Towards a Regenerative Learning Ecology in Higher Education — Following the Current…
This is the third installment of the Regenerative Learning Ecologies (RLE) series where I engage with my lived-experience of designing and enacting a RLE into higher education. Or more accurately, designing education that connects to existing learning ecologies in a regenerative way. For this, we created a full-semester fulltime course called Mission Impact at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Now, we are the midway point of this pilot and much as happened, much has been learned and a ridiculous amount has been felt. As I write this, still stuck in the room that has been my home, office, working space, and relaxing space for months. The Covid-19 pandemic has raged for most of 2020. Severely limiting every day life. Since the last instalment, a new lockdown has been started but luckily the gyms are still open. On a personal note, I have lost 24 kilo’s so far since the pandemic started but I’d say that’s been one of the few positive impacts of the pandemic to my life as well as education.
On a personal note, I have now officially started as PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research in the Education and Learning Sciences Group with an amazing supervision team. I am working hard to finish my research proposal for a funding application by the 5th of January, 2021. As well as other administrative requirements such as preparing the Training & Supervision plan. Without further adieu… let’s dive into the last few weeks!
Life’s Principles
I have a wonderful colleague Laura Stevens, who is an expert in biomimicry (and biomimicry education). She is close to finishing her PhD at Delft University of Technology on this very topic. She was kind enough to give several guest lectures in Mission Impact but one of those was on Life’s Principles. A design lens from the biomimicry 3.8 which translates the wisdom of nature to design practice. I will use this lens to reflect on the past few weeks in relation to the educational design of Mission Impact.
As RLEs are living eco-social systems this should be interesting :).
There is strong conceptual overlap with sustainability-oriented learning (Wals, 2019) and the Life’s Principles model. For example, reflexivity is a key component of sustainability-oriented learning ecologies and could be placed at the intersection of the Evolve to Survive and Adapt to Changing Conditions in the context of educational design. As reflexivity involves the ability to reflect upon action and adjusting course as required. And as such shows the ability to adapt to changes in the context and personal development (evolutionary learning) to make progress. I believe similar conceptual arguments could be made for other aspects of sustainability-oriented learning such as connection to place (be locally attuned and responsive). Additionally, the central concept of biomimicry life creates the conditions conducive to life can be paraphrased in the context of RLEs regeneration creates the conditions conducive to learning.While it is not my purpose now, here, today, to make an argument for each of these at the conceptual level. Perhaps that is something that could be done in the future. For now, I am simply using it to guide my reflections.
This reflection is based on data generated during the educational experiment: such as collective reflective sessions, digital communications, fieldnotes and discussions amongst the educators. Using-life friendly chemistry is left out of this as it is a bit too far out of scope as educational design in this sense does not involve a lot chemistry directly. At least not in the natural science definition of chemistry. An example:
Its a silver bracelet [smithed for me by a close friend] that has a saying engraved that is very near to my heart. ‘Ex nihilo nihil fit’ originally written by Parmenides over 2000 years ago. It translates to ‘out of nothing comes nothing’ which I freely translate to everything is a process of other processes. This perspective captures deeply my own epistemological convictions and how I experience and feel life. In turn influencing how my life has been experienced and felt.
We put in a lot of work, starting long before the semester [the minor Mission Impact] started, to get this whole thing going and overall it has been very positive for me and rewarding. But also extremely tiring and draining. This friction that I feel between energizing and drainage is like a swing which changes direction frequently.
At the same time it reminds me that if I want to thrive myself, and balance my own well being, happiness and health this is also part of a process that required me to work, to make decisions, and to sacrifice. Finding that balance [between going for it and relaxation] has been the most difficult aspect personally and I reckon this will continue to be the most challenging aspect for some time to come. I hope that this bracelet can serve as a material reminder that the emerging future is interconnected with histories and emerges from our actions in the present as interconnected processes. And that arriving at the right mental space and place so that I can thrive as a regenerative educator requires me to take actions and enact processes in the now to reach the emergent becomings I wish to connect with.Personal reflection during a collective reflection session in the minor Mission Impact (10–10–2020).
