Welcome to our chronological timeline for Educators Unite so far, which begins with the most recent updates and works backwards.
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Educators Unite Gathering 3: Saturday 29 March 2025
The Pickle Factory, 13 All Hallows Road, Easton, Bristol BS5 0HH
9.45am : Doors Open
10.00 to 3.00 : Gathering
FREE : But please register, so that we can have an idea of who is attending.
Are you involved or interested in the role and purpose of education?
Do you feel the shaping of education in mainstream settings is serving a system in decline, rather than the benefit of the students, communities, and wider ecosystem?
Do you feel education could be different?
Are you curious about how education can be woven with activism, community building, justice, empowerment for marginalised groups, and more?
Do you want to find out what alternatives already exist?
Do you want to meet others working in mainstream education who wish to do things differently?
Do you want to collaborate with others to help support, sustain, and grow current or new forms of education, which will help to create new systems of change?
If you answered to any of the above, then you would enjoy taking part in an Educators Unite Gathering!
Are you involved or interested in the role and purpose of education?
Do you feel the shaping of education in mainstream settings is serving a system in decline, rather than the benefit of the students, communities, and wider ecosystem?
Do you feel education could be different?
Are you curious about how education can be woven with activism, community building, justice, empowerment for marginalised groups, and more?
Do you want to find out what alternatives already exist?
Do you want to meet others working in mainstream education who wish to do things differently?
Do you want to collaborate with others to help support, sustain, and grow current or new forms of education, which will help to create new systems of change?
If you answered to any of the above, then you would enjoy taking part in an Educators Unite Gathering!
AGENDA
10.00 - 10.15 : Arrivals & Refreshments : Tea, Coffee, Cake!
- 10.15 - 11.00 : Welcome & Recap : Agreements, EdU Context & Warm-up
- 1.00 - 11.15 : ‘Seed Swap’ Introduction
* Introduction to each Seed of the ‘Seed Swap’ session.
* Exploring each Seed topic, and what fertile possibilities exist in the ecosystem to plant and nourish these ideas.
11.15 - 11.30 : Tea Break
- 11.30 - 12.45 ‘Seed Swap’
* Seed 1: Deschooling and Decolonising Education, with Artemis Bear
* Seed 2: Place-based Action Learning, with Deborah Benham
* Seed 3: New to Educators Unite? The history so far and how to join in, with Laura Corfield
* Seed 4: Open space to be filled on the day
12.45 to 13.30 : Lunch
- 13.30 to 14.00 : ‘Seed Saving’ & Next Steps
Capturing the emergence of the session to summarise and present back to everyone.
- 14.00 to 14.30 : Crosspollination
Seed Presentations; sharing summaries, plus ideas for next steps and ways to support the growth of EdU
14.30 to 15.00 : Closing: Round-up and check out. Until next time.....
FREE : But please register, so that we can have an idea of who is attending.
> SEED 1) Deschooling and decolonising education - Led by Artemis Bear.
"What if the answer to the polycrisis is not more coercion but less? In a recent session with young people, someone asked why people don’t act on global issues and the response from a wise 11 year old was “because they think what they do doesn’t matter”.
Too much teaching, hierarchically imposed rules and coercive behaviour management has stripped us of agency, critical thinking and relational skills; the most crucial elements of building community, challenging authoritarianism and taking action. In this session we’ll collaboratively explore what education and organising might look like without coercion, for people of all ages. How we can deschool and decolonise ourselves, in the hope that we can co-create a less hierarchical and competitive society, in order to address our most fundamental problems"
Bio: Artemis Bear (they/them) lost faith in our system of government working in climate policy in the 2000s and is committed to co-creating new structures for rapid, pragmatic systemic change. They founded The Garden, an innovative education project, in 2016, which centres young people's rights and has been a laboratory for the building blocks of an emergent culture that is fairer and freer. They also coordinate the Freedom to Learn network and co-produce community cabaret SCRiTCH.
> SEED 2) Explore how place-based action learning can transform education into a tool for local and regional ecological, community and cultural regeneration. Led by Deborah Benham.
"We’ll surface some of the principles and practices of place-based action learning, a method that deeply connects learning to the ecological and social realities of specific regions. This approach draws inspiration from bioregioning, commoning, social ecology, biomimicry, and ecosystem services, creating opportunities for learners to engage with their environment as active participants in its regeneration.
