The Regeneration Lab

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Johan Holmén, post-doc at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and co-teacher of Chalmer's Challenge Lab and accompanying courses. He recently finished his PhD at Chalmers in the field of transformative engineering education and was recently appointed to the head of the Swedish NGO Engineers for the environment. His expertise lies in backcasting from principles and guiding collective societal learning processes in the times of wicked problems. He started at the Challenge Lab as a master student before focussing his research on these forms of ecological learning configurations. And is currently working on Swedish materials for educator's to engage with these transformative forms of education in elementary institutions. 

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The importance of creating space for engaging with complex sustainability challenges that plague society.  
2. The importance of mentorship in facing collective sustainability challenges.  
3.  Allowing the engagement of questions as part of the education and not just as preparation  for it.  
4. The importance of transformative and reformative forms of learning as complementary parts of higher education.  
5. The importance of combining the formal learning on societal change, leadership and transitions as well as practicing them.  
6. Using higher education as a safe place for trying out long term futures that don't depend on short-termism. Placing learning in the centre instead of concrete output.  
7. The power of working with people that engage with sustainability challenges on day-to-day basis and the humbleness that comes from this.   
8. Using the campus as a playground/arena for relating and starting this type of work.  
9. Training the inside-out dimensions of sustainability – dialoguing, design and co-creation, value-based interpretation and such.   
10. Learning from taking responsibility of taking sustainability seriously.  
11. The importance of methodological support, framework and tools to scaffold the learning experience as the learners engage with complexity.  
     
    External Links: 

Challenge Lab – Where learners lead and leaders learn (chalmers.se) 

Johan Holmén | Chalmers 

Johan Holmén (@assar56) / Twitter 

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with Maria Garcia Alvarez, senior lecturer at the Global Project Management and Change Management at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences as well as a Earthcharter certified lecturer. She is a self-described educational rebel that works to transform education in line with life. Maria argues for the importance of helping learners to ask more, deeper and better questions in their quest to become change agents. In her education she leaves from a value-based approach to engaging with sustainability as education. She argues passionate for a re-association of our relationships with the rest of the natural world, sketching the role of an educator as facilitating the reconnecting with other forms of life and to learn to truly care and steward for the ecosystems of which we are part and expressions.  One of the ways she does this is by using the overview effect, showing the Earth in all of its beauty, grandeur and vulnerability of the little blue dot we call our home. 

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. Seeing sustainability as a way of thinking and being as part of ecosystems. 
2. Start by challenging the worldviews of learners, the status-quo of their thinking, before working with transforming existing (eco)systems.  
3. The importance of challenging what is normal, and what should be.  
4. The power of realizing that the way we perceive and look at the world is socially constructed and can thus be reconstructured (much like the systems we have co-created over time).  
5. The challenge and importance of reconnecting with ecosystems as educational institutions, including leveraging the strengths of (natural) ecological systems such as collaboration and regeneration.  
6. The contradiction between the financial’s sectors impact on (higher) education and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  
7. The difficulty of changing higher education at the institutional level and transgressing from the ivory tower to the entangled university of the future and the question whether it is possible to take the necessary steps to go through this transformation.  
8. The need for deconstruction of the university and higher education so that a new version can be constructed that focusses on ecosystem learning.  
9. Teachers can be key players in the transition towards a more sustainable future.  
10. Systemic problems with hierarchial models in education that do not reward those that are practicing the change.  

External Links 

Maria G. | LinkedIn 

María García Alvarez - Earth Charter 

Maria Garcia Alvarez | Social Innovation Lab 

About us | valuecreators (valuecreators-whc.com) 

Windesheim Honours College | International 

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Kim Poldner, professor Circular Business at The Hague University of Applied Sciences where she is one of four professors of the Mission Zero centre of expertise. She is also the host of the wasted tales podcast where she engages with the lived-experience of products and objects as they enter a circular society. Her expertise lies in organizational studies from an aesthetic perspective and the creation of innovative circular business models that focus on multiple value creation. With particular expertise in circular fashion. In this chat we discuss the importance of play, imagination and creativity for regenerative higher educational practices.  