Evolve to Survive
Throughout Mission Impact we continuously remind the students that this is a pilot. That is part of a larger design process which will likely take two or three years of active experimentation to result in the final concept for a RLE. An example of this in practice has been the phase of Mission Impact that the students are entering now, the third phase, where they were supposed to organize workshops as teams of 3–4 students. Unfortunately, largely because of the ongoing pandemic, they have not been able to engage with stakeholders as much as they, or myself, would have liked. Initially, in the wonderfully perfect world of design before it is introduced to practice. This idea sounded like a great way to boost our own impact, to test out different creative ways to gather data, and to play of the strengths of the different teams and persons that constitute these. In practice, however, it resulted in a vicious cycle of frustration and despair as deadlines approached and professionals ignored their pleas for help… for participation.
As an educator, this was very difficult to see. Particularly to know when to step in and when to stay back and let them swim against the currents so that they develop their own ability, networks and relationships. After two weeks of what has been described as being stuck in research limbo, where little progress was made. Crucially not because of a lack of energy, interest, effort or passion. But because of the unfortunate reality we all find ourselves in. In collaboration with the co-coordinator and other coach in Mission Impact, the decision was made to step in and help them.
After some calls to external partners, we were able to utilize my own professional network n the area around us to co-host an open dialogue session on the 27th of November. This will be one large, collective activity to gather insights for all groups. And open to anyone, of all backgrounds and ages. Completely different than originally designed for but very valuable none-the-less. This collective activity is likely going to find it’s way into the second iteration near the beginning of Mission Impact. To use education to create the space for different actors in a region to engage in conversation as a transformative and pedagogical device. What has been particularly beautiful to see has been the students ability to engage as a collective when they need to. And I hope to explore this more in the future. At the same time, there is also discontent amongst (some) of the students themselves. As some perceive that they work a lot more and put in a lot more effort on this course than others. How to balance this going forward so that the workload is distributed more fairly is one of the key challenges so far. Particularly in a digital reality.
This is just one example of how some of the aspects of the programme evolve as they unfold.
Adapt to Changing Conditions
One of the key aspects of RLEs is that they allow the space for evolutionary learning. This is not just intended to be developed by the students as they engage with their learning but also expressed in the flexibility engaged with for educational design while enacting a RLE. This includes changing assignments, assessments, or even learning goals entirely depending on how the context in which learning unfolds changes.
Gaby: I mean, they can design something as an exercise but I think this is much more like a research-based project than a design based project. I mean, of course, you take the design into consideration. And there is like a, an artistic/design element to it.
Bas: Right….
Gaby: Because that’s essentially what we’re… What I think we’re trying to get them to do in three ways like we’re trying to develop three separate things. The regenerative leadership component, right, the ability to guide this collective action but also being confident enough to be able to do so. And they struggle with that, as you saw clearly from the personal reflections that ability to connect with others, and engage with others.
Bas: Seeing more growth there would definitely be part of that leadership development for me.
Gaby: Secondly, its on the research side, right, creative methods. Being able to use these approaches but not drowning in them. Being able to use the tool [creative research methods] to unravel and engage with complexity. But what I am seeing now is that they are not able to make this translation. I feel they [students] are drowning.
Bas: I also saw that… and I have been thinking: How could we adjust the assignments in such a way to help them.. not drown you know? Because for me, you know, even the assignments that have already been shared with them are flexible and open to change. If the collective wisdom of the group tells us its better to do B than A we should adjust it. I think it’s part of that evolutionary process for this type of learning.
Paraphrased Chat with Gabriela Bustamante — Designer, Artist & Co-coordinator of the IDE programme 13–10–2020.
This adaptability and flexibility based approach also extends to the way we look at educational design in general. Where each iteration of Mission Impacts includes the learnings from the previous and is continuously co-shaped by emerging practice. Being open to adapting conditions requires space, and time, and also the very capacity we are trying to develop — the capacity to connect to potential regenerative futures and bring these into being.
Be Locally Attuned and Responsive
‘I actually think that the regenerative future should be one of the learning outcomes at the start of the next iteration of the RLE [Mission Impact] instead of towards the end, so that the remainder of the learning experience can focus on enacting that future through community-based regenerative action.