Through group discussions, reflective exercises, and participatory mapping, we’ll uncover how context-specific, experiential learning opportunities can foster local stewardship and systems thinking. Whether you’re an educator, community organiser, or curious learner, this session offers a collaborative exploration into how we can create transformative education experiences deeply rooted in place.
Join us to build a foundation where education becomes a regenerative and empowering force for communities and ecosystems alike"
Bio: Deborah is a trainer of trainers with Gaia Education - focusing on participatory methods. She is also a Transition Town, Sociocracy, Biomimicry and Deep Nature Connection trainer and facilitator. She brings participatory facilitation into all the spaces where she is working with groups or providing learning environments.
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We aim to create a nourishing day that allows for networking and connection, learning and skillsharing, and action planning for next steps.
We also aim to create a gathering container and culture that will meet a diverse range of needs, inspired by the carefully curated events recently put on by the Bristol Commons movement. This includes:
* Not charging to attend the event
* Offering free Tea, Coffee and cake (vegan & gf)
* Providing lunch (vegan & gf): for a suggested donation £4-£6 Details TBC
* Welcoming accompanied children/families into the space, and providing activities and resources for children. We cannot be responsible for minding children without their parent/carer present.
* Adopting group agreements used by the Bristol Commons to create a safe, brave, inclusive, diverse and welcoming gathering space for all. And ensuring a container of accountability to challenge any behaviour or attitudes that are harmful to others.
* Using a venue that is accessible for those with physical health needs (ground level, accessible toilet).
* Facilitating the gathering in a way that is mindful of neurodiversity and different learning and participation styles.
If you would like to talk to a gathering facilitator about your needs ahead of the event, please email laura@shiftbristol.org.uk
We aim to create a nourishing day that allows for networking and connection, learning and skillsharing, and action planning for next steps.
We also aim to create a gathering container and culture that will meet a diverse range of needs, inspired by the carefully curated events recently put on by the Bristol Commons movement. This includes:
* Not charging to attend the event
* Offering free Tea, Coffee and cake (vegan & gf)
* Providing lunch (vegan & gf): for a suggested donation £4-£6 Details TBC
* Welcoming accompanied children/families into the space, and providing activities and resources for children. We cannot be responsible for minding children without their parent/carer present.
* Adopting group agreements used by the Bristol Commons to create a safe, brave, inclusive, diverse and welcoming gathering space for all. And ensuring a container of accountability to challenge any behaviour or attitudes that are harmful to others.
* Using a venue that is accessible for those with physical health needs (ground level, accessible toilet).
* Facilitating the gathering in a way that is mindful of neurodiversity and different learning and participation styles.
If you would like to talk to a gathering facilitator about your needs ahead of the event, please email laura@shiftbristol.org.uk
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Educators Unite Gathering 2 update coming soon
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Exploring Educational Commons as part of EdU:
We are in the process of weaving the story of Educators Unite. We aim to meaningfully engage with the concepts of knowledge and educational commons. Educational commons involve the shared creation and distribution of knowledge, with governance methods that are collaboratively managed and co-developed by a community. Within Educators Unite, one of our ambitions is to support and nurture a platform of educational commoners.
We’ve begun compiling our thoughts and exploring what activists and scholars have written about educational commons. This exploration has provided us with different perspectives, which are all valuable to share with our community. We invite you to review our draft, provide comments, challenge ideas, and share your reflections. Your contribution will be very important in shaping and refining our understanding of educational commons, as Educators Unite is based on the collaborative values of commoning.
You can read the first draft here. Please leave your thoughts on this form. _____________________________________________________________________________
EDUCATORS UNITE GATHERING 1
On the 29th May, approx 40 of us arrived at the Pickle Factory for the first gathering of Educators Unite. We were a mix of those who teach, students, practitioners, and Bristol Commoners - many wearing several hats at once.
Together, we travelled through the journey of the agenda (and even space at one point!) via a variety of participation invitations; designed to engage our heart, head and hands, and build energy and momentum throughout the day.
There were lots of smiles, a few tears, open space discussions, news and idea sharing, introductions, focused thinking and reflection, and even a disco speed-mingle!
By the end we had set the context for the EU movement, amassed our collective thoughts about the challenges we face, and captured our collective hopes for "Education" in the future.
Most of what emerged during the event has now been uploaded to the Educators Unite Miro Board. This board is a space where we can continue to share, in-between gatherings (whilst we work on our online platform, more on that below). The invitation is for anyone to explore and contribute, like a giant pinboard!
The Three Horizons...