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The importance of aesthetic and experiential interventions to touch hearts (that lead to transformations.  
2. The importance of magic in the ‘classroom’.  
3. The power of risk taking, and daring to take risks. To see the cracks in the systems and intervene.  
4. The importance of bringing and asking the whole self to be brought to educational spaces 
5. The importance of the biophysical environment in which education takes place.  
6. The power of creating a community that is welcoming.  
7. Starting from a place of equality.  
8. Using the genius of the diverse groups in interdisciplinair and international groups.  
9. Bringing the capacity of playing as a valuable form of becoming with the world.  
10. Sewing the seeds in the cracks of the system through play.  

External Links:  

Kim Poldner (@kimpoldner) • Instagram-foto's en -video's 

Research Group Circular Business - The Hague University

(9) Inaugural Address of professor Kim Poldner - Entrepreneuring a regenerative society - YouTube

Metaal Kathedraal

https://www.dehaagsehogeschool.nl/onderzoek/kenniscentra/details/kenniscentrum-mission-zero  

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with Laura Stevens, senior lecturer in biomimicry and coordinator of the design with nature course at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. She is also one of the expert ambassadors for biomimicry Netherlands and is a force of nature for bringing the living world closer to the higher educational classroom. In this episode, Laura argues for leveraging the 3.8 billion years of R&D that life has already done for us as a rich place for learning to co-create and co-design more regenerative human systems.   

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. Using nature as the richest curriculum that we have and the awe-inspiring potential of the natural world that can incite inquisitiveness when it is invited into our learning spaces.  
2. Facilitating the reconnection between people and more-than-human nature as a key component of Higher Education. 
3. The importance of learning to look through system level's and using those for design(ing interventions).  
4. The power of cultivating cooperative relationships in the beginning of a course as a basis for tackling challenges.  
5. The power of creating powerful momentum for learning by creating high power starting events.  
6. The importance of making education fun and playful.  

External Links:  

The Biomimicry Institute — Nature-Inspired Innovation 

Biomimicry (biomimicrynl.org) 

Laura Stevens | LinkedIn 

Biomimicry Education, A Conversation with Laura Stevens - The Hague University 

Laura Stevens Biomimicry Expert (@buildingpassion) / Twitter 

Laura Lee Stevens @BmyEdu (@biomimicry_education) • Instagram photos and videos 

Innovation Inspired by Nature — AskNature 

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Celiane Camargo-Borges, senior lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences where she is active amongst others thing with the masters Imagineering that focusses on social innovation. She is also associated faculty with the Taos Institute where she teaches and guides PhDs with social constructionist projects. Celiane brings her unique perspective of relationshippping and nurturing relationships as key elements or conditions for learning. The power and difficulty of relational approaches to education according to Celiane lies in challenging underlying mental models and perspectives that drive current practice. In her education she works with the TRIAL Framework – Transformative, Reflexive, Inspirational, Adaptive & Leadership -  as the overaching competencies for engaging in societal and systemic change.  

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The fundamental link between action and learning by doing. 
2. The power of constructing teams from a lot of different backgrounds to tackle complex challenges.  
3. The power of design approaches to bring the philosophy of social/relational constructionism into practice.   
4. Being in service of a challenge and the community that is serves.  
5. The power of pushing the university system towards a more relational approach one step at a time.  
6. The need for designing spaces to prepare students to learn,  because they are now only prepared to pass tests.   
7. The weight of reality makes changing it difficult but not impossible.  
8. Small changes in our actions can create systemic change.  
9. The importance of creating a vibrant community – with belonging and feeling like being part of a group.  
10. The importance of diving into intercultural aspects of this form of relational education.  
     

External Links 

Celiane Camargo-Borges Designing conversations: co-creating possibilities 

(1) Celiane Camargo-Borges | LinkedIn 

https://www.cstt.nl/Staff/Celiane-Camargo-Borges/26 

Celiane Camargo-Borges, Ph.D. | The Taos Institute 

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Mieke Lopes Cardozo, senior researcher and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam where she focusses on the intersection of development studies, educational studies and peacebuilding. She is dedicated to designing and enacting a regenerative education within universities. Mieke is passionate about (international) challenges of equality and the power of education to play an active role in tackling these challenges. She used to focus on international development in far away places but recently switched to a more local focus with her teaching. She is one of the founders of the field of peacebuilding education. At the University of Amsterdam she leads the critical development & diversity explorations (CDDE) community which is founded on regenerative principles with a thematic focus inspired by student actvism for further democratization of the university.   

