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- Herausgeber: Bambual Editora LTDA
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
In The Dragon's Pearl, we travel with Flavia Vivacqua through her sabbatical experience, in which she forged her own learning path while conducting research on innovative methodologies and philosophies that support Regenerative Education, which transforms and motivates each person's potential. Since her first professional training, the author has been dedicated to exploring and researching new approaches in Education and Learning, especially those that evoke: - Collaboration - Art - Connection with the ecosystem in which we liveIn this book, she presents research on educational innovations from different parts of the world. She found in the Dragon Dreaming project co-creation method and philosophy, in the holistic learning of Green School, in the reconnection provided by deep ecology and rites of passage, in creativity journeys, and in travel experiences, possible pathways for co-learning processes to take place.
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Copyright @ 2021 Flavia Vivacqua
Coordenação Editorial
Isabel Valle
Transcription and translation team (research sources)
Suzana Nory, Gavin Adams, Felipe Rocha
Cover Design
Erika Cezarini Cardoso
English version:
Suzana Nory
Editorial Coordination:
Isabel Valle
Production ebook
S2 Books
www.bambualeditora.com.br
Reading the world precedes reading the word
Paulo Freire
To the originary peoples
To my ancestors
To my father and my mother
To educators and masters
To the new and future generations who will co-create reality and for whom I hope the contents of this book will be meaningful.
May beauty, benevolence and love resound and embrace you, showing you the path of well-being, the common good and the regenerating well-living!
SUMMARY
PREFACE
The first thing that came to my mind as I read the experiences with John Croft, told by Flavia Vivacqua in this book, was an interview that Paulo Freire gave to Edney Silvestre, in New York, in the beginning of April in 1997. Edney Silvestre asked: “Professor, how would you like to be known?” Paulo Freire answered: “This is a delightful question. From now on I’ll make this question to other people. Do you know that I have never thought about this before? But now that you challenge me, perhaps my answer will sound somewhat humble. I would like to be remembered as someone who deeply loved the world and people, animals, trees, the waters, life”.
The reader will quickly understand why I have associated these two moments. They both have to do with an education centered on people and on sustainable life. The category of sustainability, which brings together Paulo Freire and John Croft, is constituted in the fundamental basis of a new life paradigm of “bem viver”, of living with oneself, with the others and with nature. This is also a category that should ground education in the present context of loss of the meaning of life, as more thought is devoted to teaching and evaluation tools than to the aims of education itself.
John Croft reveals that he faced, initially, tough days as an educator and that he was able to seek ways of overcoming difficulties based on observation, on science, on dialogue and on the “universal ethics of human beings”, as Freire would say. In face of the borderline cases that life challenges us with, the answer can only be found by means of attentive listening as necessary knowledge to transformative educational practices, within and outside the school. This was what John Croft did.
The meeting of John and Paulo, in Geneva in the 1970’s, at the World Churches Council, was decisive in the creation of the Dragon Dreaming method – a social technology aiming at the empowerment of people so that they speak out their own words and build their own history – grounded on deep ecology, experienced in the culture of the original peoples, particularly the aboriginals of Australia, and referenced in authors as diverse as, to quote a few, Michael Young, Gregory Bateson, Arnold Joseph Toynbee, and many others such as Joanna Macy, Fran Peavy, David Bohm, Paulo Freire and Mahatma Gandhi, revisited here.
As I read this book, I was impressed with John’s international, intercultural and all-round experience, which brings him close to Freire. All of Paulo Freire’s books are, in a certain way, autobiographical. The Dragon Dreaming method, by John Croft, is the result of his personal observation and experimentation, as well as of the critical reflection on his own practice. Like Paulo Freire, he values the traditional knowledge of communities, the empirical knowledge, just as elaborate as the scientific knowledge. Like Freire, he articulates theory and practice. In education, as well as in art and science, theory without practice is pure verbalism and practice without theory is pure activism.
John Croft shows us that we can learn from the original peoples, as they bring in something that is lacking in today’s dominant educational systems: conviviality, communion, the deep and emotional relationship with mother Earth, translated into holistic cosmovision. He shows us, in detail, the great wealth of these peoples’ culture, confronting them with the poverty of a culture based on dualisms, borders, power, control, possession, property etc. He shows us that if we want to have a sustainable culture on this planet, we will have to build it based on fresh values and those are at the origin of the creation of the Dragon Dreaming method. Aboriginal culture gives us hope, says he, because the aboriginals “were able to build a civilization and a culture that have lasted sustainably for 60,000 years and that have caused no damage to the environment”. If they managed to do it, we shall too.
