February 1-7, 2017

Faculty of Management Studies – WISDOM organized the program on Practicing Ethics in Education: Insights from Bharatiya Culture. Prof. Harsh Purohit, Dean – FMS and Dr. Balgopal Singh welcomed the participants and introduced the concept of this FDP. The sessions on side covered philosophy of education, its roots in Bharatiya culture, role of language in education, and content and pedagogy of the Gurukul education system. On the other side, the contemporary application of these ideas was discussed and topics like skill development, approaches to practicing ethics, and institutional building were also covered.

Banasthali Vidyapith, which has Gurukul kind of setup in itself, therefore participants were taken for a visit to the campus, wherein they could observe themselves the concepts discussed in the classroom sessions.

Below is shared a brief about the speakers and sessions they covered:

S.No. Name Topic
1 Aacharya Er. Akhilesh Jain (Entrepreneur in area of Spiritual Sciences) The Power Within – Education Through Positive Energy
  The session’s unique offering was the practical demonstration through scientific equipment that measured the energy levels pre and post intervention. The participants could appreciate how the Bharatiya spiritual activities (like Yog, Pranayam, Shlok, Mantra, Hom-Havan) can help the individual realize the potential within.
2 Mr. Avanish Jain (Social Entrepreneur in area of education) Leaders are Teachers – Effective Communication
  The speaker delivered the core idea of being an effective teacher by equating it with the concept of an effective leader. He discussed how the learning from great visionaries and leaders can help us draw insights for being an effective teacher.
3 Ms. Shalu Bharadwaj (HRM, 15 years of corporate experience) Communication Skills  
  This session build upon the concepts of communications skills that can be applied to teaching requirements. The speaker highlighted that basics of communication remain same, but adaption for each scenario (like in this case the teacher-student communication) is essential.
4 Dr. Praveer Ghodgaokar (Researcher and Entrepreneur in Skill Development and Capacity Building) Skill Development               
  Today skill development is becoming essential and integral part of the education process, without which any course will face existential threat. Thus, capacity building and skill development of the candidate is a major responsibility on the teacher. The speaker discussed some initiatives that his organization took for skill development and shared learning from those.
5 Prof. K D Joshi (Expert in skill development, vast corporate experience) Skill Development  
  The speaker discussed the importance of community colleges in skill development of the youth. He shared the different courses that are run in the community college of Banasthali. This helped participants to appreciate the scope of such activities.  
6 Dr. Dewakar Goel (Director, Indian Aviation Academy) Stress Management  
  The speaker brought-in some activities for the participants for stress management. He discussed some simple ways to deal with stress. He built this session with a blend of practice and theory both. He brought real life cases from his vast experience in the industry.
7 Dr. Pawan Verma (Expertise in Social Work practice and academics) Social Theory in Education  
  The speaker discussed how the social work theory of understanding the human nature and designing intervention can be applied to education sector also. The session also covered the dimension of self-management so that one can manage others well and then design the social interventions to solve the problems. 
8 Prof. Subhash Sharma (Director, Indus Business Academy, Bengaluru, authored of several books on Indian Management) Western Windows and Eastern Doors: A New Paradigm of Bharatiya Approach to Ethics Indian Ethos and Vowels of Mind
  The speaker brought very innovative ideas into discussion based on Bharatiya wisdom. He shared how the institutions can be built through application of core ideology of Bharatiya culture and traditional wisdom. The participants got a very fresh perspective to education.
9 Dr. Veerendra Mishra Senior Faculty for Language Studies Role of Language in Education
  The importance of language in deciding our day to day affairs makes it an inevitable factor in education too. The thought that can be generated needs a language to build up. The speaker discussed how the language plays fundamental role in this process of knowledge gaining and dissemination. 
10 Dr. Ankur Joshi Fellow of MDI-Gurgaon Definition of Education Gurukul Education System
  The definition of education has been debated for a long by academicians and hardly consensus is achieved. But our traditional wisdom and scriptures have very precise definition of the education. The session revolved around the definition of education and then the content, pedagogy and outcomes of the traditional gurukul system of Bharat.

The pedagogy adopted for the program was highly interactive in nature. The optimal utilization of visual aids was done for using videos and power point presentations. The whole idea was to make it interactive and let participants deliberate and discuss. The discussions ranged from core philosophical conceptualizations to application as per changing culture and context.

The concept of ethics was not merely discussed from the perspective of “rights” and “wrongs”, but was more practically oriented. Ensuring the high quality education and at an affordable costs was also discussed under practicing ethics, as role of a teacher transcends beyond being a employee of an educational institution.