A new decade has just started. The one leading towards 2030. There will be a lot to do. But where to start? High time to spread Thomas Macintyre´s PhD thesis The Transgressive Gardener, presented by Arjen Wals as “one of the most original one’s” he has been involved in. Maybe you´ll find some answers there?
With the Living Spiral Framework Thomas Macintyre, Martha Chaves (founders of mentes-en-transicion, English: „transitional minds“) and Dylan McGarry (founder of the institute of uncanny justness), all part of the T-Learning Project (check it out!), give to us a tool, applicable not only to uncover personal but also collective transformative learning journeys. Maybe you want to try it out with your working group? Do you know your own, or your project´s, “roots”, “shoots”, “stems” and “leaves”? Have you or your project already come to “blossom”? And: What leaves have fallen to the ground, providing for fertile soil to make the next shoots potentially stronger?
Thanks for opening our eyes for the fertility which lies in “failures”.
The transgressive learning project is a healthy sign, opening up new ways (in academia), while leaving plenty of “work” to each of us to find our own. The Living Spiral Framework is a helpful, creative and enjoyable tool to go on these journeys of discovery. What it needs, though, is time. But if we want to see (outer) change, maybe it´s worth dedicating some time to (inner) transformation?
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Thanks for letting us learn from and modify the tool to our own case/needs. Not telling us what to do but instead providing support to explore. And that´s what´s ahead: Nothing known so we can draw on prescriptions – but a future to explore and co-create. By and with each one of us.
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PS: Are you part of academia and doubting that it can be different? Then let yourself be uplifted by the Living Aulas Research School!