Archetypal pedagogy
Encyclopedia
Archetypal pedagogy is a theory of education which was developed Clifford Mayes
. It is in the Jungian tradition and directly related to analytical psychology
.
, professor in the Brigham Young University
McKay School of Education, has developed what he has termed archetypal pedagogy. Mayes' work also aims at promoting what he calls archetypal reflectivity in teachers; this is a means of encouraging teachers to examine and work with psychodynamic issues, images, and assumptions as those factors affect their pedagogical practices. Archetypal reflectivity, which draws not only upon Jungian psychology but transpersonal
psychology generally, offers an avenue for teachers to probe the spiritual dimensions of teaching and learning in non-dogmatic terms.
Mayes' two most recent works, Inside Education: Depth Psychology in Teaching and Learning (2007) and The Archetypal Hero's Journey in Teaching and Learning: A Study in Jungian Pedagogy (2008), incorporate the psychoanalytic theories of Heinz Kohut
(particularly Kohut's notion of the selfobject) and the object relations theory
of Ronald Fairbairn
and D.W. Winnicott. Some of Mayes' work in curriculum theory
, especially Seven Curricular Landscapes: An Approach to the Holistic Curriculum (2003) and Understanding the Whole Student: Holistic Multicultural Education (2007), is concerned with holistic education
.
s are, according to Swiss
psychologist
Carl Jung
, innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic themes of human life emerge. Being universal and innate, their influence can be detected in the form of myths, symbols, rituals and instincts of human beings. Archetypes are components of the collective unconscious
and serve to organize, direct and inform human thought and behaviour.
According to Jung, archetypes heavily influence the human life cycle, propelling a neurologically hard-wired sequence which he called the stages of life. Each stage is mediated through a new set of archetypal imperatives which seek fulfillment in action. These may include being parented, initiation, courtship, marriage and preparation for death.
Pedagogy
, or paedagogy, is the art
or science
of being a teacher
. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction. Pedagogy is also sometimes referred to as the correct use of teaching strategies (see instructional theory
). Pedagogy comes from ancient greek
παιδαγωγία, of παιδός (paiˈdos) "child" and ἄγω ([ˈaɡɔː) "to drive, to raise, to take the way".
Archetypal pedagogy is the discovery of self and knowledge by means of the archetypes.
The archetypes are innate, universal prototypes for ideas and may be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations associated with an archetype is a complex
, e.g. a mother complex associated with the mother archetype. Jung treated the archetypes as psychological organs, analogous to physical ones in that both are morphological constructs that arose through evolution
.
An innate need for self-realization
leads people to explore and integrate these rejected materials. This natural process is called individuation
, or the process of becoming an individual.
According to Jung, self-realization can be divided into two distinct tiers. In the first half of our lives we separate from humanity. We attempt to create our own identities (I, myself). This is why there is such a need for young men to be destructive, and can be expressed as animosity from teens directed at their parents. Jung also said we have a sort of “second puberty” that occurs between 35-40- outlook shifts from emphasis on materialism, sexuality, and having children to concerns about community and spirituality.
In the second half of our lives, humans reunite with the human race. They become part of the collective once again. This is when adults start to contribute to humanity (volunteer time, build, garden, create art, etc.) rather than destroy. They are also more likely to pay attention to their unconscious and conscious feelings. Young men rarely say "I feel angry." or "I feel sad.” This is because they have not yet rejoined the human collective experience, commonly reestablished in their older, wiser years, according to Jung. A common theme is for young rebels to "search" for their true selves and realize that a contribution to humanity is essentially a necessity for a whole self
.
Jung proposes that the ultimate goal of the collective unconscious and self-realization is to pull us to the highest experience. This, of course, is spiritual.
Clifford Mayes
Clifford Mayes is an American professor in the Brigham Young University McKay School of Education.A Jungian scholar, Mayes has produced the first book-length studies in English on the pedagogical applications of Jungian and neo-Jungian psychology, which is based on the work of Carl Gustav Jung ....
