Management professor incorporates Indian self-exploration

Professors sometimes take a faculty improvement leave (FIL) to enhance their classroom teaching and publish scholarly articles. Dr. Jane Wheeler, associate professor of management, used a recent FIL to trek to Auroville, India, where she learned more about the Indian perspective on personal growth, relationships and leadership development. These are her areas of research interest in the field of organization development and leadership.

Dr. Wheeler believes that self-exploration is the foundation toward leadership potential and that we need to understand ourselves and use that understanding to connect more compassionately with others.

She worked with Auroville’s Social Research Centre to compile interviews about self-exploration and interaction and collaboration among a diversity of people.

“Although not a new concept in the field of organization development, self-exploration has typically been seen as an afterthought, if at all,” Dr. Wheeler said. “I traveled to Auroville, India, where self-exploration is a purposeful way of life.”

She said the response to her surveys was meaningful. “Results clearly indicate that daily self-exploration practices have allowed the people of Auroville to not only aspire to but actually become more elevated, conscious, giving, thoughtful, ethical and loving in their daily lives,” she explained. “I believe that these practices can be extrapolated to the classroom, and that self-exploration and ‘starting with the self’ are the future path for organizational development, allowing for more robust, meaningful and ethical business behaviors and practices.”

Interest in her research project by the people in Auroville led to a request for her to give a presentation entitled Understanding Self-Education: Learning to Ask the Right Questions. The workshop was well received, with much interest and enthusiasm.

Dr. Wheeler also visited some interesting locations which illustrate Auroville’s concern for the earth’s environment and its people. The first location was the new building of the Auroville Language Laboratory and Tomatis Therapy Centre, currently under construction. Among the center’s goals are exceptional benchmarks in sustainability as well as human comfort and wellbeing of the users. This included cooling and dehumidification without air conditioning (passive indoor climate control), reducing “electro smog”, harvesting rainwater and reusing grey water, and vaastu saasthra (an ancient Indian science of harmony and prosperous living by eliminating negative and enhancing positive energies around us.)

The other location of note was the Peace Table for Asia, housed in the Unity Pavilion. The Peace Table was built by George Nakashima, renowned master woodworker, who conceived the idea of offering each continent a table for peace. In 1996, the Centre of Indian Culture graciously received the Peace Table on behalf of Auroville. In 2014, the table was moved to Hall of Peace in the Unity Pavilion.

After completing her FIL and returning to BGSU, Dr. Wheeler incorporated a Self-Exploration Module (SEM) into her classes, encouraging her students to look more deeply inward while they learn and grow toward their career aspirations. Her trip was funded in part by the Hoskins Faculty Study Abroad Award.