An
Educational Paradigm for
Global Regeneration:
Gaia University
by
Tami Brunk
Visualize
the planet, drifting through
space. Perhaps you will
see astronaut Edgar Mitchell’s
vision: a sparkling blue
and white jewel, a light,
delicate sky-blue sphere
laced with slowly swirling
veils of white, rising gradually
like a small pearl in a
thick sea of black mystery.
Most
likely though, this picture
will be marred by the nightmare
images of rapidly melting
glaciers, skeletal coral
reefs and smoking, barren
landscapes where once were
rainforests. You might project
into the future, imagining
widespread warfare and desperate
ravaging of earth’s
remaining resources as oil
supplies peak and rapidly
dwindle.
Look closer. When we do,
we will also see a strong,
natural impulse toward renewal.
In every pocket where the
Earth has been left alone,
it is regenerating its life
systems. And miraculously
enough, we’ll see
that people, too, are actors
in this regeneration process,
nourishing vibrant human
communities and slowly restoring
severely exploited landscapes.
Gaia University, a new decentralized,
action-learning-based University,
was founded last fall in
order to support and strengthen
these hopeful trends. Permaculturists,
ecovillage founders, green
technology innovators and
other leaders in the sustainability
field are now invited to
partner with GU to offer
Bachelors and Masters degrees,
with accreditation formally
recognized in both the USA
and UK, to the world changers
of tomorrow.
For over ten years, leaders
in the permaculture and
ecovillage movements have
envisioned just such an
institution, but it took
the joint brainpower of
visionaries Liora Adler
and Andy Langford to pull
it together. The two met
at an ecovillage educators
forum at Findhorn, Scotland
in early 2004. This seemingly
chance encounter generated
a spirited dialogue around
development of a global
university, through expansion
of the Permaculture WorkNet
Diploma Program Andy had
initiated 12 years earlier.
In the months following,
Liora and Andy teamed up
to bring what had been a
nebulous concept into a
serious institution of higher
learning.
They charted a pathway to
accreditation though IMCA
(International Management
Centers Association) and
Revans University–the
only action-learning university
in the world. In October
of 2004, Gaia University
was incorporated in Colorado.
It would be difficult to
imagine a better-suited
pair to manifest this ambitious
project. Liora has over
thirty years experience
with ecovillages and the
establishment of global
networks. She was co-founder,
in 1982, of Huehuecoytl,
an artisan’s ecoaldea
in the volcanic highlands
of Central Mexico. In 1996
she helped to launch la
Caravana, a nomadic ecovillage
of international artists
traversing Latin America
from North to South. In
the years following, she
has played an instrumental
role in establishing, promoting,
and strengthening both the
Ecovillage Network of the
Americas and the Global
Ecovillage Network.
Andy initiated permaculture
teaching in the UK starting
in 1985 and, together with
colleagues in the Permaculture
Association of Britain,
has initiated training of
more than 3,000 permaculture
designers. Since 1993 he
has been developing and
refining the Permaculture
Diploma WorkNet, which has
awarded 160 diplomas to
students, mostly in Europe.
The WorkNet is widely regarded
as the standard for European
permaculture education.
Andy refers to the Gaia
University collaboration
as Version 5.0 of the WorkNet
System.
Andy and Liora envision
Gaia U’s potential
curriculum as broad enough
to include the following:
Permaculture, Ecovillage
Design, Peace Studies, Ecocities,
Appropriate Technology,
Traditional Wisdom, Eco-health,
Sustainable Economics, Bioregionalism,
Life Transitions, Natural
Building, Social Communication,
Art for Social Change,
and many other as-yet-to-be-developed
areas of study.
Action learning is central
to Gaia University’s
methodology. It is a back-to-the-roots
alternative to standard
University learning. It
offers a sophisticated,
nurturing framework for
students–called associates–to
explore their area of interest,
without demanding that they
know precisely where they’re
headed from the outset or
have any fixed concept of
where they will wind up.
Within a network of supportive
and knowledgeable faculty,
students are given the tools
to investigate, reflect,
and to “crash around
a bit” in the classic
pattern of inquiry dating
back thousands of years
(See Action Learning Diagram).
Action Learning Sets of
students will have access
to a broad range of support
consisting of Workshop Providers,
Set Advisors, Internal Reviewers,
Specialist Advisors, and
an External Reviewer. A
Regional Coordinator develops
the overall regional capacity,
linking associates with
these individuals, many
of whom will work in a given
region, but some of whom
will likely tutor and mentor
from afar by phone and e-mail.