. It is in the Jungian tradition and directly related to analytical psychology
Analytical psychology
Analytical psychology is the school of psychology originating from the ideas of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. His theoretical orientation has been advanced by his students and other thinkers who followed in his tradition. Though they share similarities, analytical psychology is distinct from...
.
History
Clifford MayesClifford Mayes
Clifford Mayes is an American professor in the Brigham Young University McKay School of Education.A Jungian scholar, Mayes has produced the first book-length studies in English on the pedagogical applications of Jungian and neo-Jungian psychology, which is based on the work of Carl Gustav Jung ....
, professor in the Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
McKay School of Education, has developed what he has termed archetypal pedagogy. Mayes' work also aims at promoting what he calls archetypal reflectivity in teachers; this is a means of encouraging teachers to examine and work with psychodynamic issues, images, and assumptions as those factors affect their pedagogical practices. Archetypal reflectivity, which draws not only upon Jungian psychology but transpersonal
Transpersonal
The term transpersonal is often used to refer to psychological categories that transcend the normal features of ordinary ego-functioning. That is, stages of psychological growth, or stages of consciousness, that move beyond the rational andprecede the mystical...
psychology generally, offers an avenue for teachers to probe the spiritual dimensions of teaching and learning in non-dogmatic terms.
Mayes' two most recent works, Inside Education: Depth Psychology in Teaching and Learning (2007) and The Archetypal Hero's Journey in Teaching and Learning: A Study in Jungian Pedagogy (2008), incorporate the psychoanalytic theories of Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of Self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the modern practice of analytic and dynamic treatment approaches.-Early life:Kohut was born...
(particularly Kohut's notion of the selfobject) and the object relations theory
Object relations theory
Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....
of Ronald Fairbairn
Ronald Fairbairn
William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn was a Scottish psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and a central figure in the development of the object relations theory of psychoanalysis.-Life:He was born in Edinburgh in 1889...
and D.W. Winnicott. Some of Mayes' work in curriculum theory
Curriculum theory
Curriculum theory is the theory of the development and enactment of curriculum. Within the broad field of curriculum studies, it is both a historical analysis of curriculum and a way of viewing current educational curriculum and policy decisions...
, especially Seven Curricular Landscapes: An Approach to the Holistic Curriculum (2003) and Understanding the Whole Student: Holistic Multicultural Education (2007), is concerned with holistic education
Holistic education
Holistic education is a philosophy of education based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values such as compassion and peace. Holistic education aims to call forth from people...
.
Archetypes and pedagogy
ArchetypeArchetype
An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
s are, according to Swiss
Swiss (people)
The Swiss are citizens or natives of Switzerland. The demonym derives from the toponym of Schwyz and has been in widespread use to refer to the Old Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century....
psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
, innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic themes of human life emerge. Being universal and innate, their influence can be detected in the form of myths, symbols, rituals and instincts of human beings. Archetypes are components of the collective unconscious
Collective unconscious
Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. It is proposed to be a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience...
and serve to organize, direct and inform human thought and behaviour.
According to Jung, archetypes heavily influence the human life cycle, propelling a neurologically hard-wired sequence which he called the stages of life. Each stage is mediated through a new set of archetypal imperatives which seek fulfillment in action. These may include being parented, initiation, courtship, marriage and preparation for death.
Pedagogy
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
, or paedagogy, is the art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
or science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
of being a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction. Pedagogy is also sometimes referred to as the correct use of teaching strategies (see instructional theory
Instructional theory
An Instructional theory is "a theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help people learn and develop." Instructional theories focus on how to structure material for promoting the education of human beings, particularly youth...
). Pedagogy comes from ancient greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
παιδαγωγία, of παιδός (paiˈdos) "child" and ἄγω ([ˈaɡɔː) "to drive, to raise, to take the way".
