An Earth Charter Masterclass is a two-hour class facilitated by a person (together with a moderator) on a topic of their experience and interest, with a space for questions and interaction between the participants. It offers an opportunity to get some practical examples and new insights.
Here you can find the recordings of all Masterclasses offered in 2022 and 2023 (without the part of interactions with the participants). These Masterclasses aim to offer an opportunity to expand our understanding on the challenges of our time and how to address them using the Earth Charter as a reference.
Sam Crowell – New Sciences, Spirituality, and Holistic Education
Sam Crowell’s Masterclass is a non-technical overview of the intersection of these insights and perspectives and what they mean concretely when applied to education. The times we live in call for real change in the ways we educate. These times challenge the very purpose of education but there is little guidance for educators in how to move toward a new vision within the context of conventional classrooms. The ideas presented here are applicable to any grade level, subject area, or institutional setting. They have produced award-winning teachers and schools who are attuned to students as whole beings with purpose and agency to transform the world.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse – Earth Languages: Beyond Anthropocentrism
This Masterclass offers an opportunity to learn about indigenous cosmovisions and spirituality and how this can help humanity move from an exploitative to a more cooperative approach to life. It also offers an opportunity to expand understanding on non-extractive thinking from the perspective that extractive thinking is not Native, for instance, there wasn’t a word or concept for “want” in the old Lakota language. Extractive thinking often goes hand in hand due to the Greek-Latin lexicon.
The following questions are addressed in this Masterclass:
- How do the language and words we use influence the way we think and shape our worldviews?
- What does it mean to live WITH Earth rather than ON Earth?
- What can we learn from the Native American cosmovision and spirituality to help us address the current challenge humanity faces?
- How can we take a look at climate justice beyond the lenses of anthropocentrism?
Lynne Twist – The power of taking a stand, dreaming big, and being unstoppable
In this Masterclass, Lynne talks about the distinction between taking a position and taking a stand. She discusses how the challenges that face us, require us to step way beyond what we know we can accomplish and commit to results greater and larger than we can accomplish alone. She discusses critical junctures in history where enlightened and ground-breaking leaders abandoned their position and took an uncompromising stand. She talks about how this dynamic creates a field for powerful collaboration, attracts exactly the right people and creates a container for collective wisdom and inspired guidance.
Lynne shares stories and examples from her own life, such as her work with Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, and the Indigenous nations of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon.
Jeremy Lent- Envisioning an Ecological Civilization
Our civilization is currently hurtling headlong toward catastrophe, as a result of climate breakdown, ecological overshoot, and gaping inequalities. Redirecting humanity’s trajectory will require transformation at a foundational level: moving from a wealth-based, extractive civilization to one that is life-affirming—an Ecological Civilization. An Ecological Civilization represents an exciting potential future of human flourishing on a regenerated Earth. It would require a transformation of our current economy, politics, and mainstream culture, leading to a fundamentally different civilization based of different values, goals, and collective behavior. It is a vision deeply aligned with the values of the Earth Charter, and with life-affirming groups worldwide—Indigenous, political, community-based, and spiritual—and one that belongs to us all. In this Masterclass, author Jeremy Lent shares the inspiring vision of an Ecological Civilization, and describes what it might look like in practice. He shows how, while the vision might seem a long way off, it may be closer than many people realize.
Scilla Elworthy and Karen Lee Downes – Feminine intelligence: building a collaborative, compassionate and safer world
This time we are living in, is disruptive and challenging, asking more of us than ever before. Violence against women has escalated in our homes as well as where women publicly use their agency to protect what they care about. Divisiveness and despair is increasing. At the same time, people are waking up and acknowledging that a new kind of intelligence is needed to shape our future, we call this FemmeQ.
During this Masterclass we discover:
- Understanding what feminine intelligence really means
- How we can access feminine intelligence; ‘seeing the world with new eyes’
- Why embodying and leading with feminine intelligence transforms the challenges we face
- How to practice the skills that are useful to address our most pressing issues
Plastic Oceans – What to do when all you see, eat & listen to is Plastic?
In this Masterclass with Plastic Oceans International, a non-profit organization whose goal is to foster sustainable communities in order to end plastic pollution worldwide, we will have an intriguing conversation on plastic and its impact on our communities and human and environmental health. Global crises, like plastic pollution, are complex to solve. We will delve into the root causes of plastic pollution – socioeconomic systems, big corporations, COVID and health care – and the challenges of implementing solutions. It is not always black and white, but we will present new science and mind-blowing facts that positively support the need for alternatives and solutions through a systematic approach to end plastic pollution.
Namrata Sharma – Global Citizenship Education: Challenges and Opportunities
This class aimed to:
- Provide an introduction to what global citizenship is, and what it means to be part of a global community;
- Explore some approaches to teaching and pedagogy, including from less widely known perspectives;
- Make connections between global citizenship education and the Earth Charter;
- Engage with practical ideas and support for teachers who want to introduce global education into their practice (including guides, resources and further readings);
- Provide links to networks of researchers and practitioners working in the field of global education, and related areas.
