Aims & Objectives

What would education look like in a lower energy world?

This is the question which a new group within Transition Town Totnes will be trying to address.

Schools are a key catalyst for change, and need to anticipate social and economic developments if we are to create a thriving, sustainable community. Could our schools look more like farms or craft centres in ten years time? All of us will need to adapt, and the TTT Education Group aims to assist schools, colleges and the wider community to gain the skills and access the resources to achieve this.

The groups main objectives for its first year are:

• To develop and facillitate a network of local environmental and experiential educators
• To build positive links with the schools and colleges in and around Totnes
• To develop projects designed to engage the wider community and increase awareness of peak oil and climate change issues and solutions.

The TTT Education Group was launched at Education for Community Powerdown, on Wednesday 7th November at St John's Church, Bridgetown, where a series of leading thinkers and practitioners talked about the challenges for Education in preparing for a low energy society.

In a departure from the usual format at TTT talks, Education for Community Powerdown provided an opportunity to hear a series of speakers talk briefly from a range of educational perspectives, before opening out into a broader discussion and questions:

Abelardo Brenes is a research fellow at the University for Peace, a Treaty organisation set up by the UN in 1980, and based in Costa Rica. Ed O'Sullivan is Professor of Education at the University of Toronto, a director of the Transformative Learning Centre and runs graduate courses on ecological issues. Alan Dyer is from the University of Plymouth and Centre for Sustainable Futures, and has been involved in regional environmental education in the south west for many years Rachel Roberts works for Phoenix Education and the English Secondary Schools Association, which advocates democratising schools Liz Meadows works for EcoActive and provided a Primary School perspective, Stephen Jones needs no introduction as the Principal of KEVICC, and Rob Hopkins, from TTT, talked about his experience in Further Education in Kinsale, Ireland, where he set up the first two year full time permaculture course in the world.

Please get in touch with us if you have an interest in education or the broader question of the social changes which the Transition Town Totnes Education Group is being set up to assist, then please contact us at education.totnes@transitionnetwork.org.

You will be very welcome.

Please visit our website often to see all the latest news & updates from our group. You can also subscribe to the bulletin for a monthly update about all TTT activities.

We are also building a set of resources that we hope will be of use to people who are interested in eduacational projects. If you have anything to add to this section please do let us know.

Contact

Please email us at education.totnes@transitionnetwork.org.

Meetings

The TTT Education group currently have regular meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of every month to discuss new ideas and progress for existing projects.

Details of all our meetings are available on our group's meetings & events page and on the main TTT calendar. Write-ups and minutes from meetings will be published in the relevant event item on the calendar.