January 3, 2005 - Jan 23th
2005 (tentative)
Introduction: Participants will design and implement a community
project in or near Huehuecoyotl, an ecovillage located in a mountainous, rural
area in central Mexico. The learning objectives reflect a three-fold cultural
and educational challenge:
1.
Students
will learn to negotiate an agreement with Huehuecoyotl’s residential community,
an international group of diverse interests and opinions.
2.
Students
will learn to work within the constraints of locally available materials,
expertise and “usos y costumbres” (traditional ways of doing things),
while satisfying the community’s ecological criteria.
3.
Students
will learn to create a functional work team that includes all of the course
participants.
While the course will produce a tangible result (the
implemented project), the process by which this is accomplished is a key part
of the learning experience. The academic focus will be on the communication
skills needed to bring a group together around a common vision and keep it
together in the face of internal conflict and external challenges. In addition,
the participants will be introduced to the values, history and current
challenges of both the ecovillage and the surrounding area. They will be
encouraged to practice speaking as much Spanish as possible.
Cultural context. Located in the volcano belt of central
Mexico, Huehuecoyotl was founded over 20 years ago by a diverse international
group of nomadic artists and musicians, political activists and ecologists.
Since then the community has evolved into a living laboratory for permaculture
design, consensus process and cross-cultural understanding. Huehuecoyotl is
located 2 km from Santo Domingo Ocotitlan, a small village whose economy rests
on subsistence farming, construction work, domestic service and emigration to
the United States. Santo Domingo is located in the municipality of Tepoztlán,
Morelos, an area with both strong local traditions and the cultural influence
of the many e foreigners” from other parts of Mexico and abroad who now live
there. The issues of “who belongs?” and “who decides? ”, “what to resist?” and
“what to accept?” are as much of a constant in the daily lives of the residents
as the mountains that surround them.
Course topics: Among the specific content learnings that will be
introduced during this course are:
·
Power
dynamics,
·
Introduction
to Consensus,
·
Basic
Facilitation Skills,
·
How
to Generate Ideas, Present Proposals, Reach Agreement and Implement Decisions,
·
Effective
Listening,
·
The
Roots of Conflict,
·
How
and When to Negotiate,
·
Participatory
Democracy in the context of Mexico’s political and social history, and,
·
Spanish
language.
Field Study: Students will visit local sites dating from the
Aztec empire, the Spanish conquest, the Mexican Revolution and the contemporary
fight against globalism and reflect on the cultural implications of these
historical phenomena.
Community project: Using the skills taught in the course,
students will design and implement a project chosen by the group either in
Huehuecoyotl, the adjacent national forest or neighboring village. Huehuecoyotl
members will present some possibilities to the group, which will research and
evaluate them and then, in conjunction with the community, select and implement
one (or more). Among the options to be considered are:
1.
creating
an Interpretive Trail and maintaining existing trails in the national forest
adjacent to Huehuecoyotl,
2.
improving
the (bi-lingual) signage in the community,
3.
conducting
a feasibility study for an Arts collective” and
4.
creating
a “recycling design” for the caretaker’s house.
Beatrice Briggs, MA, University of Chicago, Director of the
International Institute for Facilitation and Consensus and author of Introduction
to Consensus, a manual used by ecovillagers and activists around the world.
She is a member of Ecovillage Huehuecoytol.
Gill Emslie, Certified in Process Work, a transpersonal psychology developed by Dr. Anrold Mindell based on
Jungian, Taoist and Quantum theories Gill has been a member of Findhorn
Foundation community, Scotland for over 15years. She works as a consultant,
both for the corporate world in Europe and for NGOs in Latin America.
Mexican History (with a special focus on Emiliano Zapata and
the contemporary Zapatistas.)
Alberto Ruz or an as yet to be named university professor
Giovanni Ciarlo B.A. in Foreign Language Education,
University of Connecticut, completed course work for Master’s degree in
Linguistics. Assisted by others as needed, depending on the size of the group
and the students’ level of proficiency.
Giovanni
Ciarlo and Kathleen Sartor, Huehuecoyotl
John
M. Gerber, Ph.D., Cornell University, is Professor of Plant and Soil
Sciences and a leader in the area of teaching sustainability studies. He has held many leadership positions in
academia and non-profit organizations and has taught participatory leadership
processes.
Specific Course Objectives:
1.
To understand the role of local history and tradition in the planning
and execution of the community service project
2.
To
begin to grasp the impact of globalism and US hegemony in rural Mexico
3.
To
develop a critical awareness of different forms of leadership
4.
To
define and experience “participatory leadership”
5.
To
understand the power dynamics of rank and privilege and how they affect group
process
6.
To
understand the impact of different forms of decision-making on group process
and be able to select the method appropriate for a particular group
7.
To
apply the basic elements of consensus decision-making in the development and
implementation of a group community service project
8.
To be able to recognize and apply the elements of successful
teamwork, including establishing goals and criteria for the work, systems of
accountability, resource management, feedback and evaluation
9.
To
understand the anatomy of conflict
4.
To
learn and apply basic communication and negotiation skills necessary for
resolving conflict
5.
To
learn some basic “survival Spanish” or, for more advanced students, to improve
their Spanish conversational skills.
The teaching method is
designed to engage the head, heart and senses. Presentation of theory is
supported by colorful graphics and examples drawn from the teacher’s own
experience. Then participants test the concepts in individual and group
exercises, challenge them in discussions and apply them in classroom practice
sessions and in the implementation of the community service project. Ample time
is provided for personal and group reflection.
Requirements/assignments
·
Read assigned articles
·
Create a draft agenda, including ground rules
and process rules for a specific group
·
Create a written proposal, following the format
provided
·
Participate in all the individual and group
exercises
·
Facilitate at least one meeting of the group, as
well as take other process roles
·
Participate in the planning and execution of the
community service project
·
Submit a final paper of 300-500 words on “My Strengths
and Weaknesses as a Participatory Leader in a Multi-cultural Context”
Assessment and Grading
Students will be
assessed on class participation and the completion of the above
assignments. As the course is
interdisciplinary and experiential in nature, grading is more challenging than
in traditional classroom settings. The following criteria are offered to help
students understand the process by which they will be assessed and graded.
Each student is
expected to complete the course requirements as a minimum standard. To do the
course requirements and nothing more will generally merit an average grade of
“B.” For a higher grade, faculty will
look beyond these minimum requirements for more qualitative, expansive and
creative aspects of the students' work.
Below is a list of
criteria that may be used to assign grades that go beyond the minimum
requirements for the course. This is not an “equation” or a check list, but
examples of ways to assess excellence.
Among the ways a student might demonstrate excellence are:
• Demonstration of
leadership—getting the group together, initiating discussions
• Articulation of
one's reflection process—what is one sharing with the learning community
• Integration of
reading and doing - demonstrating how one is applying that knowledge
• Attentive, active
participation and asking of questions
• Interviewing people
for further information and knowledge
• Suggesting
improvements for course and program
• Self-directed
learning—learning that takes place outside of the group experiences
• Facilitation of
daily group responsibilities—watching time, being on time, initiating ideas and
solutions, using one's voice, speaking up
• Quality and amount
of written work—how does one go beyond just "keeping" a journal or
"producing" essays and papers?
• Synthesizing the
experience—relating what one has learned in the coursework to one's life and
sharing those learnings
Final Grade;
the final grade for the course will be submitted to the UMass Division of Continuing
Education by Dr. John Gerber, Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences at the
University of Massachusetts. Faculty on
site will recommend a grade based on their personal assessment of student
performance. Dr. Gerber will
communicate with all students prior to submitting a final grade. Students may be asked to submit a written
self-evaluation of their performance.
Required readings
·
Introduction to Consensus by Beatrice Briggs
·
Non-Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
·
Sitting in the Fire by Arnold Mindell
·
Selection of articles
Optional
recommendations
·
The War Against Oblivion by John Ross
·
Tepoztlan by Oscar Lewis
·
Distant Neighbors by Alan Riding
Links
– For information on the location
see…. http://www.surf-mexico.com/states/Morelos/Tepoztlan/tepoztlan.htm
For information on the ecovillage
see….http://www.laneta.apc.org/rem/huehue.htm
For more information on the
ecological designs used at the ecovillage see…
http://www.oasisdesign.net/design/examples/huehue.htm
For information on the group
organizing the course see…. http://www.livingroutes.org/