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September 4th, 5th and 6th

São Paulo - Brazil

Brazilian Association of Spiritist Pedagogy

Santa Cecília University

Traditionally, from the Tribal Shaman to the Medieval Monk, education has always been in the hands of religious organizations. However, western democratic societies have expelled religion from school in order to promote freedom of thought and pluralism. This is the reason why a large part of formal education, which children and adolescents receive today, is divorced from spiritual values and the development of faith. On the other hand, even in a strongly laic society, fundamentalist religious streams which promote intolerance and fanaticism still remain.
In the field of human health, after two centuries of biological reductionism, today, scientists analyze the benefits of spirituality for human beings. Faith, experienced in a healthy way, without fears and repressions, helps us overcome problems of life and death, and grants the human existence with a meaning.
Thus, one question comes forward: how can we restore spirituality in education – spirituality which is necessary, culturally valid and beneficial to the existence – without falling into a confessional and authoritative teaching process which does not respect diversity?
Researchers and educators working in universities and NGOs in different countries have been proposing ideas in this direction, including the inter-religious dialog and the rescue of spirituality in a plural manner.
In Brazil, this movement is still timid. Universities and research centers usually reject the incorporation of spirituality either as a research field or as a dimension to be considered and respected in the education of human beings. This scholar attitude does not take into account the reality of the Brazilian population, which in its majority (ca. 90% according to all researches) is connected to some sort of spirituality or religion.
Since 2004, Brazilian Association of Spiritist Pedagogy, in a partnership with Santa Cecília University (Santos-Brazil), with three congresses of Spiritist Pedagogy has been working on including spirituality in education in an inter-religious, interdisciplinary and pluralistic manner.
On September 4th, 5th and 6th, the First International Conference of Education and Spirituality and the 4th Brazilian Conference of Spiritist Pedagogy will take place in São Paulo, Brazil.
The event will focus on three axes: health and spirituality, education and spirituality and reincarnation and education.
Health and spirituality – The findings of longer-than-two-decade research, concerning to the benefits of spirituality in physical and mental health, show the necessity of rescuing this human dimension in the educational praxis.
Education and Spirituality – Proposals from academic researchers and from representatives of various religious segments offer guidelines for the insertion of spirituality in education, without obligatory indoctrination.
Reincarnation and Spirituality – In Brazil, almost 50% of the population accept the idea of reincarnation, and international scientific research shows possible evidences of this hypothesis; how might it impact on the education?

PROGRAM

Health and spirituality

•Voyages to Well-being – therapeutical and educational ways
Prof. Claude Robert Cloninger M.D. (Washington University)

• Evidences of the impact of spirituality in human health
Prof. Alexander Moreira-Almeida M.D. PhD (Federal University of Juiz de Fora - UFJF-MG)

•The ProSer Projects
Prof. Frederico Leão M.D. PhD (João Evangelista Hospital/ProSer-State University of São Paulo)

Education and Spirituality

• Spirituality, inter-faith dialogue and interreligious education
Prof. Marian de Souza PhD (Australian Catholic University)
Prof. André Andrade Pereira PhD (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro- UFF)

• Spirituality in child and teen development
Prof. Laura H. Lippmann, Director of Education and Data Development Child Trends (Washington DC - EUA)

• Education, Spirituality and Ethics
Prof. João Francisco Régis de Morais PhD (State University of Campinas- Unicamp)

• Education and Pluralism - the history of tolerance
Prof. Alysson Leandro Mascaro PhD (State University of São Paulo - USP)

• Religions, values and Education
Prof. Luiz Jean Lauand PhD (State University of São Paulo - USP) (Catholicism)
Prof. Juarez Tadeu de Paula Xavier PhD (City University of São Paulo - Unicid) (African-Brazilian traditions)
Prof. Leonildo Silveira Campos PhD (Methodist University - São Paulo) (Protestantism)
Monk Cohen (Buddhism)
Rabbi Alexandre Leone PhD (State University of São Paulo - USP) (Judaism)
Prof. Dora Incontri PhD (ABPE/Unisanta) (Spiritism)

• Education, life, death and spirituality (Thanatology)
Prof. Franklin Santana Santos M.D. PhD (State University of São Paulo - USP)
Prof. Przemysław Grzybowski PhD (Bydgoszcz University – Pole)

• Religiosity and Education in Janusz Korzcak
Prof. Ana Szpiczkowski PhD (State University of São Paulo - USP)
• Comenius, spirituality and interreligious education
Prof. Luis Augusto Beraldi Colombo M.S. (ABPE - Brazilian Association of Spiritist Pedagogy)

Reincarnation and education

• Scientific evidence of reincarnation?
Prof. Jim Tucker M.D. (University of Virginia - USA)

•Reincarnation and Pedagogy: Manifestations and Implications
from India and the Indigenous Peoples of British Columbia Canada
Prof. Antonia Mills PhD (Nothern British Columbia University – Canada)

•Reincarnation in Buddhism
Prof. Tiago Pires Tatton Ramos M.S. (Federal University of Juiz de Fora - UFJF-MG)

• Plato and reincarnation
Prof. Alessandro Cesar Bigheto M.S. (ABPE - Brazilian Association of Spiritist Pedagogy)

• Therapeutical and educational implications of reincarnation
Prof. Julio Peres PhD (State University of São Paulo - USP)
Prof. Dora Incontri PhD (ABPE - Brazilian Association of Spiritist Pedagogy /Unisanta)

• Pedagogy of Spirituality - Education of souls
Prof. Ney Lobo

•Philosophical and psychological aspects of Spiritist Education
Prof. André Luiz Peixinho PhD (Federal University of Bahia - UFBA)

•The Spirititist Pedagogy: a Brazilian proposal
Prof. Dora Incontri PhD (ABPE - Brazilian Association of Spiritist Pedagogy /Unisanta)

Papers Presentations

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