Learning to Live Together Harmoniously: a conceptual framework

Abstract

‘Learning To Live Together’ (LTLT) has been emphasised in SDG 4.7 and the Delors report, with the latter suggesting it to be one of the four education pillars. LTLT has frequently been used as an umbrella-like term leading to difficulties in informing teaching practices and policies. In India, Aurobindo, Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Krishnamurti and Tagore have proposed synergetic ideologies like ‘education of the heart’. They founded schools, some more than a century ago, which pursue these goals. This paper develops a conceptual framework for LTLT using teachers’ perceptions of LTLT. The paper draws upon a larger multiple embedded case study involving a 10-month-long immersion in the five schools founded by the aforementioned philosophers, as well as ethnographic observations and interviews with 14 teachers and five headteachers. The findings reconceptualise LTLT as LTLT ‘Harmoniously’ (LTLTH) and builds an interconnected 2D framework with three domains, which are intersected with six dimensions.