Want to learn how to create ideal relationships with significant others, co-workers, employees? Jungian psychologist and clinician, Dr. William Conti regards Hunter O'Hara's transcendent relationships book to be a template for all human relationships.
Exerpt
"Acting in good faith, the transcendent teacher, in a manner that is analogous to that of a host for the learner, deliberately creates a warm, social atmosphere in which all members of the teaching/ learning community feel cared for, valued and valuable. The teacher facilitates the learner’s feelings of self-valuing, both as a learner and as a human being. The learner's sense of self-valuing emerges as the teacher highlights the learner's unique combination of competencies, intelligences, modalities and capacities. In a non-competitive community where all learners are valued for their divergent gifts, learners are freed to feel comfortable to be themselves. They feel relaxed, safe and free to take positive risks that would not be possible in non-transcendent atmospheres. A transcendent atmosphere is socially, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically safe. A transcendent atmosphere feels joyous and familiar to learners. The tone is bright and homey. "(O'Hara, 2022, pg. 9-10)
Maxine Greene, Ph.D.,
Teachers College,
Columbia University, teacher, author, existential philosopher of education
Obviously written by a careful scholar and person of integrity and rather beautiful ideas.
There is something lovely and authentic and
very personal about his work. I feel the rarity of
what he talks about.
Patty O' Grady, Ph.D.,
Teacher, Educator
Author of
Positive Psychology in the Classroom,
W. Norton
Hunter O'Hara crafts a rare work of significance that encapsulates the art of great teaching. The focus of the book on the transcendent teacher learner relationship reveals the core of educational effectiveness. Wrapped up in the unique package of teacher as shaman, this book gifts the reader great insight and powerful examples. Revives teaching as joyous - a must read for all educators.
Edyth James Wheeler, Ph.D. Professor Emerita, Towson University, teacher and author of
Conflict Resolution in Early Childhood: Helping Children Understand and Resolve Conflicts,
Merrill
At once humbling and empowering, this work will not fail to touch its readers and, ultimately, bring to learners authentic caring, love, hope, and a sense of being valued. The very real stories of the teachers and learners that are revealed here in their portraits leap vividly off the pages of the book.
Hunter O'Hara's bold vision of schools of transcendence is the next crucial step toward transcendent relationships and community consciousness. Readers will be inspired by this vision in Dr. O'Hara's ground-breaking work and will be able to look within themselves for the capacity to become shamanic transcendent teachers.
Clark Moustakas, Ed.D., Ph.D.,
Founder of the Center for Humanistic Studies,
Now the Michigan School of Professional Psychology
I entered into Hunter O'Hara's work and experienced many moments that moved me deeply, at times with great joy but also with feelings of sadness in the awareness that transcendent relationships are rare and that many children and adults go through an entire lifetime without knowing one of life's treasures - the mystery, beauty, and wonder of a loving relationship. His writing is vivid and alive and with passion and depth portrays the nature and essence of the constituents of a transcendent relationship.
William Conti, Ph.D.,
Clinical Psychologist
A Template for all relationships
As a Psychologist and Jungian/Analytically-oriented clinician I was deeply impacted and also delighted to be taken on a voyage in some of those familiar waters from
an educational perspective by Dr. O’Hara’s excellent
book, applied to the teacher/learner dyad, opened a broadened panorama to me of how to regard
connections and interactions between individuals. Dr. O’Hara’s deft ability to integrate his scholarly,
impeccably-researched and systematic presentation
of the contrast between didactic and dialogic model of teacher/learner dynamics with his own personal
experiences as an educator, including his account
of many deeply personal, warm and poignant tales of personalities engaged in very human interactions is impressive.
As I'm drawn into each of these intimate accounts,
I could see why this author chose the Heuristic
approach as his research methodology. Transcending
the limits and constrictions of rigid role toward
genuine encounters with one another is beautifully
illustrated here with the frequent use term like:
: “care”, “tact”, “openness”,“trust”,“freedom”, “safety”, “mutuality”, “bonding”, “confidence”, “risk”, etc.
Dr. O’Hara seamlessly weaves these concepts into
the broad and comprehensive tapestry he has woven
here for not just the teacher/learner dyad but as a
master course and model of what all human
interactions could be. In this wonderful book,
Dr. O’Hara presents a vision of a world where, what we
call “education”, exists and occurs on an entirely
elevated plane yet is firmly situated within the
institutional and social structures and milieus
existing now. He is not waiting for the
“system” to change; He is providing a roadmap
toward that change.
Patricia Dunn-Fierstein, LCSW, CST-T, Jungian Psychotherapist, author of the novel ,
Finding Grace
In an era when teachers are losing more of their power and free-will in the classroom every day, Hunter O'Hara reminds us all to stay connected to the truth: Authentic education is a co-mingling of souls, and both teacher and learner have so much to gain when they harness the power of the transcendent. Dr. O'Hara gathers the wisdom of the ages and then performs the remarkable task of offering us a grounded road map, enabling courageous teachers to bring these gifts to their students. Transcendent Teacher Learner Relationships: The Way of the Shamanic Teacher should be required reading in all education programs.
Peer-reviewed journals in which Hunter O'Hara's scholarly articles appear:
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Journal of Early Childhood Education
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Choral Journal: American Choral Directors Association
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Journal of the Professoriate
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Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education
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College Quarterly
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Multicultural Education
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Encounter: Thrust for Educational Leadership
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Childhood Education
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Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice
