User:Jordanmyskaallen/Emergent Education

Emergent Education is a dynamic educational model devised to be an accessible and viable alternative to existing models.

Emergent Education developed at the Khabele School in Austin, Texas starting in 2001. It is a philosophy and methodology that seeks to integrate the strengths of traditional and progressive education, while emphasizing contextual elements such as a school’s culture and the individual’s sense of purpose in it.

History
The Khabele School in Austin TX was founded in 2001 to develop and utilize the Emergent Education model, but the term itself was not employed until 2010.

Philosophy
Khotso Khabele, the founder of Emergent Education, believes that the vast majority of educators are polarized into two theoretical camps: traditional or progressive. Traditional or back-to-basics education is generally teacher-centered, employs rote learning and memorization, and focuses on demonstrating objective educational standards primarily through standardized testing. Conversely, progressive education is student-centered, metacognitive, and dialogical. It also aims to be holistic by emphasizing the importance of maintaining harmonious human relationships.

Emergent Education was created to embrace the relative strengths of traditional and progressive education approaches while minimizing their shortcomings. The model holds that education must continually be responsive to global and national trends, as well as to the needs of particular schools, communities, and environment.

Emergent Education underlines the importance of impacting contextual elements within a school. These elements include school culture, teacher authenticity and mission, and sense of community, as well as individual contextual elements like character, belief systems, and mental models. The model maintains that these elements are of primary importance in a child’s learning, and therefore must be addressed alongside traditional concerns such as school leadership, classroom size, assessments, or specific curriculum.

Khabele School
The Khabele School features many distinguishing elements of Emergent Education, including;
 * Innovative technology and software. Every child must have a laptop, and the school invests in high-end audio and video editing programs.
 * Mindfulness practices as a part of every class
 * A weekly school-wide airing of grievances
 * Lectures, grades, and standardized tests alongside Socratic seminars
 * Student feedback and student design programs
 * Parents help define the values and culture through summits