In
addition to faculty support,
each associate will be part
of a Learning Guild of three
to five peers, with whom
they will meet regularly
to refine and deepen their
pathway through a system
of directed inquiry: what
is going well for me as
an action learner? What
is difficult? What are my
long-term goals and visions?
What are my next achievable
steps?
Liora and Andy’s expected
students will likely be
from the divergent population.
Adler sees a portion of
this group as young people
who are fed up with the
traditional, spoon-fed,
sit-in-a-classroom-while-you’re-being-lectured-to
environment. “Perhaps,”
she says, “they have
another kind of genius that
could be cultivated in a
different methodology.”
The population Gaia University
is reaching out to will
already share much of the
vision contained in the
sustainability movement.
Liora
believes that an estimated
six percent of the general
population fits into this
category. “Six percent
of six billion is a lot
of people–we’ll
start with those”
says Adler. Students can
take an informal or formal
route toward their degrees,
the primary difference being
the commitment to deadlines.
Formal learners will be
expected to work to a set
timetable with their learning
group while informal degree
earners can work at their
own pace. While degree programs
will vary widely depending
on area of study and the
structure of a given regional
center, the basic outline
of a formal Bachelors degree
should look something like
this:
Year 1: Associates focuses
on theory and coursework
and setting up projects.
Must acquire 80-100 ‘classroom
hours’–through
workshops and study of theory
with partners in GU’s
global network. While students
can choose from a near-limitless
array of courses, they will
be required to take ‘Regeneration
101’ which will cover
core concepts in sustainable
design sciences such as
peak oil, permaculture,
footprint analysis and the
ethics of right livelihood.
Students will identify projects
that meet their own development
needs and meet the needs
of a sponsoring organization
– these projects are
the core of an action learning
pathway.
Year
2: Associates will embark
on their action learning
pathway, working closely
with their Learning Guild,
Set Adviser and Internal
Reviewer (project mentor),
as they begin articulating
and engaging with their
project design. Students
will learn as they go, as
they progress through the
projects that highlight
their areas of ignorance.
Technical Advisers are on
hand to assist.
Year 3: Associates’
projects will move through
implementation towards completion;
Project reports (written,
videotaped, or maybe sung
and danced) will be submitted
to an internal reviewer
and, finally an external
reviewer, both of whom must
accept the project as complete
in order for an associate
to receive their degree.
One potential stumbling
block for GU students in
the US will be their ineligibility
to apply for federal aid,
given the fact that accreditation
is achieved through a non-US
institution. To overcome
this obstacle, Andy and
Liora hope to develop a
foundation for students
with lesser resources, most
of which will be directed
toward students in economically
impoverished regions of
the world. However the fact
is that a degree from GU
costs substantially less
than that acquired through
a university in the US or
Europe. In addition, the
founders are working with
the Permaculture Credit
Union to develop a student
loan facility.
A
unique feature of Gaia,
which is intended to benefit
the many individuals who
have already contributed
significant time and energy
within their organizations
yet lack formal accreditation
is the credit map system,
whereby up to 1/3 of an
associate’s credits
can be derived from previous
experience. Leaders in the
sustainability fields who
wish to partner with Gaia
University are encouraged
to use the credit map option
in order to pursue an accelerated
Masters (or potentially
Doctoral) degree.
Remaining work toward a
degree could act as the
framework for clarifying
goals and objectives, fine-tuning
of existing programs, developing
regional centers, developing
strategic business plans,
or playing a role in researching
and sharing effective models
for the rest of the network.
Andy and Liora both see
Gaia University’s
role in building learning
infrastructure for the sustainability
movement as vital and expect
it to“pulse better
focus and performance throughout
the networks” They
hope to nudge ecovillages,
permaculture initiatives,
and holistic health centers
closer to their full potential.
In April, Andy and Liora
traveled to The Farm, a
34-year-old intentional
community in central Tennessee,
to begin development of
the first regional center
or ‘campus’
in Gaia University’s
global network. In the months
following, a flurry of meetings
and visioning sessions have
taken place, as seasoned
pioneers in the fields of
permaculture, appropriate
technologies, ecovillage
design, and alternate health
are hammering out various
curricula, a common legal
framework, and faculty structure.