Mieke argues passionately for a more life-affirming approach to the university that places a focus on local transformation with deep critical thought and engagement with the broader society. This translates into a co-creative and co-design approach to designing and enacting higher education.   

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The importance of having space(s) for real and deep critical and creative thinking.  
2. The difficulty of navigating mechanical-like bureaucracy of modern organizations, including universities.   
3. She highlights the importance of rolemodels and mentors, but also the time to grow into your role as a teacher.  
4. She highlights learning as going beyond the brain to  be a whole human being process.  
5. The importance of co-design not only as a methodology during a course, but to design the course through co-design as it emerges.  
6. The power of presence and balancing your own life around inner and outer processes of whole person health also translates to the quality of your educational process.  
7. The need for spaces within the system but outside the curricular structures to explore, play and understand education for social justice and regeneration.   

External Links:  

dr. T.A. (Mieke) Lopes Cardozo - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl) 

Mieke Lopes Cardozo | Education and Development (wordpress.com) 

Mieke Lopes Cardozo | LinkedIn 

‪dr Mieke T.A. Lopes Cardozo‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬ 

Mieke Lopes Cardozo (@MiekeLopes) / Twitter 

Critical Development & Diversity Explorations (CDDE) - Social Sciences - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl) 

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Domenico Dentoni, professor at Monpellier Business School, part of the University of Montpellier in Southern France.

Domenico is fulll professor in business, transformation and resilience and specializes in using complexity-as-pedagogy with inductive approaches to teaching and research that has been highlighted for excellence by his students (while at Wageningen University) for years. 

In this chat we discuss the importance of scaffolding so that learners can engage with complexity that comes through his educational approach: placing the complexity of phenomena of everyday practices, of the mundane, and their relationship to systemic unsustainability as central in the teaching process.  

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The importance of engaging with complexity in research, teaching and learning.  
2. The power of curiosity and fascination with the world around me as a way of being in the world.  
3. Balancing figuring things out for yourselves while providing support for your students to engage with it in a safe way.  
4. The power of using inductive approaches to learning and teaching (placing real life cases before theories).   
5. The importance of engaging with real life cases that learners can relate to and allowing learners to self-select knowledges and theories to engage with this case.  
6. The importance of incorporating (meaningful) choice in the learning process.  
7. Seeing learning akin to a design process of cycles of diverging and converging linked together with reflective practice.  
8. The importance of making a purposive effort when working with real complexity cases that there is no right or wrong but different lenses and approaches that are more or less profound.  
9. Finding a balance between the depth of analysis and effectiveness of identified interventions/solutions when working with higher education students.  
10. Working with balanced teams (usually the most diverse teams possible – diversity of gender, experiences, disciplines).  

External Links:  

Dr. Domenico Dentoni - Montpellier Business School (montpellier-bs.com) 

Domenico Dentoni 

Domenico Dentoni | LinkedIn 

dr. D (Domenico) Dentoni - WUR 

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Arjen Wals, professor of Transformative Learning for Socio-Ecological Sustainability at Wageningen University. He also holds the UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development.  

His recent work focusses on transformative social learning in vital coalitions of multiple stakeholders at the interface of science and society. His teaching and research focus on designing learning processes and learning spaces that enable people to contribute meaningfully sustainability. A central question in his work is: how to create conditions that support (new) forms of learning which take full advantage of the diversity, creativity and resourcefulness that is all around us but so far remain largely untapped in our search for a world that is more sustainable than the one currently in prospect? 

In this episode Arjen argues that we have a duty as educators to help move society towards a trajectory for life that is just, equitable and sustainable for all humanity as well as more-than-human life. The role of educator as a designer and enacter of living learning ecologies that allow for the emergence of eco-competence that nurture the relational patterns from which these holistic attitudes and abilities can emerge.  

