Gaiaeducation

Geese informationSouthern Autumn / Northern Spring

Do we need deeper questions, rather than limiting answers and solutions?

Daniel Christian Wahl, PhD - Global Ecovillage Educator

Among the most powerfully transformative aspects of the EDE curriculum are the design studios that encourage participants to apply what they have learned in the co-creation of a specific project design. In these sessions we move from exploring a series of best practices and processes to applying them in collaboration. We move from introducing generalized solutions to deeper questioning as we explore how to co-create elegant solutions adapted to the uniqueness of place and culture.

The most effective skill participants learn from Gaia Education’s whole systems design approach is how to ask better, deeper, and more systemic questions. It is this ecologically, economically and socially literate questioning, combined with the even deeper inquiry into values and meaning invited by the worldview dimension, that can most effectively be transferred to the participants’ home communities. No matter where they choose to apply what they learn, simply by asking deeper questions in their communities or at their work place, participants become culturally creative change agents.

Humanity seems to be obsessed with quick answers and silver bullet solutions (ideally the on-size-fits-all kind). Yet a brief reflection on history shows us - more often than not – that yesterday’s solutions turn into today’s problems. Why should our “sustainable solutions” not also turn out to be transitory? Some might even turn out to have unexpected negative side effects if applied at the wrong scale or without attention to constantly changing circumstances. Solutions and answers are temporary means to ask better questions. As participants in a constantly transforming and evolving whole, we have to be ready to transform our cultures and ourselves.

Daniel Wahl has

been a member of

Gaia Education

since 2007

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We need to go beyond only being sustainable - “100% less bad” as Bill McDonough puts it. In ‘Shifting our Mental Models’ Bill Reed highlights that we need to un-do the damage done already, wherever possible. We need to move from ‘design for sustainability’ to restorative and reconciliatory design, and beyond that to regenerative design (see Reed’s graph blow).

To design as Nature and create regenerative cultures requires us to question deeply into our mental models about the relationship between nature and culture. Would the appropriate cultural compass to pass on to communities everywhere not better take the form of a series of questions and a deeper process of inquiry, rather than a long list of definite answers and permanent solutions?

The seed for my forthcoming book on all this was planted when I interviewed David Orr in late 2006 and he answered my question about the role of spirituality and the sacred in the transition ahead as follows: “Before we can

appropriately answer the questions after the how and what of creating a sustainable human culture, we have to ask ourselves a much more difficult question: Why is humanity worth sustaining? This will trigger a deeper inquiry into Who are we? Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? To whom are we obliged?” My hope is that the book will support all of us in our work as educators and cultural change agents. Let’s continue living the questions together.

Daniel’s upcoming book Living the Questions Together – Transformative Innovation and Design for Regenerative Cultures (Triarchy Press, UK) explores what kind of questions might be part of the cultural compass of regenerative communities. Due for release in July, the book demonstrates how asking deeper questions together can catalyse the transition from the ‘narrative of separation’ to the ‘narrative of interbeing’. Stay tuned to www.facebook/gaiaeducation for more info on its release!

Bill Reed’s model:

moving from

Sustainabile Design to

Regenerative Design.

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Announcing the New Gaia Education Masters Programme:Integrated Systems Design for Sustainability

Ulises

It’s with great excitement that Gaia Education announces its new Masters programme: Integrated Systems Design for Sustainability -Master en Diseño de Sistemas Integrados para la Sosteniblidad!!

The main goal of the program is to train and strengthen the design skills of all types of design professionals, including educators, architects, engineers, environmental managers, etc. so that they may develop their careers within the framework of a culture favouring the development of sustainable habitats, communities and organisations.

The two year Spanish programme, offered in collaboration with the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), includes Ecosystems and Social Dynamics ∙ Sustainable Economics and Systemic Thinking ∙ Permaculture Design ∙ Organizations as Ecosystems. Complexity and Bio-mimicry ∙ Urban Ecosystems Design ∙ Rural and Indigenous Communities. Inspiration and Adaptation.

The formation of this programme is the result of a 7-year partnership with UOC which started in 2008 with the introduction of our first online Gaia Education Design for Sustainability programmes in English and Spanish.

In 2011, the Spanish GEDS programme became a formal postgraduate course at UOC, completed to date by more than 40 students, mostly Spanish, with some participation from Latin American countries. Since then, Gaia Education has been in negotiations with UOC to convert the GEDS Spanish course into a Masters degree… And finally here it is, scheduled to open in October 2015!

