The Masterclass on Transformative Education, developed and facilitated by Sam Crowell and Mirian Vilela was offered for the fifth time. This executive course, the hallmark of the Earth Charter Center’s education programme was successful in training educators with the emerging Earth Charter pedagogy on transformative education. The course, held under the UNESCO Chair on ESD and the Earth Charter and also now comprising part of the Earth Charter commitment to UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on ESD to train educators, has become the Earth Charter Center’s showcase programme.
This year’s programme was once again a learning and joy-filled experience for the participants who came from Europe, North America, and Central America.
Here are some comments by the course participants:
¨This course brings the EC to life. It analyzes how to make it real in our schools, and our communities. And by exposing us nature and walking in the forest, that changed our consciousness. So, I leave this course with a new view and a new feeling about nature and I want to share it with the world.¨ – Pilar Griffin
¨This Master Class showed me that I am not alone in my quest to make the Earth a better and sustainable home for all living beings. I learned how to utilize the Earth Charter to raise awareness and motivate others to be caretakers of the planet, through fun, creative and experiential activities. Now I can integrate this material and the innovate instructions methods into the college courses that I teach, the wilderness rites of passages that I guide, and even my personal life, so that I can live in greater harmony and balance with others.¨ – Amy Katz
¨The energy was amazing. And the people I met were amazing and that we were able to share and learn and grow together was beyond my expectations. We shared stories, we bonded as a group, we learned about this new pedagogical approach to learning. And even though we learned so much, it was taught in a way where it makes sense and you learn and grow so much in a short period of time.¨ – Nina Gonzalez
¨It was a transformational experience. If anyone wants to know what transformational education is, they should take this course. I’m going to be able to do my job in a better way, it clarified my mission at work and in my life, so it helped me not only professionally, but personally too.¨ – Alicia Jimenez
¨It was intense and deep in finding and allowing the surfacing of values and essence of each of us. And studying the EC and seeing all the different aspects where it can be an influence, personally, in the family, socially, at the country level, and globally. Seeing how an individual action can have global effects. The introduction of the EC at any level can give power and force up to the global level.¨ – Maria Pilar Salome
¨It was fantastic to feel that there are other people asking the same questions, who are concerned with the same things, not only about the environment but also about life in general. It offered a great space to reflect on life, personally and professionally, what your little role in the world is, this reflection space was the most important part for me. There are a lot of techniques we learned that I’m going to incorporate in my classes teaching English as a second language.¨ – Sandra Arguello
To see the photos from the course click here.
See the course page here. www.earthcharter.org/educationandvalues