Pathways To Learning: Deepening Reflective Practice To Explore Democracy, Connectedness, and Spirituality

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss some of the issues that arise from a consideration of the alternatives featured in the book. Specifically, the chapter

• addresses the positioning of alternatives, the different meanings and implications that the concept of alternatives can have, and questions of power bound up in it;

• articulates the value of diversity and difference in school systems, and the importance of cooperative practice; and

• sets out a framework of features, formulated as a result of our review of the alternatives, which characterizes educational settings that have a developmentally democratic character and strive to be inclusive, open to alternatives, and capable of nurturing rounded physical, spiritual, emotional, cognitive, ethical, and social development in students.