And here lies a big dilemma of present-day education, one that very soon could lead to collapse: meritocracy and hierarchy, today dominant in education. They do not aim at emancipation, but, instead, seek the domestication and homogenization of hearts and minds, which have been annihilating the great wealth of humanity that is cultural diversity. This is an education that “is not about liberation”, but is “about social control”, says John Croft.
He highlights Freire’s and Gandhi’s original intuitions around the self-determination of peoples and persons. They understood dialogue as the very essence of education. If we want to know something, we need to ask first. Knowledge is built together. This is why, when students receive only ready-made answers in school, if not simple recipes, they give up both school and study. Why do I have to learn the answers to questions I didn’t make?
It seems that educational systems today have few doubts, few questions and many answers for questions nobody has made. And what motivates us to learn are our own doubts, so we all have questions to make and we seek their answers. As the zapatistas say: “by asking we find the way”. Asking we can build meaning for our own lives.
I want to end this preface saying that I was very happy and honored with the invitation and that I have learned a lot. I hope that the reader of this book also likes it as much as I did. We only write prefaces for books we like.
Moacir Gadotti
Honorary President of Paulo Freire Institute
Retired professor from the University of São Paulo
REAL STORIES WITH REAL PEOPLE
Before Diving
Some pearls are at the very bottom and you have to dive and submerge in the intensity of a different and new everything.
This is a book of real stories, real people, amazing and truly existent places on our planet, precious encounters and discoveries full of meaningful learning.
A sabbatical[ 01 ] is definitely a sacred gift. An encounter with your personal mythology, a rite of passage and the keys to liberation and redemption. A life period outside a comfort zone, in an expanding situation, with a cycle of its own to happen. A learning journey that’s important to listen and give life to.
I chose to write in narrative chunks, respecting the flow of memories that are not always linear, sometimes incomplete, sharing what I experienced, discovered and learned during a year and a half on sabbatical, living in Australia and traveling through Asia. This self-directed research led me to the encounter with The Pearl of the Dragon.
The book is not tied to the chronology of events, although it considers my personal journey as the timeline that stitches together and relates to all the other stories, which in turn have been grouped into thematic chapters.
I also want to highlight that the motivating subject proposed here, Regenerative Education, although important, is brand new. It is a theoretical and practical direction, without the intention in this book to present definitions or exhaust its reflection, which I still see as a horizon to be established.
This work is far from being pedagogical or technical-methodological, but it is intended as a space-time sharing of a personal journey and the “pearls” found in its way, always in search of inspiration for other dreams, other projects, other processes of personal and collective learning, which encourage the beauties and challenges of genuine and powerful learning, towards a Regenerative Education.
However, I present fundamental theoretical references and sources that corroborate what I understand to be a path to this education I talk about.
I also know that other references could be included here, and in no way I diminish the importance of each one by not using them. I just made a selection of those that came to me in a remarkable way in my self-directed research, during my sabbatical period.
This book is, therefore, where I investigate and integrate knowledge that stimulate and generate autonomy and co-learning, by considering natural cycles, emotional work, systemic thinking, holistic approach, personal and collective intelligences, and what is abundant in us: the immense field of caring and learning.
In addition to this book, this research also generated the modeling of a course for educators-facilitators in co-learning, with the pilot project carried out in 2018. This theoretical and practical course recognizes the stages of holistic, project-based learning in learning and development of emotional, cognitive, relational and executive skills. I use a large repertoire of group dynamics, social technological tools and important theoretical and pedagogical references for the design of regenerative cultures and futures.