Personal Reflections — 18–10–2020.
Connecting to place is one of the hallmarks of RLEs, and connecting to place is difficult, if not impossible in the midst of a pandemic. Our students are scattered throughout Europe, we are stuck in our rooms, locked behind screens. Those who are close by, and comfortable, have been able to at least visit the place in The Hague, The Netherlands we are working with. And we have played around with ways of combining e-learning with place-based learning. For example by incorporating walking exercises, photography exercises, and street interview type activities. But it is not the same as being able to feel, breath, experience and take-in the power of localness. I miss being able to engage with students physically, in the same room, the same field, park, forest or frankly anywhere that is not Zoom or Teams. Not to say I haven’t enjoyed some of the perks of digital learning, sure. But holy fuck it is hard sometimes.
In the original design of Mission Impact, the final deliverable/outcome for the student learning was and currently still is representations of potential futures. As can be seen in above reflections, I don’t believe in this as the final outcome anymore. While I still greatly value the ability to anticipate and connect to potentiality. And believe it is a drastically undervalued and desperately needed capacity right now. I no longer think it should be the final outcome. Instead, I’d like to see it near the beginning! Such as week 8. What if we start not just by learning the system and untangling the complexity. But by already trying to identify the leverage points for regenerative potentialities. Leaving the remainder of the semester to bring this into practice through provotyping, entrepreneuring, activism. What if… we organized a collective mapping exercise in the first 8 weeks and then experiment on the microlevel to change part of the system that emerged. Imagine the possible personal development with such an approach.
I am super excited to try this but looking at local responsiveness on the Nano level. I am glad that we decided to recharge for a semester. Because frankly, I am exhausted. Coordinating, organizing, grading, communicating a full semester worth of higher education is a bit like a long endurance event filled with heavy lifting exercises. It is absolutely beautiful in moments when vulnerability, learning and creativity thrive. But also challenging to keep everyone engaged, to stay energized and to balance with other job requirements. Case in point, as I write this I have at least two other large writing tasks I should have finished a few months ago but haven’t been able to yet. Taking the time till next academic year to reflect, analyze and improve. To really make sure there is a qualitative evolution in the next trial is definitely the right decision. But it still feels like I am letting my local stakeholders down. Like I am letting myself down for not being able to push harder. Like I am a failure for having to make adjustments. Knowing fully well that is how complex design projects work, or life in general, nothing is ever perfect or finished. It is still a challenging pill to swallow whenever I have to adjust course and set new sails to ride the winds. This difficulty also reminds me of the changing seasons, with the beautiful tapestries of browns with spots of green hanging on in our forests. This image always reminds me it’s okay to take a step back, to recharge, revitalize, and to grow back when the sun gets back.
Be Resource Efficient
One of the first examples of resource efficiency in Mission Impact was the openly sharing and collaborating of research data. Understanding that working together in that way results in more chance for collective thriving. As the COVID-19 reality has made it challenging for the students to reach participants to work with, the data that each team has been able to gather alone has been relatively limited (1–6 interviews).
Another example, and less positive and one that I should have anticipated is the focus to working towards assessments. While I am not a fan of assessment of learning in general as I have not seen any convincing evidence that it actually adds value to learning processes, particularly in complex topics such as developing regenerative capacity. And am normally very aware of the influence of my design choices in terms of assessment in relation to learner behavior. I have been a bit surprised by the focus of the learners on doing what the assignment says. Perhaps I have underestimated the force of the education system they are used to, which places a lot (too much) focus on measuring outcomes of learning instead of focusing on the process and evolution of capacity.
Gaby: yeah because I think that if they focus on doing a workshop just for the sake of doing a workshop because they are going to be evaluated on it. I think they’re gonna lose the opportunity to do truly creative research.
Bas: Yeah, I noticed in general that the grading is something that has to change. Right now, it doesn’t really benefit the learning process. Whatever we put into grading criteria becomes the only things for them to focus on. So it’s definitely one of the questions I have, or that I have been asking myself in terms of educational design and philosophy. What do we really care about the 20 weeks that we have them with us? It’s to allow them to develop their regenerative capacity, to challenge their beings, their selves, their thinking. To be able to be confident enough to take action. Everything else is just a form of pseudo-structure creation.