GU plans to offer accredited
courses starting in January
of 2006. Numerous other
communities have expressed
interest in establishing
their own regional centers.
At the recent International
Permaculture Convergence
(IPC7) in Croatia there
was much support for the
development of Gaia University.
Bill Mollison, Declan Kennedy,
Peter Bane, Ali Sharif,
Richard Wade and many others
expressed their particular
visions of how GU might
evolve in their regions
and further the growth of
the permaculture movement.
Information
about Gaia University is
now available on its beta
website, www.gaiauniversity.org.
Next steps include establishing
regional centers; development
of ‘Regeneration 101’
and refinement of the University’s
organizational structure
through the website’s
feedback system–what
Liora refers to as “growing
tip led organization where
the branches, new-growth
and cross-fertilization
happen out there.”
If you are interested in
participating as a workshop
provider, associate, or
funder, or if you’d
like to initiate development
of a regional center, first
carefully peruse the website.
Then contact GU directly
at info@gaiauniversity.org.
“We
have all been consistently
ridiculed for having visions,”
notes Andy. “We’ve
been told, ‘you can
afford to be idealistic
when you’re young,
but when you get out into
the real world, you’ll
forget all that,’
So our visions of how we’d
like to see the world become
a better place get squashed.”
“Some
of us, though, have managed
to re-emerge our idealism
and our visioning ability.
It is up to us,” he
says, “to create the
safe place for other people
to practice. There’s
the true vision for Gaia
University: opening up our
visioning capacity, learning
the skills we need to meet
the coming challenges, creating
a sustainable world and
allowing the Earth to regenerate.”
*
Andy
Langford is a long term
activist with permaculture
in Britain and Northern
Europe. He worked up the
early British permaculture
teaching resource (supported
by Lea Harrison of Australia
and, later, George Sobol),
organised and taught design
courses and ran significant
design projects for Local
Government and private clients.
Andy is an enthusiast for
inclusive learning, decision
making and action methods
and has facilitated Future
Searches, Open Space Technology
and Planning for Real events.
He wrote "Designing
Productive Meetings and
Events" (1997, SODC)
and trained several groups
of citizen facilitators
in these methods during
the 90's Local Agenda 21
boom. He is a principal
architect of the Permaculture
Diploma WorkNet, an innovative,
University without Walls
conception, which offers
trained support to people
using action learning to
gain their Diplomas of Applied
Permaculture Design. Andy
currently lives at Braziers
Park, an experimental residential
project designed to integrate
the efforts of people with
'unlike minds'. He has been
working to assist the transformation
of this 1950's inspirational
project to 21st Century
needs, to include permaculture,
leaderful organisation and
a commonwealth of micro-enterpises.
Liora
Adler is a global leader
in the ecovillage movement
and from 1999-2003 served
on the Board of the Global
Ecovillage Network (GEN).
She currently serves on
its International Advisory
Board and is UN Representative.
She is a social activist,
communicator, facilitator
and specialist in the consensus
decision making process,
psychologist, holistic nutritionist,
event organizer, photographer,
dancer and lover of life.
Co-founder of the ecovillage
Huehuecoyotl in Mexico and
la Caravana Arcoiris por
la Paz - a mobile ecovillage
and training center traveling
through Central and South
America;Associate of the
International Institute
of Facilitation and Consensus;
Representative of the Caribbean
Region of the Ecovillage
Network of the Americas;
and Vice-President of Global
Village Institute for Appropriate
Technology.
For the last 35 years Liora
has been active in movements
to promote ecovillages,
biorregionalism and global
consciousness. She has been
helpful in the creation
of ecovillage and permaculture
networks in Colombia, Venezuela,
Brazil, Ecuador, Jamaica,
Puerto Rico and Cuba. She
has given workshops and
conferences in Consensus
Decision Making, Facilitation,
Sacred Communication, Leadership
Skills, Holistic Nutrition,
Women's Health and Strategies
for Planetary Change. Liora
coordinated the Workshops
for Sustainable Living projects
in Colombia and Ecuador
in 2000-1 and the Women's
Peace Village Project in
Ecuador in June 2002 and
in 2003 served as Coordinator
for the Call of the Condor
Gathering in Peru in which
800 representatives from
ecological, spiritual, indigenous,
peace and holistic health
movements gathered to create
a ceremonial peace village
and celebrate the vernal
Equinox at Machu Picchu.
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