They say that everything we seek will also find us. Typical of learning processes that are only possible in meaningful encounters, that’s how it was with Dragon Dreaming. A social technology, a method and a philosophy for the design and management of collaborative projects that presents a fourfold, integrative and universalist matrix. It starts with four main areas: Dreaming, Planning, Doing and Celebrating; and three guiding principles: personal development, strengthening communities and serving the planet; presenting in its method 16 steps capable of integrating different aspects of our lives and of a project in the best practice of the co-creation of reality. It also has its own toolset and group dynamics for different moments in the process. Its philosophy is structured on deep ecology; in cutting-edge science; on elements of the Aboriginal cultures of Oceania, including their relationship to dreams; in Paulo Freire’s pedagogy; and in Gaia and living systems theory. In this way, the Dragon Dreaming method and philosophy align and support each other as an indispensable social technology to the paradigm that the design of regenerative cultures requires.
For all these reasons, I structured the sabbatical period as a Dragon Dreaming project. In other words, the method was used to make it intentional and also to organize myself and be able to experience it. Finally, DD, as the method is affectionately called by the community of trainers in Brazil, also turned up becoming an object of research when approached here in its origins, as an important source for a Regenerative Education that has a structuring practice, in carrying out projects, especially those of collaborative value.
By means of clarification, part of the information shared in this text is the result of my reflections on my experience as a researcher, consultant and trainer of the Dragon Dreaming method and philosophy - among other methodologies that I specialized in - which includes teachings John Croft shared with me and activities developed in my training. Among my records and notes, what was in English was later transcribed and translated into Portuguese by Suzana Nory[ 02 ], with exquisite care so that the Australian aboriginal vocabulary could be faithfully preserved.
In each chapter it will be possible to find gems of learning and encounters for a new form of meaningful, transforming and regenerative education. Which will be the one that will meet you?
In addition to theoretical references, something important for me in this book is sharing good practices in education and learning, historical or current, which are real inspiring initiatives to be multiplied.
Among them, I comment on the historic and therefore visionary Black Mountain College, the FIU – Free International University and the University of Trees, all dedicated to teaching art, science and ecology as an interdisciplinary path for human and social development.
I dedicate a chapter to the magnificent Green School that manages to courageously and efficiently integrate a series of contrasts, challenges and beauties of formal education. It is a great example of a Regenerative Education ecosystem with children, youth and a school community mutually engaged in making a difference.
Also, I present here reports of immersions, which I was able to experience and which are powerful examples of meaningful learning environments, where values such as experimentation, autonomy, collaboration, reconnection with ancestry and nature, creativity and dealing with complexity are required. Each of these immersions, in addition to my personal work, led me to new connections and important theoretical and practical references for this research, or even made me practice what the mental body had already assimilated but still needed to get into the physical body.
I take this opportunity to make an observation about the footnotes, inserted during the writing of this book between 2020 and 2021, especially those purposely referenced from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, which, although it’s not formally academic recognized, it’s undoubtedly one of the first and most important projects of co-learning, technology of the common, right to information and education, which we have on a planetary scale. It is a distributed knowledge platform, with thousands of efforts, free access and validation among peers. It’s a great example of a powerful collaborative action that allows collective intelligence to be manifested and made accessible. Its limitations and gaps are nothing more than a mirror of our non-actions. Still on the notes, I chose to put at the end of the book a list of websites of the initiatives mentioned throughout the book, believing that it will facilitate a deeper investigation for the curious.
Last but not least, thank you, because if you’re reading this book, you too are part of the story that made it possible and makes it meaningful in the world. May it be as pleasurable and exciting to you as it was for me to find The Pearl of the Dragon!
Flavia Vivacqua
São Paulo, january of 2021, Brazil.
IN SEARCH OF THE PEARL
Leaping into learning
For me this graphic image, created by this song of an illiterate, but wise old man, embodies the true source of the sustainable art of Dragon Dreaming, the secret of making our dreams come true. Dragon Dreaming is the art of bridge building, creating a structure that links where we are now to where we would like to be, and that allows us to move safely across this bridge from where we are to what we might become. Unlike normal bridges, however, it is a bridge we build as we travel. And like all such journeys, it begins with a single step. John Croft[ 03 ]
I found myself in a dreamless moment. The fact of not having dreams and that the surroundings seemed so uncreative and uninspiring, gave me an immense desire to go!
Go to see what I didn’t know!
Recognize what I didn’t think was real!
Do things I wasn’t used to doing!
Learn things I didn’t even know that I could!
And then, from this deep desire, stemmed from the need for expansion, the new and the meaningful... the dream was born!
I closed many cycles of life, from different times... and decided to go out into the world in a sabbatical period.