In the coming years of Gaia Education’s collaboration with UOC, we are striving to offer the GEDS Masters degree in both Spanish and English. This dynamic and flexible format offers different options for participants, the main objective in both cases being to provide a cutting-edge, high quality education in holistic and integrative design.

Book your place in the new GEDS Masters programme! Visit www.estudios.uoc.edu.

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GEN+20/Gaia+10 Summit: Living the New Story Findhorn, 5-10 July 2015

Celebrating 20 Years of the Global Ecovillage Network and 10 Years of Gaia Education

We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future… To move forward we must recognise that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny....

Organised by GEN in partnership with Gaia Education, the Findhorn Foundation and New Findhorn Association, the GEN+20 Summit is an invitation to celebrate 20 years of walking our talk.

Established in Findhorn in 1995, the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) today connects more than 10,000 villages, urban neighbourhoods and intentional communities in more than 100 countries worldwide. Spanning all continents, GEN showcases high quality, low impact ways of living that have led to some of the lowest per capita footprints in the industrialised world, and a healthy integration of heritage and innovation in more traditional settings. GEN has consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council.

With its 20 years of experience, GEN has a wealth of inspiration to offer, emphasising local solutions to global challenges and demonstrating that the creation of a different world is possible!

GEN today

Going beyond the ‘green islands’ or ‘life boats’ concept of its first decade, today the GEN is shifting into becoming a transformative knowledge network that works in close alliance with like-minded organisations and other sectors in order to optimise sustainable development strategies for whole societies. In conjunction with Gaia Education, GEN has developed a set of trainings to facilitate the transition to resilience – learning journeys for change makers and design processes for communities to chart their own pathways into the future. During the conference we will be celebrating Gaia Education’s 10th anniversary and the success of the Ecovillage Design Education course, now taught in over 35 countries.

You are warmly invited to join us in honouring some of the elders of the ecovillage movement, celebrating the present holders of energy from all corners of the world and continuing to look ahead with the next generation at where our learning edge for sustainable living is now. Together, we will share realistic glimpses of possibility and hope for a thriving future.

Make a booking for the GEN+20 Summit today on the Findhorn Foundation website:

www.findhorn.org

Gaiaeducation Geese information 2015/1

Increased Yields and Eco-fair in Southern Bangladesh

May East, Gaia Education Chief International Officer

A Scottish Government backed capacity-building programme led by BASD, Gaia Education and CIFAL Scotland to support communities in southern Bangladesh affected by devastating cyclones has held its second Alumni Seminar in the region.

Participants from Design for Sustainable Settlements and Permaculture Approaches for Food Production courses from Mongla, Sutarkhali and Banishanta gathered in January to share lessons learned during 2014.

Key 2014 outcomes included:

• Climate resilient agriculture techniques were implemented by the beneficiaries and further spread amongst members of the surrounding villages;

• Climate resilient agriculture techniques have increased the yields, generating a surplus in their food production and improving livelihoods;

• Strengthening of social cohesion amongst community members has had an indirect effect in their household incomes.

In conjunction with the seminar beneficiaries organised an eco-fair in Banishanta to showcase and market their fruits and vegetables, handicrafts, fish, and other handmade and organic produce.

Local government representatives and wider community members were shown the results of the project, which aims to bring appropriate solutions to the impact of climate change in food production while improving livelihoods.

Participants of the seminar have identified social enterprise and food conserving as two areas to focus in the coming year.

www.gaiaeducation.net/PBL

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Food Security for Communities in Northern Senegal

May East, Gaia Education Chief International Officer

“Today rain is rarer, weather is hotter, and we have stronger winds and shorter time to grow vegetables…”

This is how a woman addresses the impact of climate change in the Moundouwaye Village in Northern Senegal.

Gaia Education in partnership with CIFAL Scotland has been conducting a series of capacity building activities with the communities of Guédé Chantier, Lahel, Moundouwaye and Diarra to mark the launch of a three-year food security project. The most recent took place between 20 and 30 December 2014 & from 3 to 6 February 2015. Supported by the UK Government, its purpose is to develop community land to produce more food more efficiently, and increase the communities’ resilience and capacity to adapt to the advancing effects of climate change. It will directly benefit over 3,000 community members, especially women, by enhancing their agricultural and economic knowledge and skills.

This February, 45 community members were invited to take part in a Permaculture Design Course which combines both traditional and modern land-use systems in which trees are managed together with crops and/or animal production systems in agricultural settings. Central to this approach is site observation and survey described as the ability to absorb the reality of a location.

The course involved group training, peer-to–peer learning and experience sharing, presentations and group discussions. Topics included; soil conservation, seed saving and propagation, use of natural fertilisers and vermiculture, water and horticulture.

Participants were presented to the basic components of ecology and socio-cultural realities which reinforce the practices of permaculture. As a result, a village development plan was created which will enable their lands to withstand floods and drought, and climate change.

Funded by UK AID

www.gaiaeducation.net/PBL

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Hands-on EDE in Tallinn Free Waldorf School, Estonia

Toomas Trapido

As part of the official biology curriculum of the Tallinn Free Waldorf School in Estonia, I was invited to teach a one-month epoch on a biological and ecological worldview to a group of 16 to 17 yr olds, in December 2014. Using the EDE as inspiration and foundation, I created a cycle of study consisting of 15 1.5-hour lessons, plus a whole day-outing to the ecological building and therapy centre, Hobukooli Park, in central Estonia.

The First week of the programme was dedicated mostly to the theory of evolution, the role of cooperation and patterns in evolution, based on the work by Elisabet Sahtouris, Earthdance. The second and third weeks were about designing an ecovillage in four groups. I covered the main aspects of designing any settlement, while students designed their ecovillages by drawing and modelling with clay. This method proved to be very interesting for the students as they learned teamwork and self-expression through creativity.

In the beginning of week 4 we visited Hobukooli Park. Students could see and touch real ecological building, and hear from the initiators and managers, Sven and Hele Aluste, directly why, what and how they are doing what they are doing. Some students were so inspired that they will be returning to work and learn in the summer. Finally, all the groups presented their works and got feedback from the whole group.

This EDE-inspired one-month study period was satisfying for the majority involved. As a reflection, I would lengthen the period to at least 2 or even 3-4 months. Both the youth and teachers have expressed a repeat of the programme and we will probably design a longer version (two months) of it for 2015.

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Gaia Education’s Commitments to the Global Action Programme

Gaia Education is now a contributor to the UNESCO Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development - a global effort to generate and scale up action on all levels and areas of education and learning with the aim of accelerating progress towards sustainable development.

This is a continuation of our active participation during the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014.

Under the Global Action Programme, or GAP, Gaia Education have committed to achieving the below in the next 3 years, by the end of 2017:

• Translate the 4Keys into two more languages

• Reach 50 countries teaching the EDE

• Translate and conduct GEDS in Hindi and Mandarim

• Start 2 new Project Based Learning projects

Gaia Education is Changing Lives...

From the development to of our ground breaking EDE curriculum to the publishing of our 4Keys, from our grass roots project based learning initiatives in Senegal, Bangldesh and India, to EDE programmes across the globe and the virtual classrooms of GEDS Masters and Postgrad, Gaia Education is changing lives.

Our continuous contribution to education for sustainable development is changing the way people engage with each other, with the Earth, and with themselves, and

through this, more of us are living the new story, are being the change we want to see in the world.

It is the generous financial support of people like you and institutions like yours which enables us to share our dynamic educational and culturally enriching resources with thousands of people worldwide.

If you are interested in supporting Gaia Education’s crucial work, either as an individual donor, or as an institutional sponsor, visit www.gaiaeducation.net/support or contact giovanni.ciarlo@gaiaeducation.net.

Gaiaeducation Geese information 2015/1

Gaia Youth EDE - Rio de Janeiro – 2014

The Gaia Jovem Team

Once again our dream came true and between August and November 2014, Cocriare held our second Gaia Jovem – Gaia Youth - EDE, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Our co-ordination team started with 11 people, complimented by seven Gaia Youth 2013 volunteers who assisted throughout the journey. 17 participants aged between 12 and 18 years old completed the course, creating a wonderfully diversified profile. The three men and fourteen women were all students in high school, except one girl who is an independent learner, involved in unschooling. The course offered partial scholarships to students who could not afford the course, adding income diversity to this already diverse group.

Most of the meetings took place at the Design Tent of the Pontificial Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Casa Alice and GOMA, a co-working place shared by many different young entrepreneurs. Casa Alice has an excellent garden space, including a swimming pool, where we could freely enjoy more practical activities.

The programme was divided into 70 hours of theoretical-practical lessons, holistic design processes and, by the end of the course, 30 hours of practical community living training at the El Nagual Ecovillage. There were 10 meetings, with days starting at 10am and ending at 6:30pm. Each day included practical activities, reported experiences of educators, and addressing topics of the Gaia Youth curriculum.

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Shared meal and snack times became rich moments of exchange between students, coordinators and educators. They played guitar, had fun in the swimming pool and talked about what was going on in their lives. The day always ended with a council of visions.

As it happened in the pilot project last year, all guest educators had time to interact with students during breaks and classes. Participants requested lot of attention from the educators during this time with both questions and worries.

Our dynamic lesson format encouraged questions any time, creating an atmosphere very similar to a large casual chat. The classes also had moments of movement, of playfulness and work in small groups or pairs.

The Social Dimension was the beginning of a transformative journey among all of the participants, including the coordination team. We started accepting young people in the circle of Gaia Education, where they were able to present themselves. Collective agreements for our shared living were created and the Gaia Education context and the story of how Gaia Youth was born in Brazil were introduced. Highlights of included the dynamics developed by the coordinating team in focusing on personal and social transformation in activism and deep ecology.

Our main objective in the Ecological Dimension was to empower students to create their own connections and relationships with their surroundings. The high point was the practical action on an urban garden near the University campus with Nicolás Gomez.

The Economic Dimension brought high points of discovery, knowledge exchanges and a lot of inspiration from the young team leading the dimension: social entrepreneurs like Guilherme Lito and Fabio Levi, in addition to an experience in the Economy of Love with Marcos Arruda.

Finally, the Worldview Dimension gave these young people the opportunity to meeting their internal flow with educators like Vanessa Moutinho and Wanderley Paris, a meditation teacher that has a strong history of overcoming.

The closure of the programme was a residential experience of 2 days at El Nagual Ecovillage, giving the students a real experience in a community ecovillage and practice some of the theoretical learnings.

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The high point of the entire Gaia Education Youth 2014 programme was a shared gathering between the pilot project group and the 2014 group. This, perhaps, the most defining moment of the transformation generated by the Gaia Jovem programmes. We, the adults, observed the beautiful, young circle quickly joining together and share their aspirations, dreams, experiences and points of view for building a new time… It was the opening of Worldview Dimension. Now, we can only thank the opportunity to live the transformation again, through young people's eyes, some our own children, and see that this is a real connection and transformation path of our relationship with ourselves, with others and with the Earth.

We are very grateful for the Gaia Education trust and for the strength and energy of the youth. We dedicate this EDE experience to all the young people of the world in this and in the next generations.

Gaia+10 Celebrations: Win a Copy of Gaia Education’s 4Keys Books!

Gaia Education will soon be celebrating 10,000 friends on our Facebook page, in the year of our 10th anniversary! We wish to celebrate this milestone with you - our supporters - by offering an opportunity to win a digital copy of Gaia Education’s 4Keys books! The Keys are four comprehensive books, compiled by Gaia Education associates, offering an overview of cutting-edge thinking on design for sustainability at local, regional and global scales:

Social Key: Beyond You and Me Inspiration and Wisdom for Building Community

Economics Key: Gaian Economics Living well within planetary limits

Ecological Key: Designing Ecological Habitats Creating a Sense of Place

Worldview Key: The Song of the Earth The Emerging Synthesis of the Scientific and Spiritual Worldviews

You can read more about the 4Keys by visiting www.gaiaeducation.net/4keys. In the mean time, keep your nose close to ground to win your copies! Follow us on www.facebook.com/GaiaEducation.

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EDE Buenos Aires 2014, Argentina

Gabriela Salvaneschi

EDE Beunos Aires 2014, organised for the second year by Espacio ECO and attended by a team of international educators and local experts, created a unique environment of sharing valuable tools and encouraging participants to be the multipliers and leaders of change they are!

This year, to make the EDE operational, we used a system of solidarity economy - offering sliding scale fees, accepting exchanges and providing scholarships.

The faculty was a multidisciplinary team of professionals, including 30 educators from national and international origins including Brazil, Italy, USA, Chile, Germany and Argentina. Among these, 18 were women and 12 men. Participants where highly appreciative of their passion and wisdom.

With participants interested in rural and urban contexts, the localised EDE curriculum focused on both ecovillage design and transition town principles. Complementing the theoretical classes, the practice was held in the Eco Aldea Centro Nakkal. Here participants could engage in practical application, enabling the integration of the four dimensions while experiencing a pedagogy of coexistence.

Not to be side-lined, artistic expressions such as music, dance, theatre and visual arts were present during all modules. Group celebrations, harmonization of the space and many circular and sacred dances were shared during the whole program.

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In addition, we had several open extracurricular classes, sharing the wisdom of our educators with the larger community and to galvanise interest for our next EDE.

Overall, the journey of the EDE was very intense and inspiring. Participants got involved in new projects. Some made great personal changes in their lifestyles, others had great insights, expanding their consciousness.

Outcomes

The programme brought a very valuable energy, enhancing connections between networks of sustainability activists, empowering them and facilitating synergy among educators, participants and projects.

The University of Buenos Aires & University of Palermo FADU and UP expressed interest in workinEspacio ECO were invited to collabo the program at the while new partnerships between universities, organizations and related sustainability networks were created and strengthened

Love and Gratitude for each and everyone who made this wonderful EDE possible, was a highly collaborative learning for all of us.

Get Your Programme Certifield!

Those wishing to certify or recertifying upcoming EDE programmes should apply before 30th April 2015. In general, certification applications should be made at least six months in advance of your programme.

Visit gaiaeducation.net/certification or contact certification@gaiaeducation.net for further information.

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Featured Partner: UN DPI - United Nations Department of Public Information

As the public voice of the United Nations, the UN DPI promotes global awareness and greater understanding of the work of the United Nations, using various communication tools including radio, television, print, the internet, videoconferencing and increasingly, other new forms of information technology. Gaia Education is in an active meeting of the circle of 1,300 NGOs associated with the UN DPI.

Visit http://outreach.un.org/ngorelations/ for more information.

Partnership Updates

ECOLISE

On the 6-8 February 2015, around 50 people, representing over 30 different organisations from across Europe met in Freiburg, Germany, for the first General Assembly of ECOLISE, the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. Read more at www.ecolise.eu

New Partnerships

We are excited to announce two new Gaia Education partnerships: Ashoka Spain and IIFAC. Visit www.gaiaeducation.net/partners for more information!

New EDE Currciulum Translations

French & Spansish EDE v5 Curriculums now available!

A special thanks to the awesome teams of translators and formatters who have made our new French and Spanish EDE currciulum available. As always, the currciulums are available to download gratis, along with translations in 7 other languages. Visit from www.gaiaeducation.net/curriculum.

Gaiaeducation Geese information 2015/1

GEDS English 2013-2014

Case Study: Proyecto Bizitza

Students: Trini Anguita, Maite Benejam, Teresa Fondevilla, Marina TarrusProject Type: Rural Community DesignLocation: Granada, Spain

The Bizitiza Project is an intentional, sustainable community in the Alpujarras of Granada, Spain, which advocates for the care of the earth, as well as creativity and personal development. It promotes the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants, and the deep interconnection with the nature through artistic and cultural expression and a methodology that empowers affective exchange between people. The project promotes opportunities for deliberation, where consolidation of group consciousness and empowerment of individuals is enhanced by providing tools for personal growth and collective welfare. The project also boosts the local economy through the use of local currency and barter and creating spaces and specific activities of exhibition and sales of local products.

Case Study: Pirilampos Home for Children

Students: N. Machado, M. Mitterlehner, N. Ziglio, U. KandjiiProject Type: Home for ChildrenLocation: Portugal

Pirilampos Home for Children is one of the hundreds of homes that belong to the biggest Portuguese NGO, a Charity named Santa Casa da Misericórdia, dedicated to help children, youth, elderly, handicap and various other groups of people in need. The Pirilampos Home aims to provide children with a decent, safe and suitable environment so they can fully develop. These children are either orphans or destitute and Pirilampos is aimed to be a cozy, colorful, protective, sentimental, sweet, loving, fun and bright home.

GEDS Spanish 2013-2014

Gaiaeducation Geese information 2015/1

Current & Upcoming Gaia Education Programmes around the World

Another new programme in a new country is coming up: Canada! Check out the below current & upcoming programmes, and more, on www.gaiaeducation.net.

Gaia Education Online ProgrammesEnglish: Oct 2014 - Sep 2015Spanish: Oct 2014 - Jul 2015Portuguese: Oct 2014-Jun 2015www.gaiaeducation.net Design de Systèmes Durables, Switzerland6 Sep - 28 Nov 2015www.maison-verte.ch Gaia Nazaré UNILUZ9 Mar - 27 Sep 2015www.gaiaeducation.net Cours en Éducation au Développement d’Écovillage, Canada10 Jul - 10 Aug 2015www.capecocommunautaire.org EDE Florianópolis, Brazil10 Jul - 15 Nov 2015www.gaiaeducation.net EDE Damanhur, Italy1-29 Aug 2015www.damanhurwelcome.com

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