permaculture

[Pacific Edge Permaculture + Media <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

Title: Invisible Structures

Hi Harold... an interessting piece... I have responded below......

From: "Harold Waldock" <haroldw@alternatives.com>
> Reply-To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 13:45:07 -0700
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: Invisible Structures -  What resources do people use? WAS: RE: research on pc projects needed
>
>
> > > Unfortunately the invisible structure part of the course has always been 
> > > poorly presented and understood and therefore a critical piece of the 
> > > sustainability picture is missing.  This is really important.  It is the 
> > > biggest reason permaculture does not get designed or implemented.
> > > 
> > What resources to people use? What has been their key to success in this? 
> > What are people's drawings to fill in this sustainability picture.
>
> Teaching permaculture in the city, we realise that the 'invisible structures' are vitally important. Maybe this is because people have only a limited amount of land to absorb their interest or, if they live in an apartment, they have no land at all.
>
> What we have found lacking in permaculture education is the inclusion of a means of integrating what students learn into their daily life. Certainly, as you suggest, the  post-PDC 'pemaculture eureka' effect, followed by the 'permaculture pit' has a disempowering impact. I don't think it need have, but its avoidance requires either a very motivated individual or an active, dymanic local permaculture or similar organisation, an entity increasingly difficult to find, in my experience.
>
> Because our PDC courses have been set up as 18-day part time courses to cater for people who do not have the time or capacity to do an out-of-town residential course (and, for working people, that's an increasing number of people due to changes in the structure of the working week and the inclusion of weekends in the working week), perhaps that length of time allows people to introduce permaculture ideas into their lives easily. 
>
> Another factor is  that, in the city, cooperation with others is often a prerequisite to getting things done. Worknets - a great idea - have been tried in Sydney with limited success. They bloom, then enthusiasm fades and extinction follows.
>
> Searching for approaches which foster cooperation and which make it possible for PDC students to integrate permaculture into their lives, we have found the following of use:
>
> 1) The work of Stephen Covey ('The  Seven Habits of Highly Successful People' and 'First Things First') because Covey deals with personal values, behaviours, priorities and offers a model to reformat lives
>
> 2) the work of Edward de Bono for its problem analysis and thinking skills
>
> 3) the techniques developed by the Institute for Cultural Affairs (and the Sydney-based facilitator, Unfolding Futures) for analysing situations, including life situations, and for providing structures for thinking.
>
> We have been involved in project work of various sorts and have found that a skill largely lacking in permaculture groups and PC graduates is basic project management. This constrains their capability to design and implement projects which require cooperation with others and are larger than a remake of their home gardens. Skills lacking include systematic thinking, problem solving and decision making, conflict resolution and planning. A basic understanding of the project management cycle is a useful inclusion in permaculture education because it enables people to make things happen.
>
>
> > > > >I think that invisible structures also contributes to what happens to recent graduates of Permaculture Design Courses. First they go through the "Permaculture Eureka effect" which commonly turns to, as described in one article of the Permaculture Magazine (a year or two ago), the "Permaculture Pit" This is where the person returns home after a PC Certification 2 week course with new ideas and then wonders what to do next. Often, the desire to get from where they are to where they want to go seems impossible and overwhelming especially since they have seen good examples on the ground.  Or especially for urban people, the projects that they actually do, seem small and inconsequential to them.
> This is true and is a case in which basic project management skills - including analytical thinking as well as a structure to integrate permaculture ideas into life - are useful because they can make a large and perhaps complicated situation manageable. 
>
> Weekly night courses? Bundled with many other courses esp. skill development (Bullock Bros. do this - 6 week course )?
>
> Yes, people here have discussed different course structures for the PDC including making it a part-time, year-long course such as you would do for a certificate in the Australian Technical and Further Education system. That way, students would get more than a skim over what are in reality complex areas and the PDC would attain more respect among educationalists.
>
> Currently, a number of Australian permaculture teachers are talking about a modular approach to the PDC. This would consist of a set of core subjects common to all PDC courses and a set of modules which students would take, at a time and with teachers of their own choosing, up to a number required for the award of a PDC. Modules could include: urban permaculture systems; rural smallholder and farming systems; seed saving and community seed banking; overseas development aid skills and so on.
>
> Of course, a modular course structure would not invalidate the conventional PDC but would be another way to achieve it - a way more accessible to time-strapped urban workers. 
>
> The course structure would, presumably, be agreed to by teachers interested in participating and who could agree upon a standard for teaching as well as on learning outcomes for students for all modules. One prerequisite, perhaps, could be that participating teachers do a short teaching skills course to update them on modern approaches to teaching. This might get away from the conventional lecture style, top-down teaching style still prevalent to a skills-based approach more compliant with competency-based learning.
>
> One difficulty in achieving this reformed course structure and making permaculture education more adaptable to contemporary circumstances and increasing its availability is to teachers complying with the Australian Permaculture Institute's prescriptions for recognition of a PDC. This stipulates:
>
> 1) that teachers must follow the book, Permaculture - A Designer's Manual, covering all that book's content plus whatever else the teacher sees fit to include 
>
> 2) only teachers complying with the above stipulation will be supplied permaculture design certificates to award to their students.
>
> An increasing number of teachers print their own certificate and point out that the manual is not written as a curricula but as a key text. Adoption of a new, updated course structure would imply either:
>
> 1) negotiation with the Permaculture Institute
>
> 2) adoption of an alternative course structure to parallel the Institute's.
>
> See more in the Permaculture International Newsletter, May edition, or the PIL website's teachers forum (www.nor.com.au/environment/perma) towards the end of May.
>  
> > Remedies I think up include an internship program 
>
> I think there is a lot of potential in internships. At Permaculture International, we are attempting to provide a listing of internship opportunities in Australia through our website.
>
> I think too, that the internship idea could be systematised more by creating a loose structure for interns. This could include:
>
> 1) a 'intern log book' issued by an organisation with national reach such as Permaculture International (in Australia) filled out by the internship provider detailing what the intern learned and relevant comments; this would become a de-facto reference and may be useful in seeking employment; perhaps the log book could be recognised internationally
>
> 2) identification and statement in their literature/ websites by providers of learning outcomes for interns -by the end of their internship, what will be interns be able to demonstrate of explain?; these could provide some content for the information recorded by internship providers in the log books
>
> 3) a charter of minimum conditions pertaining to internships; in Australia the WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) organisation stipulates some conditions for their placements and this might provide a starting point for a permaculture intern charter; stipulated could be: 
>
> a) what internship providers supply (accommodation? food?)
>
> b) maximum hours of work for interns
>
> c) number of days off 
>
> d) ...and so on.
>
> By identifying rights and obligations of interns, the internship system would:
>
> a) be afforded greater credibility and validity as a system of informal training
>
> b) create basic industrial conditions safeguarding the interests of interns and providers (yes, in this respect of providing training, permaculture constitutes an 'industry' - ie. it engages in economic transactions, production and distribution for monetary return or for return in-kind)
>
> c) establish the condition of 'fairness' within which the intern does not become a source of free labour without some gain to the intern or does not become a source of income for the provider (charges to interns vary widely) beyond charges related to upkeep such as food, energy costs and accommodation; this could be described as a 'win-win' approach
>
> d) increase the 'credibility' of permaculture in the eyes of those outside the practice.
>
> I also wonder about the legal aspect of interns - both at present and within any reform structure as outlined above - regarding worker's compensation. I am aware that this varies through the Australian states and overseas, so would have to be looked at on that basis. I wonder, too, if provider's public liability insurance (held, perhaps, by people offering permaculture site visits and courses on-site) covers interns?  It's the increasingly litiginous nature of our society which leads to these questions, not any desire to appear bureaucratic (some community gardens in NSW, for instance, are required to hold public liability insurance as a condition of their registration as incorporated associations).
>
> Thanks for your thoughtful contribution to these question affecting the future of permaculture.
>
> ...Russ Grayson
>
> ...................
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