sivaraksa 2005, p. 5).
- 6.
Gandhi 1960.
- 7.
- 8.
“True economics is the economics of justice. People will be happy in so far as they learn to do justice and be righteous. All else is not only vain but leads straight to destruction. To teach the people to get rich by hook or by crook is to do them an immense injustice” (Gandhi 1956, p . 24).
Swadeshi is that spirit in us which promotes the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote … In the domain of politics, I should make use of the indigenous institutions and serve them by curing them of their proved defects. In that of economics, I should use only things that are produced by my immediate neighbours and serve those industries by making them efficient and complete where they might be found wanting. (Gandhi 1969, The Selected Works of Gandhi, vol v, section vii, Swadeshi)
- 9.
Rajendraparasad 1951/2010, p. 21.
- 10.
“[M]erging in the good of all” Vinoba Bhave (1951/2010, p. 25).
- 11.
Gandhi 1999, p. 14.
- 12.
“When sustainable living is defined by the necessary internal mental processes that it requires, it becomes clear that a more explicit focus on these internal processes would benefit EfS” (Lander 2016, p. 52).
- 13.
Common good, in this case, is explained as being something that is good for everyone “it is not only the ‘good life’ of individuals that matters, but also the goodness of the life that humans hold in common. It cannot be a personal or parochial good” (UNESCO 2015, p. 78).
- 14.
In Christian theology, the difference between good and common good is explained quite forcefully:
if the same thing is a good for each individual of a city and for the city itself, it is clear that it is much greater and more perfect to have at heart—that is, to secure and defend—that which is the good of the entire city than that which is the good of a single man…. Or, …. The good of the family is better than the singular good not because all the members of the family find therein their singular good; it is better because, for each of the individual members, it is also the good of the others. (De Koninck 1997, p. 20)
- 15.
“Focused on the external aspects of society: economics, acquisitiveness, competitiveness, etc., to the point where the human condition and the quality of life is judged primarily in terms of things” (Astin 2004, p. 37).
- 16.
Even India, where Gandhi had raised the slogan of Swaraj and Sarvodaya, independence from colonialism has not freed itself from its dependence on such colonial ideologies. Gandhi’s vision of equality and social justice for all has been tarnished by India’s vision of becoming a super economic power in the world, and recently by politically motivated regional, cultural, and religious intolerance among people.
- 17.
- 18.
Desai 1946.
- 19.
Narayanasamy 2003.
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
In putting a price on the carbon emissions debate, for example, a blame game goes on about the developed world versus the developing world, which, in the case of countries such as India and China, is much more divisive than is found in countries such as Australia. Ultimately, it is not about who pollutes or who saves, it is, after all, one planet which is being put in danger— “Our only home” (Brooks 2011).
- 23.
In the Presidential speech to the Association of Mathematicians in 1916 in England, Whitehead explained how to educate is like religion.
The essence of education is that it be religious. Pray, what is religious education? A religious education is an education which inculcates duty and reverence. Duty arises from our potential control over the course of events. Where attainable knowledge could have changed the issue, ignorance has the guilt of vice. And the foundation of reverence is this perception, that the present holds within itself the complete sum of existence, backwards and forwards, that whole amplitude of time, which is eternity. (Whitehead 1916, p. 9)
- 24.
García-González et al. 2016.
- 25.
UNESCO 2010.
- 26.
Shiva 2000, p . 91.
- 27.
Shiva 2005, p . 10.
- 28.
Kapoor 1998, p. 85.
- 29.
Shiva ’s fight is against corporatisation that induces injustice in the world. For example:
Economic globalisation is leading to a concentration of the seed industry, the entry of global corporations into agriculture, the increased use of pesticides, and, finally, increased debt, despair, and sometimes suicide among small farmers. Capital -intensive, corporate-controlled agriculture is being spread into regions where peasants are poor but, until now, have been self-sufficient in food. In the regions where industrial agriculture has been introduced through globalisation, higher costs are making it virtually impossible for small farmers to survive. (Shiva 2000, p. 94)
- 30.
Altbach 2007.
- 31.
“[D]ouble knowing” (Singh and Shreshtha 2008, p. 65).
- 32.
A non-Western international student in teacher education, in Handa, PhD thesis, 2014.
- 33.
A non-Western international student in teacher education in Handa, PhD thesis, 2014.
- 34.
A non-Western international student in teacher education in Handa, PhD thesis, 2014.
- 35.