Archetypal pedagogy is the discovery of self and knowledge by means of the archetypes.
The archetypes are innate, universal prototypes for ideas and may be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations associated with an archetype is a complex
Complex (psychology)
A complex is a core pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status...
, e.g. a mother complex associated with the mother archetype. Jung treated the archetypes as psychological organs, analogous to physical ones in that both are morphological constructs that arose through evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
.
Individuation and self-realization
Individuation is a process of psychological differentiation, having for its goal the development of the individual personality. "In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated; in particular, it is the development of the psychological individual as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology." (C.G. Jung. Psychological Types. Collected Works Vol.6., par. 757)An innate need for self-realization
Self-realization
Self-realization is a self-awakening.Self-realization may also refer to:* Self-Realization Fellowship, worldwide spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda...
leads people to explore and integrate these rejected materials. This natural process is called individuation
Individuation
Individuation is a concept which appears in numerous fields and may be encountered in work by Arthur Schopenhauer, Carl Jung, Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler, Gilles Deleuze, Henri Bergson, David Bohm, and Manuel De Landa...
, or the process of becoming an individual.
According to Jung, self-realization can be divided into two distinct tiers. In the first half of our lives we separate from humanity. We attempt to create our own identities (I, myself). This is why there is such a need for young men to be destructive, and can be expressed as animosity from teens directed at their parents. Jung also said we have a sort of “second puberty” that occurs between 35-40- outlook shifts from emphasis on materialism, sexuality, and having children to concerns about community and spirituality.
In the second half of our lives, humans reunite with the human race. They become part of the collective once again. This is when adults start to contribute to humanity (volunteer time, build, garden, create art, etc.) rather than destroy. They are also more likely to pay attention to their unconscious and conscious feelings. Young men rarely say "I feel angry." or "I feel sad.” This is because they have not yet rejoined the human collective experience, commonly reestablished in their older, wiser years, according to Jung. A common theme is for young rebels to "search" for their true selves and realize that a contribution to humanity is essentially a necessity for a whole self
Self (Jung)
The Self in Jungian theory is one of the archetypes. It signifies the coherent whole, unified consciousness and unconscious of a person - 'the totality of the psyche'. The Self, according to Jung, is realised as the product of individuation, which in Jungian view is the process of integrating one's...
.
Jung proposes that the ultimate goal of the collective unconscious and self-realization is to pull us to the highest experience. This, of course, is spiritual.
Selected books
- Clifford MayesClifford MayesClifford Mayes is an American professor in the Brigham Young University McKay School of Education.A Jungian scholar, Mayes has produced the first book-length studies in English on the pedagogical applications of Jungian and neo-Jungian psychology, which is based on the work of Carl Gustav Jung ....
, The Archetypal Hero's Journey in Teaching and Learning: A Study in Jungian Pedagogy. Atwood Publishing: (Winter, 2008; in press) - Clifford Mayes, Inside Education: Depth Psychology in Teaching and Learning. Atwood Publishing: 2007
- Clifford Mayes, Ramona Maile Cutri, Clint Rogers, Fidel Montero, Understanding the Whole Student: Holistic Multicultural Education. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007
- Clifford Mayes,Jung and Education: Elements of an Archetypal Pedagogy. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005
- Carl Gustav Jung, Education and Psychology (Erziehung und psychologie).
Selected articles
- Paul Shaker, "The Application of Jung's Analytical Psychology to Education", Journal of Curriculum Studies, v14, n3, p241-50, Jul-Sep 1982.
- Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., "Jung and the Greening of Psychology and Education", Oregon Friends of C.G. Jung Newsletter, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Oct. 1996-Jan. 1997, pp. 9.12, 13.
- James L. Henderson, "Jung's analytical psychology and its significance for education in the light of recent literature", International Review of Education (Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue internationale l'éducation), Volume 2, Number, September 1956.