But where to go?
When I really decided to leave Brazil, a question that I was also asking myself was: how can this trip be useful?
Ah, I’m going to learn English! I’m almost 40 years old and even though I’ve done several international projects, I’ve been missing this!
Learning another language became my personal focal point, my great excuse to set out on an adventure around the world, which would help me walk every day with something to do, with a determination to fulfill. A commitment to learning something new every day!
So I started researching English-speaking countries. I talked to friends who lived in different cities and continents.
When I looked at Australia... Wow!
Why didn’t I think about it before?!
A lot of what I was researching, for a few years, had emerged in that country, such as permaculture and Dragon Dreaming. Furthermore, Australians were world pioneers in the design of participatory processes and organizations, such as sociocracy[ 04 ].
•••
When you have a firm determination, everything is organized around that.
So, two months before traveling, I got a big consulting job in Art, Education and Collaboration for Pedagogical Coordinators and Educators in a cultural program in the state of São Paulo, which enabled me to pay my English course for six months.
To guarantee my coming and going there during this period, I also sold some things that were handy and wouldn’t be useful for a long time. I remember a projector, a camera and some furniture. The family also gathered some money and gave me as a gift, with a good luck wish.
•••
We were together at the I Dragon Dreaming Confestival, at Matutu in Aiuruoca – Minas Gerais, Brazil - one of the most beautiful and special places I’ve ever visited in the world. It was a conference and celebration of the community of trainers and multipliers of the methodology and guests from the Brazilian network and John Croft[ 05 ]. It was the first meeting between us, after TOT – Dragon Dreaming Training of Trainers, which had taken place the year before.
I had just decided to live in Australia. So I had a conversation with John translated by a dear friend and Dragon Dreaming trainer Shaba Piffer[ 06 ]. In this conversation, I explained that I was going to live in Australia to learn English and that I would like to make my way to becoming a trainer of trainers.
I remember John looking at me reflectively, a little puzzled. He seemed to have more questions than certainties, aware of the length of the learning curve I would need to go through and overcome.
He then gave me a list of 12 steps that should be taken over the course of two years. That would be my learning path to become a trainer of trainers in Dragon Dreaming.
This was also a way to make my decision to go out into the world more useful. So, I left the meeting very determined to follow those steps of a process that, according to John, would completely transform me... Today I see that he was right!
Following this list, I created a Dream Circle[ 07 ], a methodological tool for co-creation in the Dream phase of Dragon Dreaming, with the support and participation of a Brazilian group of coaches in the methodology.
From these dreams, I made a Karrabirdt[ 08 ], the name given to the methodological tool for planning in the Plan phase in Dragon Dreaming. The word comes from the aboriginal language Whadjuk Noongar. ‘Karra’ means spider and ‘Birdt’ means web: Spider’s Web. This tool is a project map, with tasks and procedural and financial flows that need to happen for the project to be carried out.
•••
There are many types of dreams, all a fertile field for self-knowledge. However, there is also, for those who are allowed to listen and remember, a possibility of accessing the source of collective wisdom. Extraordinary experiences. The most common dreams, but no less important, are processing events, perceptions, observations or even learning that we had in up to two or three days recently.
In Dragon Dreaming, the dream is an intention. It is an energy directed towards something bigger that allows us to generate a projection between the present and the future. Unfortunately, in our Western culture, by and large, we tend to view the dream as unimportant, scattered, incomprehensible, strange, or unreliable.
There are many types of dreams, all a fertile field for self-knowledge.
Few people know, but it was the Australian Frederick Emery, psychologist and social scientist, pioneer in organizational development, designer of participatory processes and self-management, who developed the “Research Conference” or Search Conference, where after bringing together several local agents to envision together desirable futures, introduced the magical reading of the “registration minutes” into the past, as if it had already happened. This is the origin of dream circles in Dragon Dreaming, one of the main tools of the method, which allows for a meaningful, intentional and co-creative dimension of reality. The collective’s visualization of the collective future is the manifested reality in itself.
OCEANIA’S WINDS
Learning from observation
WINDS
Moving Air is the result of atmospheric differences between two places.
We rarely go in the direction of another continent, other oceans, another country, other people, another culture, another language, other winds… And Oceania is the windiest place on the planet!