Paraphrased from chat between Gaby & Bas — 13–10–2020
Integrate Development with Growth
I believe this is one of the main areas where the RLE approach to educational design shines as a form of education that bridges the divide between externalized change (i.e. design artefacts, taking action) with inner change (artful reflections, creating the space to look inside). This is an area where the relationality of inner and outer change creates opportunities for education to be truly transformative and meaningful for the learners involved as well as the place with which the learners engage. I actually think that if we don’t engage with this relationality more universities will not be relevant in one or two decades. Anything else that you wish to learn can already be learned online. Usually for free, or at least cheaper than formal education. And many organizations are starting to care less and less about your formal degrees.
The biggest difficulty has been how to translate this into a digital format. In the programme, we engage in collective reflective sessions every other week. So far, we have experimented with different formats for these sessions including sketching, storytelling, poetry, narration as well as simply having the space for a chat. Each had strengths and weaknesses and some got quite intense.
One of the major struggles that I have experienced as an educator has been to engage the different students involved in these regular meetings though. It is quite easy to disconnect from an online session by turning off your mic or webcam, often even for a myriad of good reasons. But this ease also makes it difficult to keep the learners involved. And to create a space that balances the variety of learners and gives them all enough space to meaningfully engage.
Going forward, I envision a combination of these collective sessions in the physical world. With a structured portfolio of reflective activities and practice integrated into the RLE as a form of e-learning. This individual layer, which is partially included now in the form of personal reflective art pieces every five weeks. Creates an extra layer and incentive for learners to engage with their own inner transformations in a safe and private space. The combination of this e-learning space and working on a regenerative future then shapes the conditions conducive to the development to regenerative capacity. At least, I hope!
This also emerged strongly during a conversation with dr. Daniel Christian Wahl, which can be listened to below. My tip: listen to it while out on a walk :).
All of us found the Mission Impact minor to be a good way to learn from others and at the same time contribute to a better planet. It inspired us, to be the change that we are so desperately looking for, hoping that others will make it. To change our behaviour, to advocate and to convince the big players and the policy makers, that they have to create solutions.
(Paraphrased, emphasesis added by me, from student assignment 14–11–2020).
Going back in
At the beginning of the last update, I shared that I was taking a step back. After organizing five weeks of lectures, activities, chats and feedback I needed some distance. In the meantime I focused on other projects, such as the KIP College (a transdisciplinary multi stakeholder learning experience about circular development, connecting with the Greenport West Holland area for the second iteration of Mission Impact, co-writing the multiple year vision and policy plans for the Mission Zero center of expertise, working on my PhD proposal and trying to write a book chapter on learning towards a circular society). While this distance, and mini-recharge was necessary. I am happy to help the students in this next phase, where they explore more story-based forms of writing their complexity research and to co-host the online event on the 27th of November about regenerative cities.
The most beautiful thing I have seen were the moments where collectivism shined bright. Where students broke through their team and disciplinary boundaries to connect as the going got tough. Frankly, it made me consider if more difficulty and complexity is needed for future iterations of Mission Impact to facilitate more of this form of collective wisdom.. But maybe we are already trying things that are hard enough.
A Walk in the Park
I am sitting on a bench, overlooking a coffee place next to a wooded area in The Hague, The Netherlands. It’s November, but it hasn’t really been cold. Later I were to find out it had been the warmest year on record! I remember thinking while I was cycling to this bench that this lack of cold may be a sign of climate change as it hasn’t really been cold yet. I got a text that the companion I was meeting would be a few minutes later. As she is also active in academia and education. I completely understood, being in academia and digital reality myself I am constantly in meetings that drag on for too long or underestimate the time something takes. And frankly, I was too busy simply enjoying seeing something other than my room for once. I was also quite excited, and a bit nervous, for this meeting.
