The Regeneration Lab

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:  The importance of having space(s) for real and deep critical and creative thinking.  The difficulty of navigating mechanical-like bureaucracy of modern organizations, including universities.   She highlights the importance of rolemodels and mentors, but also the time to grow into your role as a teacher.  She highlights learning as going beyond the brain to  be a whole human being process.  The importance of co-design not only as a methodology during a course, but to design the course through co-design as it emerges.  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.  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. 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:  The importance of aesthetic and experiential interventions to touch hearts (that lead to transformations.  The importance of magic in the ‘classroom’.  The power of risk taking, and daring to take risks. To see the cracks in the systems and intervene.  The importance of bringing and asking the whole self to be brought to educational spaces The importance of the biophysical environment in which education takes place.  The power of creating a community that is welcoming.  Starting from a place of equality.  Using the genius of the diverse groups in interdisciplinair and international groups.  Bringing the capacity of playing as a valuable form of becoming with the world.  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 - YouTubeMetaal Kathedraalhttps://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:  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.  Facilitating the reconnection between people and more-than-human nature as a key component of Higher Education. The importance of learning to look through system level's and using those for design(ing interventions).  The power of cultivating cooperative relationships in the beginning of a course as a basis for tackling challenges.  The power of creating powerful momentum for learning by creating high power starting events.  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:  The fundamental link between action and learning by doing. The power of constructing teams from a lot of different backgrounds to tackle complex challenges.  The power of design approaches to bring the philosophy of social/relational constructionism into practice.   Being in service of a challenge and the community that is serves.  The power of pushing the university system towards a more relational approach one step at a time.  The need for designing spaces to prepare students to learn,  because they are now only prepared to pass tests.   The weight of reality makes changing it difficult but not impossible.  Small changes in our actions can create systemic change.  The importance of creating a vibrant community – with belonging and feeling like being part of a group.  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. 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:  The importance of your upbringing in being sustainability-oriented.  The importance of connecting to nature, the web of life and caring for the environment.  The realization that technology by itself will not be enough to turn the tide.  The power of letting loose of our perceived control over the rest of the natural world.  The use of existential questions and challenges as a starting point for learning.  The power of using everyday life and places, in combination with existential questions, as the richest curricula we have.  The importance of inviting diversity (including adversity) into learning places to challenge and transform worldviews.  Becoming uncomfortable together, which requires trust and informal interactions.  The importance of creating space for social-emotional learning and engagement in our learning environments.  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.  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:  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. The power of inform, intent and practice as a basis for life-affirming education.  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.  The importance of being a steward or gardener in learning environments, that nurtures and cares for the conditions that are fertile for learning.  The power of taking care about the biophysical surroundings and environment of the learning environments that allow for thriving learning.  The setting of shared purpose when learning together and enacting in practical play.  The power of having faith that valuable learning will happen even if it is not pre-planned and explicitely delivered by you. 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 

Hi! And welcome to The Regenerative Education Podcast, where sustainability transitions and higher education collide. My name is Bas van den Berg and I am the educational coordinator of the Mission Zero centre of expertise, where we find regenerative solutions for sustainable futures. In each episode, leading educators share their stories of how they are designing and enacting regenerative forms of education and the types of sustainability transformations that these forms of education are nurturing.  This podcast is part of my PhD in education and learning sciences as an external candidate at Wageningen University & Research. Where I explore how we can design and enact regenerative higher education. Higher education that nurtures the appropriate participation in the healing of places and self. The first micro-season of this podcast launches after the summer, on the 29th of August. The Regenerative Education Podcast will be available on all major streaming platforms.   You are warmly invited to join me on this journey as we chat with twenty-six teachers, professors, researchers and activists active in Western Europe. Join me as we discover how their innovations emerged, the futures they envision for them and the different challenges and barriers they face(d) trying to enact this. Do you want to collaborate or know more? Feel free to reach out through LinkedIn or check out my blog @Medium/Mission Impact.  I am excited to go on this journey with you. Let’s discover what a regenerative education could be like and how we can take on this awe-some response-ability. For now, happy holidays. RLE — Regenerative Learning Ecologies – MediumBas van den Berg | LinkedIn