master of education program

This program is grounded in a diverse range of philosophies that explore the interconnectedness of all life, systems thinking, ecology, ethics, and integrative learning. These foundational ideas challenge conventional education by emphasizing the whole—bringing scientific, spiritual, and ethical perspectives into dialogue.

The thinkers guiding our curriculum inspire an approach to education as an active, lifelong process of becoming. They highlight the importance of presence, compassion, and cultivating meaningful relationships—to oneself, to community, and to the Earth.

Our program encourages learners to see themselves as part of evolving ecosystems and cosmic processes, inviting reflection on their personal passions in relation to broader living systems. This holistic framework informs not just what we learn, but how we learn and grow.

Through these diverse influencers, learning becomes a catalyst for personal insight and collective transformation, supporting a future where knowledge, care, and responsibility intersect. The philosophies embedded provide a foundation for navigating the complexities of the modern world with wisdom and purpose.

Influencers & kindred spirits

Fritjof Capra

“Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity.”

David Bohm

"Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness."

Lynn Margulis

"The question "What is Life?" is... a linguistic trap. To answer according to the rules of grammar, we must supply a noun, a thing. But life on Earth is more like a verb. It repairs, maintains, re-creates, and outdoes itself."

Robin Wall Kimmerer

“The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.”

David Abram

“...along with the other animals, the stones, the trees, and the clouds, we ourselves are characters within a huge story that is visibly unfolding all around us, participants within the vast imagination, or Dreaming, of the world.”

Maria Montessori

“It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the universe.”

Brian Swimme

"Desire lives at the heart of life’s evolution”

Francisco Varela

"When a living system is suffering from ill health, the remedy is found by connecting with more of itself."

Marilyn Waring

"We are not disconnected with nature. We are nature. Thinking we are separated is a disorder, and economics is a key tool in this process."

David W. Orr

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind."

Thomas Berry

“The destiny of humans cannot be separated from the destiny of earth.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti

“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.”

Margaret Wheatley

“I’ve wanted to see beyond the Western, mechanical view of the world and see what else might appear when the lens was changed.”

Thich Nhat Hahn

“Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.”

Joseph Campbell

“Follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before.”

Education 2000: A holistic Perspective

The seminal publication on the holistic education movement

free download

What students are saying…

This last semester has been an explosion of new vocabulary, and many ideas that are completely new to me. I am still grappling with how to wrap my mind around it all, and maybe more interesting to me is how you effectively use such a seemingly large construct to make sense of something efficiently and effectively.

~Nora Stuart Faris, Cohort 2020

Wheatley’s focus on living systems and holism highlights the fact that we must develop a different set of skills and new understandings, allowing us to see the whole as a complex system and using that knowledge as a guide for relating to each other. The idea of seeing the whole is a concept that has been explored and emphasized through our two TIES seminars, from chaos theory, to ecological literacy, to educational theories and more. The question is how to shift our thinking into this direction.

~Pherooz Kerani, Gradute 2019

Once one takes on the essence of integrative learning, it’s like breathing…somehow every insight, every discovery, every decision, and every action becomes part of the process. It seeps into one’s family; it flows into one’s work; it works itself into one’s dreams. Transformation becomes inevitable. Change becomes the only constant. There is only the now. An awakening occurs. And nothing is ever the same, again. It encourages passion and creativity, imagination and self-awareness, and when done with GROKING and dialoguing and questioning…it is only that much more profound.

~Tanis Elliot, Graduate 2019

The History of TIES

How did The Institute for Educational Studies begin and evolve?

find out more