Kimmel and Volet 2012, p. 158.
- 36.
For students to become global citizens they need to develop “aptitudes for networking and interacting with people of different backgrounds, origins, cultures and perspectives (e.g. global empathy, sense of solidarity)” (UNESCO 2014, p. 17). It is essential that Global citizenship education provides “a deep knowledge of global issues and universal values such as justice, equality, dignity and respect … critical and creative reasoning and problem-solving skills supported by a multi-perspective approach … a deep knowledge of global issues and universal values such as justice, equality, dignity and respect” (UNESCO 2014, p. 17). Students need to “understand their social responsibilities as integral elements of the world in which they live” (Haigh 2006b, p. 328).
For example, in accordance with the innovative unit created for global competence in school children, Boix and Jackson (2011, p. 43) write about:
creating school culture where inquiring about the world is common practice. Such inquiry may take the form of indepth units of study or intelligent questions following a presentation. In these environments, cultural, religious, class and regional perspectives are considered. They appear not only as students examine a historical event or works of literature, but also when they interact informally with their teachers and peers.
- 37.
Meusburger et al. 2015.
- 38.
Southern Theory, Connell 2007.
- 39.
A non-Western teacher educator, in Handa, PhD thesis, 2014.
- 40.
- 41.
Rancière 2009a.
- 42.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA 2012). Cross-curriculum priorities are addressed through learning areas and are identified wherever they are developed or applied in content descriptions. They are also identified where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning in content elaborations. Available from http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities.
- 43.
The inclusion of sustainable education in the pre-service teacher education is considered important for “ensuring that all parts of the education system work together for a sustainable future” (Steele 2010, p. 4). However, this endeavour is also deemed difficult especially due to discipline boundaries, lack of incentive as well as lack of funding (McKeown and Hopkins 2002), an issue which continues (Martell 2017).
- 44.
“Global competence is capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance” (Gardner, preface to Boix-Mansilla and Jackson 2011, p. xiii).
At an international level, Global Citizenship is being set as the aim of education by developing “ the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes learners need for securing a world which is more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable” (UNESCO 2014, p. 9). Especially in teacher education, for the preparation of learners for the challenges of the twenty-first century, it is deemed crucial, that “those growing up in the world of today—and tomorrow!—need preparation to tackle the range of pervasive problems: human conflict, climate change, poverty, the spread of disease, the control of nuclear energy” (Gardner, preface to Boix-Mansilla and Jackson 2011, p. x).
- 45.
Haigh 2010–2011, p. 7.
- 46.
- 47.
Yang 2002, p. 86.
- 48.
Yang, a Chinese academic, claims that:
It is the responsibility of a university to cultivate the ability to understand, appreciate and articulate the reality of interdependence among nations and to prepare faculty, staff and students to function in an international and intercultural context. Under the impact of globalisation, universities have the opportunity and responsibility through teaching and research to increase awareness and understanding of the new and changing phenomenon that is affecting the political, economic and cultural/multicultural developments within and among nations. (Yang 2002, p. 86)
- 49.
To do so, as Quezada (2010, p. 4) argues, these educators must “break their ‘virtual wall of silence’ and begin preparing educators for the globally interdependent world in which they will work and their students will live”.
- 50.
Tagore 1930, p . 164.
- 51.
Orr 1991, p. 57.
- 52.
Orr 1991, p. 57.
- 53.
For example, concepts from other languages which, as words have been translated in English, lose their deeper meaning. Kumar (2003, p. 17) explains how the Hindi word Sevva, which in English is simply translated as “service”, takes away the message of doing a selfless action for others by replacing it with an action for a financial reward. To understand this difference requires an engagement, exploration, and understanding in a context.
- 54.
For example, Lander (cited in Lander 2016, p. 49) proposes “that sustainability is a way of thinking and decision making that is based on ethical principles and that supports the welfare of social and natural environments now and in the future. This definition is context-free and has broad applicability across both social and natural environments which can vary greatly around the planet.”
- 55.
“Distributive justice” Omotola 2000, pp. 117–118.
- 56.
We must rediscover and teach indigenous and ancient truths, generate new concepts and ways of thinking, and we must inspire students with a hopeful vision (Corcoran and Wals 2004, p. 3).
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Handa, N. (2018). Sarvodaya in an Internationalised Education for Sustainability. In: Education for Sustainability through Internationalisation. Palgrave Studies in Global Citizenship Education and Democracy. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50297-1_7
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