Vivescer: an Online Integral Teacher Development Platform – an Integral Education Case Study from Brazil

Abstract

Abstract Brazil has a rich and distinct tradition of pioneering and promoting Integral Education at a national level. The roots of Integral Education in Brazil go all the way back to 1932 with their publication of the New Education Pioneers’ Manifesto. Building on Brazil’s own foundation in Integral Education, beginning in 2017 Instituto Peninsula a Brazilian non-profit undertook an ambitious multi-year project to develop an online teacher development platform. The goal of this platform was to service all of Brazil’s 150,000 public school teachers. This case study introduces this initiative and presents the unique Integral Education framework that was developed to guide the integral development and ongoing training of public-school teachers. This framework draws heavily on the Integral Education approach associated with Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory. It also incorporates Brazil’s own vision and practice of Integral Education. The framework uses four major learning paths (i.e., Body, Emotion, Mind, and Purpose) in four distinct domains (i.e., Experience, Behavior, Systems, Relationships) to generate a matrix of 16 core competencies for developing integral teachers. The success of this platform to date will be reviewed as well as an exploration of how this initiative can contribute to unique global expressions of Integral Education.