You have to realize it was (1) not behind a screen and (2) I was a bit worried that the last months of lockdown have made me unable to interact with people in the ‘real’ world anymore. She soon arrived and treated me to a nice Earl Gray, briefly reminding me of the time I spent at the University of Edinburgh but with a lot less squirrels around. We chitchatted a bit about how our educational experiments were doing and that I with my colleagues had decided to skip a semester to recharge, refocus, and redesign Mission Impact for 2021. It meant a lot to hear that she thought it was the right decision. I am not entirely sure why her agreement meant so much to me. As we had only met each other one other time before this. Perhaps it’s because she is going through something similar as another PhD student. Making it easier to relate.
With warm teas in our hand, and conversation flowing richly, we went on a walk in the park. This particular conversation jumped from educational practice, to design, philosophy, ontology and the everyday of being a teacher-researcher. As well as how each of was experiencing our contexts. To be honest…time flew by! There is something warm about good conversation about something you are passionate about. Like most good conversations, this one raised more questions than it generated answers. And I loved it.
One of the major challenges of working on a PhD in an university of applied sciences, particularly as a younger researcher, is that there are few true peers. Yes, there are people who have completed PhDs, some of whom are amazingly supportive and able to empathize. Even some in the process of getting one. But it’s not the same as having someone or multiple people in similar stages of life. Who can not only understand your experience but experience something not unlike it themselves. This walk, with a peer, conducting a PhD in the Netherlands in transformative learning in living labs was extremely valuable. The walk, with reflection and relating was both recharging and cognitively challenging. An unique combination the meaning of which I cannot put to words. More so because of our largely digital reality.
While I am surrounded by educational practitioners in most of my working life, being able to deeply engage with the fundamental assumptions underlying the higher education system in which we operate. Is not something many of them have the space or time to do. Being able to engage with this type of dialogue and thinking, and to be able to discuss these deeper aspects underlying the way we shape education, learning, and reality. Is incredibly valuable to me. I sincerely hope more opportunities for these type of recharge chats will occur in the future.
‘Peer: If you were to take constructive alignment seriously…
Me: *laughs* that’s exactly what you would like to hear from an educational scientist’.
Constructive alignment is the principle that you should try to make sure your intended learning outcomes, pedagogical choices and assessment formats make sense in relation to each other. Sometimes literally represented as a line or arrow and has for the last decade or two made its way into educational practice in the Netherlands (and beyond) as a way to supposedly improve structure and efficiency for learning design. While the idea of constructive alignment makes sense on the surface. You can question if it also makes sense for complex learning, such as the type of learning in living labs, RLEs or most meaningful things in life. As these are usually inherently unpredictable and complex eco-social systems. We briefly discussed that some of the basics of this mental construct are not infallible. As an educator, who am I to decide what must be learned, particularly when the questions and challenges we collectively face such as those related to regenerative transition challenges, are beyond our own grasp. Or what about a learning situation where after three weeks it is discovered the real question is a actually something else than was previously determined and the chosen pedagogies and assessment (formats and rubrics) no longer make sense in relation to reality anymore.
A more relational and learning ecological approach to constructive alignment would be to maintain trying to balance and ensure that there is coherence between learning, pedagogy and assessments but to realize that they are dynamic in relation to reality and content. That they are continuously shaped and co-shaped depending on unfolding learning. This could allow for changes to what is being learned, how it is taught/learned as well as how it is assessed so that a coherent logic remains between these layers of learning.
Postmodern educators and researchers
A challenge we both related to was the difficulty of enacting a new role of education and subsequently of educators while also being stuck in a way in existing paradigms and systems. She commented on how transition and innovation theory often describes trying to create systemic changes as swimming into a current. If that is the case, so far at times it has felt like swimming against the Niagara Falls.
An extra personal difficulty comes when you experience this challenge in both the educator and researcher communities, where neither you truly belong. As a lot of the traditional boundaries that exist (e.g. educator/researcher) become vague or even non-existent when working with RLEs this also poses mountains to climb. On the research side, to defend that what you are doing is ‘really research’ and on the educators side to remain true to the ethos of the emerging type of education you are in service of. If you, as educator, are a co-learner in the wider ecology of learning. How and when do you step in to help students if you feel they are going towards a dead-end? And perhaps more importantly, and scary, is the reason you are stepping in that you are projecting your own fear of losing control over the ‘classroom’ that is common in the more mainstream perception of the ‘educator’?