Daniel Christian Wahl – Regenerative Development and the redesign of the human impact on Earth
This Masterclass will offer an opportunity to expand your understanding on regenerative design and how to make it happen in practice. It will offer some examples of this approach being put into practice and some keys for moving ahead with this vision in your context.
Cassandra Vieten – Gamechangers for Changemakers: Inspiring Positive Change
Too often we, as changemakers, trip over our message—unintentionally employing counterproductive methods that cause our audience to resist, rather than welcome, new perspectives. This masterclass offers a fresh approach. New social, cognitive and brain science tell us some surprising things about how to inspire, motivate, and win hearts and minds. Traditional awareness-raising and motivational tactics have limited effectiveness in today’s world. Learn about a novel ecosystem of change model to design and implement powerful and engaging approaches to individual and social change. We will focus on creating the proven conditions for transformation by introducing new narratives, powerful tools and practices, and supportive contexts and communities that generate solutions and sustain commitment.
Rolf Winters – Wisdom-based Leadership
Too often we, as changemakers, trip over our message—unintentionally employing counterproductive methods that cause our audience to resist, rather than welcome, new perspectives. This masterclass offers a fresh approach. New social, cognitive and brain science tell us some surprising things about how to inspire, motivate, and win hearts and minds. Traditional awareness-raising and motivational tactics have limited effectiveness in today’s world. Learn about a novel ecosystem of change model to design and implement powerful and engaging approaches to individual and social change. We will focus on creating the proven conditions for transformation by introducing new narratives, powerful tools and practices, and supportive contexts and communities that generate solutions and sustain commitment.
Summary of Ethical Leadership for Societal Development with Anthony Ogbuigwe
This Masterclass addressed the following questions: Is ethical leadership important? Why? How can ethical leadership be fostered? What should be the main drivers for the decisions of leaders? What are the challenges and opportunities leaders are facing currently to stand as ethical leaders?
Business leadership: new approaches to face the challenges of our time with Vinita Bali
This Masterclass addressed the following themes: The kind of the leadership that business must take to interact with the environment in a responsible manner. Examples of good practices and change in the leadership and companies view of their role. Practical insights on the challenges and opportunities the current times represent to business leaders to align with the sustainability agenda.
System Leadership for Sustainability – Infusing ethics into the business DNA and Supply Chain with Chris Beehner
This masterclass adressed the following questions: How can we introduce or influence business ethics in a world that seems to have become too complicated, complex, and chaotic? And why is this important? How can businesses remain profitable and ethical in the midst of current world challenges? How can systems thinking help business leaders remain ethical in an uncertain global environment?
Systems Leadership and Transformation Literacy with Petra Kuenkel
The masterclass addressed the following key questions 1. How can understanding the fundamental property of systems aliveness help us design and implement more effective change initiatives? 2. What are the patterns of a system and how can this understanding help us in the process of transformative change? 3. How can multi-actor partnerships and networks especially, benefit from the systems vitality approach?
Towards True Profits: Europe’s rapid acceleration of the digital impact economy with Michel Scholte
This masterclass adressed the following questions: What are True Profits? What is the transition towards the digital impact economy? How can companies and professionals proactively contribute to this trend, by mitigating the risks and grasping the opportunities?
Aligning Research, Education and Business with sustainability with Suzana M. Padua
Given the dimension we face in addressing the challenges of environmental protection aligned with the socio-economic needs of local communities, new approaches of collaboration and leadership are needed. What can we learn from the experience of more than 30 years of IPE – Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research) working in the field of research, education, engaging local communities and businesses in Brazilian communities with the shared vision of moving society practice towards sustainability?
Inner Well-being and Education for Sustainability with Thomas Legrand
This Masterclass offered an opportunity to learn and reflect on the above and to address the following questions: What inner well-being looks like? And how can we cultivate that? Why is that important? How does that relate to “the Politics of Being”? What are the implications of that to education?
The Integration of Ecojustice and Ecospirituality for Sustainability Education with Mary Evelyn Tucker
This Masterclass offered an opportunity to reflect on these issues and to address the question: What is Ecospirituality and Ecojustice and how could they be infused in education practice? (and why?)
Learning from and with the Amazon Forest: challenges and potential of a new Bioeconomy of the forest with Carlos Nobre
This Masterclass offered an opportunity to reflect on these issues and to address the question: What is at stake in the Amazon Forest? How is that linked with the well-being of life on the planet? What is the new bioeconomy of the standing forest? And how can this be replicated in different parts of the world? What is the Amazon 4.0 Project?
Inclusive Leadership and Partnership in the quest for more sustainable societies with Wanjira Mathai
This Masterclass offered an opportunity to reflect on these issues and to address the question: What kind of leadership is required for building a more sustainable and equitable world and what is the one that has not been effective? What leadership capacity is needed to make faster progress towards sustainability? What is inclusive leadership and partnership? How can we strengthen more effective local, regional, and global inclusive leadership and partnerships towards sustainability and planetary well-being? What has worked and what has not in terms of multi-stakeholder partnerships? As we move ahead in the crucial work of social and environmental advocacy for social transformation, what are the lessons we can draw for the past three decades?