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The importance of your upbringing in being sustainability-oriented.  
2. The importance of connecting to nature, the web of life and caring for the environment.  
3. The realization that technology by itself will not be enough to turn the tide.  
4. The power of letting loose of our perceived control over the rest of the natural world.  
5. The use of existential questions and challenges as a starting point for learning.  
6. The power of using everyday life and places, in combination with existential questions, as the richest curricula we have.  
7. The importance of inviting diversity (including adversity) into learning places to challenge and transform worldviews.  
8. Becoming uncomfortable together, which requires trust and informal interactions.  
9. The importance of creating space for social-emotional learning and engagement in our learning environments.  
10. The importance of bringing back subjectification into higher education (who am I, who do I want to be? Who can I be?) in addition to qualification.  
11. Seeing competence (or eco-competence) as a relational property that can only be judged in action. 

External Links:  

https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/esdfor2030-berlin-declaration-en.pdf 

https://www.wur.nl/en/Persons/Arjen-prof.dr.ir.-AEJ-Arjen-Wals.htm 

https://twitter.com/ArjenWals?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor 

https://transformativelearning.education/about/ 

www.transformativelearning.org

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Michelle Holliday, international consultant, leader and author of the acclaimed book The Age of Thriveability. 

In this chat we engage with what thriveability means in the context of higher education as the intention and practice of allowing life to thrive. First we need to understand what are the fertile conditions that life requires to thrive, then we need to set that as our clear intention and then bring it our education as an ongoing life practice. Collectively and individually. Michelle argues that following the patterns of life can allow for learning environments that are more empowering. These learning environments welcome and invite practical play in relationshipping. She sees education as a place to play games that purposefully serve our learning.   

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The importance of nurturing the conditions conducive for life to thrive in our educational approach. Learning from the patterns of life when designign educational experiences.
2.  The power of inform, intent and practice as a basis for life-affirming education.  
3. Each living system consist of parts, relationship, emergent wholes with dynamic characteristics not found in lower level of parts and that it is powered by life (self-organizing, self-managing and self-healing.  
4. The importance of being a steward or gardener in learning environments, that nurtures and cares for the conditions that are fertile for learning.  
5. The power of taking care about the biophysical surroundings and environment of the learning environments that allow for thriving learning.  
6. The setting of shared purpose when learning together and enacting in practical play.  
7. The power of having faith that valuable learning will happen even if it is not pre-planned and explicitely delivered by you. 
8. The combination of reverence of the magic and mystery of living things and responsible for the potential of living systems.  

Externe Links:  

Michelle Holliday | Home 

Michelle Holliday | Travel To Tomorrow 

Michelle Holliday – Medium 

About | The Age of Thrivability 

In this episode of The (Re)generative Education Podcast I chat with dr. Daniel Christian Wahl, international thought leader, consultant and educator involved with a variety of educational programmes in the field of regenerative design at Schumacher´s College, Findhorn College and Gaia University amongst others. 

In this chat Daniel argues for a shift from education as problem-solving and becoming locally attuned to the uniqueness of place within bioregions. The process we need to educate for is the ability to act in the face of dynamically changing contexts. He sees the heart of regeneration as integrating human patterns with conditions that are conducive to creating life. Subsequently the challenge for education to play an active part in restoring this connection. This, he argues, is a destination without arrival.  

In this discussion the following systemic barriers and opportunities emerged:  

1. The importance of taking a relational, connected (holistic), perspective on what life can be.  
2. The power of starting education from the way our minds constructs narratives, structures and organizes the complexity of the material world.  
3. The ability of design to act as a DJ that mix-and-matches to apply connected knowledges into practice that is right at the intersection of hollistic approaches to sciences.  
4. The big challenge for education is to bring back the kaleidoscopic picture of bringing a lot of different disciplines together to understand the complexity of which we are a part.   
5. Argues for a more humble approach to science as an appropiate participation in complexity, with the main aim being to finding better questions to ask.  
6. The importance of placing education central in one’s life as well as our communities.  
7. Avoiding the mistake of engaging with dichotomies and playing with the space in between and/or.  

External Links:  

Daniel Christian Wahl – Medium 

Designing Regenerative Cultures - Triarchy Press 

Daniel Christian Wahl - Resilience 

Daniel Christian Wahl, PhD | LinkedIn 

Daniel Christian Wahl – GaiaEducation.org 

Qualitative Systems Thinking | H3Uni