Context

The 4th meeting of the education working group (EWG) during the current round of LAND funding. This meeting was conceived as an opportunity to review progress to date, and revisit the design of the working group. The programme also reflected feedback from previous meetings that had requested more opportunities to share sessions, teaching methods, ideas etc.

Education Working Group Design: Summary of key decisions made

  • There should be a clear distinction between the Education Working Group and wider teaching community.
  • The Education Working Group's Aims are:
    1. Developing policy & strategic oversight
    2. Supporting individuals, groups and networks of educators to collaborate & learn
    3. Enhancing the quality of our materials & courses
    4. Improving our practice as educators
    5. Widening participation in permaculture education
  • The Education Working Group should:
    1. Be a small, focused group
    2. Represent the wider community of teachers
    3. Actively move tasks forward,
    4. Follow the Permaculture Association Working Group model.
    5. Support delivery of the aims through mechanisms such as using volunteer time, creating design opportunities for diploma students etc.
  • Split events into EWG meetings and teachers' gatherings, with distinct aims & agendas.
  • EWG meetings should:
    1. Be funded/subsidised
    2. Have clear, well communicated aims
    3. Prioritise 1 or 2 tasks and make tangible progress on them.
    4. Produce clear action plans against stated aims.
    5. Incorporate pattern: monitor, energise, evaluate, tweak 
  • Teachers Gatherings should:
    1. Be held annually
    2. Include a strong CPD element
    3. Have only minimum policy discussion (suggested 1 or 2 issues only)
    4. Be opportunities for networking & learning
    5. Be self-financing
  • EWG achievements should be celebrated at next meeting(s)/convergence(s)
  • EWG Teleconferences to take place on the 3rd Tuesday of each month
  • Next EWG meeting will take place at Pennerley in January 2012
  • Keep Learning Coordinator role

Actions

  • JA: book teleconferences, communicate date/time. Invite Aranya.
  • JA: Doodle/meetomatic dates for meeting at Pennerley
  • JA: Type up these notes
  • ALL: read these notes

Working Group Updates


Core Curriculum

  • At the 2010 Permaculture Convergence information was gathered about the types of questions that needed to be answered by the network. A series of questions were compiled, these questions were asked in the form of an on-line survey, where people scored their comments against different categories.
  • There have been 14 responses to the on line survey, however not all members of the core group have seen the answers or have had access to the survey.
  • Gary Finch checked that the core curriculum subjects were compatible with Mollison's permaculture principles and as a result a list has been compiled.

ACTIONS:
1. Klaudia van Gool to bring together all of the relevant documentation and send it to Joe Atkinson.

Quality Development

  • There have been 130 responses to the on-line survey, which the group have looked at.
  • The mini sessions were completed at the teachers meeting.


ACTIONS:
1. Joe Atkinson to ensure that the EWG's communications with permaculture teachers is linked to the survey, review the survey and any mechanisms in place.
2. Any relevant information needs to be included in the next education report.
3. Relate the core curriculum content to the mini sessions at future gatherings.

Web

  • There is some information on the website. The group have set up a meeting with Darren Woods.
  • Work has been done on the 'peoples, projects, places' section of the website, which means that people can add their profiles and designs
  • Debbie Jones (web coordinator) is starting to populate the website with known information, the intro course session plans have been uploaded.
  • Debbie recognises that the integration of the website is frustrating, but the EWG's comments have been noted and we will acted upon.
  • Jon Kean raised a point about quality assurance in relation to the release of introduction certificates to course tutors.

ACTIONS:
1. The group would like to make printed intro course certificates available in exchange for attendee contact details.

Schools

  • Rod Cunningham was the main coordinator for the school group but has now stepped down.


      ACTIONS:
      1. Joe Atkinson to research whether printing copies of 'The Outdoor Classroom' under license would be viable income stream for the Permaculture Association.
      2. Joe Atkinson to get in contact with Rod Cunningham to collect all of the work done so far.
      3. EWG task someone with compiling information.

    Next Conference call: Agenda

    • EWG Membership
    • EWG Characteristics: (representative, include diverse stakeholders, enable membership rotation etc)
    • Group culture
    • EWG Meeting in January
    • Roles
    • Aims & Actions
    • Meeting with Darren Woods to coordinate EWG's web activity.


    ACTIONS:
    1. Joe Atkinson to doodle/meetomatic to establish date.

    Next EWG Meeting
    Venue: Pennerley Permaculture Project, or Leeds.
    Date: January (exact date TBC)


    ACTIONS: Joe Atkinson to confirm venue & date.

reflections_on_the_education_working_group.pdf
education_ecosystem_-_aims_and_visioning.pdf
education_working_group_-_the_way_forward.pdf