During the gathering participants were introduced to the ideas of the Three Horizons, as a framework for mapping the context of where we are now, and the vision of where we would like to get to.
This is a useful tool for unpacking the pathways that need to happen within Horizon 2, in order to un-learn and leave behind the unhelpful/harmful characteristics, patterns and dogma of the Horizon 1; as we move towards, and co-create, a new Paradigm in Horizon 3.
This model also enables us to get beyond the challenges of having ideas that seem unrealistic, plus the overwhelm of not knowing how to begin.
News was shared about the strategic aims of the Bristol Commons; to act as a vehicle for growing the culture and praxis of commononing, and, to bring into community ownership the type of infrastructure and governance we may want and need in Horizon 3.
The manifestations of the Bristol Commons may help to hold, resource, weave and bolster the work of Educators Unite, as much as Educators Unite may inform, skill-up, train, educate, connect and bolster the work within and of the Bristol Commons.
Within Horizon 3 we placed Manfred Max-Neef's Human-Scale Development framework - to help us think about what humans need to survive and thrive, and to consider their relation to Education.
On the Miro Board you can zoom into each of the Horizons and read everyone's thoughts and ideas - which has started to illuminate our starting point and some eventual goals.
What's next for Educators Unite?
Planning a gathering for spring 2025 and building on our online presence:
Emergence and Shaping...
Educators Unite is a seed that has been newly planted in the garden of possible emergence, alongside the seedlings of the Bristol Commons, Shift Bristol, and the Bristol School of Commoning.
This garden needs caretakers, growers, waterers, stewards, birdsong, pollinating insects, mycelium roots stretching out to other networks, and all the other life-affirming involvement and support that you may bring.
What can you offer? What do we need?
What can we offer? What do you need?
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In the beginning, there was the Callout...
Early 2024 Shift Bristol sent out the below callout for a gathering to it's educational networks.
Over the last year it has become apparent that the World/Ecosystem is ready for a different form of 'Education' to emerge, that plugs into regenerative systems for a better world - believing that the old paradigms are dying and the potential to be building a replacement.
Shift Bristol has been contacted by various people in different circles, organisations, projects, institutions to talk on this subject.
Asking how we bring together all the threads of education from our different perspectives and desire to cross pollinate - and how from that something spectacular will emerge.
This is about holistic education that engages humans through their heart, head and hands; that is connected with the natural world and framed through looking at the niches we play in helping humanity and nature to thrive, whilst meeting our needs for food, shelter, comfort, culture and connection.
This is about developing systems where humans are educated in ways that centres on their innate joys and passions (their regenerational energies), and how humans are held, facilitated and mentored into following pathways to develop roles/crafts through a successional pattern.
It is recognising that this successional pattern changes over time, that at different stages we evolve through; student, to apprentice, to expert and then mentor. How this is a cycle of self actualisation and then passing the baton to the next generation; through legacy and inheritance; connecting youth work, right through to the elders.
This is about how as educators, we can redesign systems to facilitate and illuminate these pathways and cycles; and how we can integrate them within our living systems - both the natural world and how we live as humans within villages, towns and cities.
How this is about how we need to look at education through the lens of intersectionality, and identifying the various blocks to education for different humans, and how we take responsibility for dismantling those blocks so that we can unleash the collective genius that resides within us all.
This is about making space for emotion, vulnerability, humility, and letting the curtain fall that educators need to have all the answers and hold all the power.
There are many, many models, approaches, and strategies that education is taught through, and we each have our own language, narrative, identity and inherent 'shape', and because of that we each have our own recipe cards for creating the most delicious educational experiences.
It is time to get into a room together and share these tasty ingredients, and allow space where we can dream up feasts of future education that are super sustaining and nourishing, with a view to planning the emergence of a 'Commons College' to be piloted in Bristol, as part of the Bristol Commons movement.
Those who have been invited to this event come from the following educational backgrounds;
- Permaculture Design
- Transition Towns / Together
- Biomimicry
- The Work that Reconnects
- Land Workers Alliance
- Sociocracy / Huddling
- Working with marginalised groups
- A plethora of courses teaching hands-on skills
- Commoning
- University lecturing
- Academic Research
- Mentorship
- Circular Economies
- Story telling
- Consultancy
- Coaching
- Integrated alternative course providers (like Shift)
- Systems Design
- And others that we’re not aware of!
Huge gratitude to each of you, for the work that you do, and we look forward to seeing you in a couple of months!