Going into the future
Based on my current understanding of what we have seen so far in this RLE. A few design considerations for the next iterations emerged. Let’s start with the biggest, the digital future in a hybrid world. The digital transition already well underway and has obviously been thrown on a high speed train ever since most of the world has gone into lockdowns and forced social distancing. While digital education, and the myriad of digital tools that have been employed in the last few months, definitely has a place going forward. It has also highlighted the value of social interactions and physical proximity for more transformative engagement. For the future, I definitely see a hybrid version where e-learning and educational technology is part of the total RLE design but can not replace learning entirely. Earlier this week I was speaking to a communications expert who proposed an interesting thought. With the renewed focus on e-learning the ‘university’ becomes primarily a media design consultancy. While I don’t agree with this perspective entirely, there is merit to examining the role of universities within RLEs partly from the perspective of the creator of digital content that facilitates societal learning. Going forward, myself, my colleagues, and student-researchers will explore different Learning Management Systems that could be used for the future of Mission Impact. Which is more difficult than it looks as the ‘perfect’ software would include the possibilities to collaborate on a community-level as well as being a host for self-guided learning. In addition, I am exploring how this can be combined with an overall hosting website that could bring together the digital output of myself as researcher, my students as well as the e-learning. In short, a digital place to host the coursework (publically), blog posts, podcasts, YouTube video’s and such. Perhaps this can also host some of the reflective learning of the students going forward, such as podcasts where we engage in deep dialogue about our collective experience. We will be exploring this with a small team of students in the next semester as we analyze all the data that emerged from this first pilot.
New learning objectives.
This is a tricky one, at least one that I personally are challenged with. As I don’t believe intended learning goals, outcomes or objectives actually make a lot of philosophical sense within the complexity of RLEs. But at the same time find myself stuck in an educational system which is hellbend on making their inclusion mandatory. That no one subsequently checks if you actually use them in practice is another matter. Through my own reflections and discussions with Gaby. The following learning objectives are now in the running:
- To develop regenerative action capacity — the ability to connect to emerging regenerative futures and bring these into being.
- To be able to use creative research methods and translate these to concrete actions and artefacts of regenerative eco-social future systems.
- To be able to collaborate in international & transdisciplinary teams to tackle wicked problems.
The openness and difficulty of these objectives also poses difficulties about measuring their succesful achievement. Again running into a philosophical difference between education design as RLE and as current practice. Attempting to psuedo-quantify these learnings so that the existing system is comfortable enough to allow this experiment largely feels like an administrative burden with no real implications for learning. And at the moment we operate primarily on a don’t ask, don’t tell principle in this regard.
While not one of life’s principles, I am happy to say that the students seem to be largely quite enthusiastic about the experience. Lately, more of them have seemed to be less engaged than the start, even prompting them to publically challenge each other behaviour as part of the collective whole. But overwhelmingly the engagement comparatively to other courses I am involved with has been very positive.
If you are going to do nothing, why have you tried to understand so much about it?
For starters, I haven’t said I wouldn’t do anything, but there are two reasons why we have tried to understand so much. The first is because we love to know, we discovered what it is to learn to know: Knowing is about asking the questions and accepting we don’t need the answers, is about love for wisdom (philosophy), and daring to know (sapere aude). Secondly, because we won’t have answers, but because we have learned that maybe the most powerful way to change what’s around us is not about proposing changes and solutions, but about giving everyone a voice, allowing them to be heard by people who wouldn’t think on listening to them, and enabling them to talk about what they have in common and can do together to make our society a bit more responsible. How do change-making conversations look like?
(Paraphrased, bold added by me, from student assignment 14–11–2020).
As always I will leave you with reflective questions, which I hope you engage with:
- How can you create the conditions conducive for regenerative action capacity to emerge?
- How can you balance these with the requirements that emerge from the underlying assumptions of higher education now?
If you want to know more about Regenerative Learning Ecologies or the Mission Impact experiment feel free to reach out through Linkedin or B.vandenberg@hhs.nl
