Learning from the Natural World (

Funds available for Europeans citizens and non-spanish!
Registration Deadline 10 september-
– Applycation Deadline for EU Funds – 17 September

Applicants for this Course may apply for a Grundtvig Grant, please find the information below.

OBJECTIVES

To reflect on the development of European citizenship and identity, and the role that the natural world has within this framework;
To discuss the notion of “nature rights” and the ecoCitizen
To reflect on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech; to imagine the future of Europe and European citizenship
To introduce the learning pedagogy and methodology of Paulo Freire: how can we bring the natural world into the learning environment? How can we create spaces that nurture learning for liberation? How can we facilitate experiential and participatory learning styles?
To clarify how the lessons learned can impact on practice in the workplace

METHODOLOGY

The trainers will use a facilitative approach, eliciting the experience, knowledge and skills of the participants as a key resource throughout the course. An action-reflection cycle will be introduced. The pedagogy of Paulo Freire will be modelled as a participatory and experiential teaching/learning methodology. The collective skills and experiences of adult participants are a key resource in learning; Freire’s “listening survey” will inform the negotiated curriculum and “generative themes” (language and issues that have direct relevance and meaning for participants) will enhance meaningful learning. Freire distinguished between education for domestication (the “banking” concept, whereby adults are treated as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge by the expert teacher) and education for liberation, whereby facilitators and participants work together as problem-posers and problem-solvers, to create new knowledge rooted in their own collective experiences. Here at Sunseed we follow the same pedagogy, celebrating the crit