Education as Liberation : Biography and Freedom in the Lives of Krishnamurti, Tagore and Gandhi

• In Event: Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual iPresentation Only: SIG-Biographical and Documentary Research Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand: How did the personal lives and biographies of the three educators shape their views on education and freedom?
The three educators were Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), RabindranathTagore (1861-1941) and Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) in whose lives freedom emerges as a central theme. This study is grounded in an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that brings together curriculum theory, the biographical method, and the philosophical concept of freedom. Drawing on William Pinar’s (2022) concept of currere or curriculum as a lived, autobiographical process, the use of biographical inquiry as a method, the lives and educational contributions of Krishnamurti, Tagore, and Gandhi are analyzed as narrative texts, shaped by visions of freedom.

Author

• Raji Swaminathan, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee