Transformative Learning: Reflections on 30 Years of Head, Heart, and Hands at Schumacher College

by Satish Kumar (Editor), Pavel Cenkl (Editor)

Overview

Education as if people and planet mattered

In Transformative Learning, Satish Kumar reflects on the legacy of Schumacher College, a beacon of innovation that fosters an ecological-based, holistic model of higher education built around the college's unique "learn by doing," head, heart, and hands pedagogy.

Over fifty current and former instructors and alumni, including Vandana Shiva, David Orr, Kate Raworth, Fritjof Capra, Bill McKibben, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and Jonathon Porritt, paint a rich picture of education for human well-being and the ecological health of the planet.

Contributions delve deeply into the nature of transformational learning and holistic education, present a wealth of alumni experiences of working towards an ecological society, and detail the expansion of the Schumacher model to Belgium, Brazil, India, Japan, and beyond.

The result is a rich tapestry of ideas and educational methods packed with insights and experience for practitioners and activists looking to build a just, ecological society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865719521
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Satish Kumar, long-time peace and environment activist and former Jain monk, has been quietly setting the global agenda of change for over 50 years. He settled in the United Kingdom after an 8,000-mile peace pilgrimage and took the editorial helm of Resurgence magazine in 1973, a post he held until 2016. Over the decades, he has been the guiding spirit behind a number of internationally respected ecological and educational ventures including founding Devon's Schumacher College; authoring several books, including Elegant Simplicity; and presenting the documentary Earth Pilgrim. Satish was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education from the University of Plymouth, an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from the University of Lancaster, and the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Abroad. He appears regularly in the media, is on the Advisory Board of Our Future Planet, and continues to teach and run workshops as a sought-after speaker in the UK and abroad. He lives in Devon, UK.

Pavel Cenkl, PhD, is former Dean of Sterling College, Vermont, a researcher on ecologically minded curriculum development, and an environmental philosophy instructor. An avid endurance and adventure runner, through a project called Climate Run, Pavel has covered hundreds of miles in the Arctic and subarctic on foot in order to bring attention to the connections between our bodies and the more-than-human world in the face of a rapidly changing climate. He is author of Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest and This Vast Book of Nature. He is Head of Schumacher College and lives in Devon, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A New Pedagogy Satish Kumar

Part 1: Education of Head: Science
In the Beginning: Greening of Education - Satish Kumar
An Overview: A Unique Learning Experience - Fritjof Capra
Pedagogy for the Planet: Salt in the Stew - David Orr
Holistic Science: Teaching for Gaia - Stephan Harding
Holistic Science: Transforming Lives - Rupert Sheldrake
Holistic Science: A New Biology - Bruce H. Lipton
Holistic Science: From the Quanta to the Seed - Vandana Shiva
Agriculture: Science in the Service of the Soil - Wes Jackson
Holistic Science: Healing the Divided Brain - Iain McGilchrist

Part 2: Education of Head: Economics
Small Is Beautiful: Buddhist Economics - E. F. Schumacher
Regenerative Economics: New Story - Jonathan Dawson
The Green New Deal: People and Planet Connection - Ann Pettifor
New Economics: Local Is Beautiful - Helena Norberg-Hodge
Meaningful Work: Less Is More - Juliet B. Schor
Blue Economy: Nature Has No Waste - Gunter Pauli
Doughnut Economics: Turning Economics into Art - Kate Raworth
Ecological Design Thinking: Only Connect - Roberto Fraquelli and Mona Nasseri
Other Ways of Knowing: Transition Design - Terry Irwin and Gideon Kossoff

Part 3: Education of Heart
The Climate Crisis: Radical Activism - Bill McKibben
A Green Future: Narratives of Hope - Jonathon Porritt
Fireside Chat: Love for All - Satish Kumar
Ecology and Spirituality: A Polar Star - Mary Evelyn Tucker
Engaged Ecology: A Learning Arc - Andy Letcher
Ecology and Spirituality: A Sense of the Sacred Earth - Matthew Fox
A Celebration: Experiencing Gaia - Peter Reason
Indigenous Wisdom: Sacred Activism - Starhawk
Indigenous Cultures: A Quincentenary in the Old Postern - Charlene Spretnak
Indigenous Wisdom: Creating a Core New Myth - Colin Campbell

Part 4: Education of Hands
Nature and Art: The Big Picture - Susan Derges
Nature and Art: Web of Connections - Chris Drury
The Craft Revolution: The Magic of Making - Lou Rainbow
Gaia's Kitchen: A Rich Mix - Julia Ponsonby
Daily Bread: Simple but Not Easy! - Voirrey Watterson
Nature Is Here - Matt Harvey
Regenerative Horticulture: Learning by Doing - Jane Gleeson
Volunteering: Learning Through Service - Elizabeth Webber
Short Course Program: In Search of Meaning - Jane Hall

Part 5: Schumacher Worldwide
Green Hub, Hong Kong: Learning, Living and Loving - Andrew McAulay
Schumi Learning Garden in China: Right Livelihood - Ying Liang
Escola Schumacher, Brazil: Learning as Encounter - Juliana Schneider
Efecto Mariposa, Colombia: The Gaian Connection - Adriana Puech
Bhoomi College, India: Unity in Diversity - Seetha Ananthasivan
Peace and Permaculture Dojo, Japan: Moved by Love - Kai Sawyer
The Schumacher Sprouts, Belgium: Ne me Quitee Pas... - Sabine Denis

Part 6: Schumacher Alumni Experiences
Shaping Sustainability - Sarah Butler-Sloss
East and West - Nancy Lan Liu
A New Worldview - Tom Rivett-Carnac
Taking the Tree Trunk from Our Eye - Nigel Topping
Community Spirit - Paul Dickinson
A Well-Being Economy - Julia Kim
Lasting Gifts - Emily Ryan
A Home and a Community - Eve Annecke and Fiona Tilley

Part 7: The Future
Flourishing: Regenerative Learning - Pavel Cenkl

Acknowledgments
About the Editors
About New Society Publishers

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The essays collected in Transformative Learning illustrate how incredibly successful Satish Kumar's inspired ideas have been in influencing individuals from around the world. It could not be published at a more opportune time as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic to face anew the existential threat of climate change. Creating the shift from a materialistic way of life to a new green economy will not be easy. This book provides some very valuable insights on how we might move in this direction."
— Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, founder, the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace

"This is how we begin again, even at this late hour. When the pandemic has pulled the plug on our global economy, when all the scientific reports, meetings, and treaties have not lowered by a hair our greenhouse gas emissions, and when the juggernaut of mass extinction threatens all that remains of our biodiversity, we can begin again. We can learn to trust our head and heart and hands, as Schumacher College has explored and proposed over the last thirty years. This book is a good guide as to how we can begin again."
— Joanna Macy, author, A Wild Love for the World and Coming Back to Life

"Thank you, Satish Kumar, for this rich gift of powerful voices bringing forth an emergent, nature-centered learning essential to life itself. Transformative Learning should be essential reading for all educators and learners."
— Frances Moore Lappe, author, Diet for Small Planet and 18 other books, cofounder, Small Planet Institute

"Thirty years ago, Schumacher College was founded, not just to teach radical economic and ecological ideas, but to teach them in a new way. Or rather, a very old way – one that unites the intellect with the rest of what makes us human. Hence, the title of this collection of essays: Head, Heart, and Hands. Today, with the dominant model of education in acute crisis, this book is an invaluable inspiration, transmitting the spirit of Schumacher and the possibility it holds to seed a new, holistic mode of education for the future."
— Charles Eisenstein, speaker and author, The More Beautiful World Our Heart Knows is Possible

"Located among the rolling hills, woodlands and wild hedgerows of Devon, for thirty amazing years the convivial ethos of Schumacher College has attracted some of the finest educators, scientists, artists, and theorists from around the world, all eager to participate (even if just for a few weeks) in the small-scale, craft-centered, and place-based sanity that animates the college. Schumacher draws steady insight from its locale — from the unique biodiversity of the terrain that surrounds and sustains it — yet the ecological intelligence of its programs has spread out through its many international students to influence, deepen, and transform the practice of ecology on every continent. With its wide array of contributors, this book is a splendid testament to its thirty years carefully cultivating a full-bodied wisdom rooted in attentive reciprocity with the winds, the waters, and the soil underfoot."
— David Abram, author, Becoming Animal and The Spell of the Sensuous, and director, Alliance for Wild Ethics (AWE)

"By beginning with rebuilding community and reconnecting with the natural world we are part of, Schumacher College cultivates the kind of imaginative thinking and transformative practice that can bring into being a better future for all of us. Schumacher College and its growing network of alumni around the world, many of whom have contributed to this book, are beacons of active hope whose time has come."
— Caroline Lucas, MP, Green Party Member of the British Parliament

"The book describes the vision and reality of Schumacher College, which is a living example of a sustainable civilisation in the making. Transformative Learning brings together some of the leading voices of our time articulating the parameters of a regenerative culture, urgently needed for now and for the future. It is essential reading!"
— Otto Scharmer, author, Theory U, founder, MITx u.lab and Presencing Institute

"I have a prediction. As you read Transformative Learning the deep coherence of the ideas will ignite in you a profound trust. You will realize that things are going to work out. These authors are the architects of an entirely new civilization. By dwelling in their thinking, you become a pattern that connects our hard time to a vibrant new era of the Earth Community."
— Brian Thomas Swimme, professor, California Institute of Integral Studies