10 November 2021: Reviving (“Ehyaa”) Community Engagement - An Integral PhD Story from Jordan

The integral and transformative PhD Journey of Laila Abdul Majeed with our TRANS4M

Academy and in partnership with the Da Vinci Institute in South Africa had been focusing on “EHYAA’” (Arabic for “Reviving”) Relationship to Community and Place in Education”. Laila, a social worker with the Ahliyyah and Mutran Schools in Amman, embedded her PhD within these two schools and their surrounding community.

The Community Viva is the official “culmination” of the PhD Journey. On that day, the entire community that had participated in the research-to-innovation journey, and which had been vital not only to actualise the innovation on the ground, but also to support its continuity, comes together.

Hence, on November 10, in the premises of the Ahliyyah School in Amman, a group of about 50 people come together. Many voices were heard, some, because of COVID or location to a new country, via Video. All of these voices, jointly, made up for a potent expression of the “power of the community”.

While Laila Abdul Majeed had been awarded her PhD in a recent graduation ceremony with Da Vinci, on this day, our TRANS4M Academy for Integral Transformation and TRANS4M Communiversity Associates granted the CARE-4-SOCIETY Award (see image) to key representatives of the community, that Participated in this Holistic Development (PHD) process.

With H.E. Haifa Najjar, current Minister of Culture of Jordan, and Dr. Alice Abboud, Acting Principal of the Ahliyyah & Mutran Schools, recognized as key Stewards of this PhD/PHD process, the following other protagonists were awarded with the CARE-4-SOCIETY Award (note in brackets their respective roles within the innovation ecosystem of this PhD):

· Ms. Raghda Butros: Catalyst

· Dr. Munir Fasheh: Catalyst

· Samar Dudin: Catalyst

· Dr. Khalida Qattash: Catalyst

· Eng. Sarah Abdul Majeed: Catalyst

· Dr. Ohoud Kamal: Co- Researcher

· Ms. Razan Jouaneh: Co-Researcher

· Ms. Majd Madanat: Facilitator

· Mr. Hisham Ibrahim: Facilitator

· Ms Zina Khoury: Integrator

We are proud of this “community achievement”, and, as Home for Humanity and TRANS4M Academy for Integral Transformation, are looking forward to supporting this ongoing process within the Ahliyyah-Mutran Schools and their community – as well as engaging with the schools in further evolving their unique approach to integral and transformative education.

We are closing with a short official statement of the schools, commenting on the achievements of this process:

“Celebrating the collective VIVA at the Ahliyyah & Mutran Schools

The Ahliyyah & Mutran school celebrated the collective VIVA with our PhD graduate Laila Abdul Majeed and along with key community partners. The PHD/PhD focused on Ehyaa\reviving relationship to community and place in education.

The Ahliyyah & Mutran Schools facilitated and engaged in a collective Process of Holistic Development (PHD) informed by Lessem and Schieffer’s Integral Worlds approach. The process mainly entailed an exploration of individual and collective calling, identifying imbalances and opportunities within context, co-creating theoretical models to address imbalances and opportunities, applying it and ensuring its sustainability through developing relevant structures.

Through this PHD, the Ehyaa’/revival process was presented to promote authentic connection with Ahali/community and nature, and a focus on our individual and collective Konooz/treasures, navigation of knowledge within our Tajarob/experience and Hakaya/stories, and a continuous exploration of the interdependence of these elements in education.

The first application of the Ehyaa’ process was facilitated through initiating a Participatory Action Research with the school’s neighboring community to re-design and re-activate a public park in the neighborhood within a project titled, “Wase’ Beitak/Extend Your Home.”

In the collective VIVA, the school’s inner and outer community celebrated this PHD/PhD and the community park project as a beautiful manifestation of the collective work done on the ground.”