Holistic Education: Learning from Schumacher College

by Phillips, Anne

Schumacher College, set up as an international centre for ecological and spiritual studies, has developed a worldwide reputation for the quality of the unique learning experience it offers. Individuals and groups come from across the world to learn about subjects relating to environmental and social sustainability.

Students are often so inspired that many express a wish to set up similar organisations elsewhere in the world. Educators and trainers ask how the College was set up, what the magic ingredients were, and what students have done after having been there.

This book is an attempt to answer those questions, and describes how the College came to be set up by The Dartington Hall Trust in Devon, England. It explains the policies and practices adopted to ensure that the learning processes were consistent with and reinforced the topics being studied. It includes examples of what former students have gone on to do, and reflections on the College by visiting teachers including Fritjof Capra, Vandana Shiva, Wolfgang Sachs and David Orr. Holistic Education: learning from Schumacher College could be used as a guide to design a place of holistic learning: the key is to remember the ecological principle of context, and to apply liberal doses of local wisdom.

The Author: Anne Phillips, Director of Schumacher College from 1993 to 2006, was project manager of the group that planned the College. Her interest in how people learn developed while she was at university, and since then she has been involved in educational design with educators and trainers. She worked as a teacher in Uganda with VSO, taught at Dartington Hall School, and was involved over twenty-five years in academic and vocational curriculum development with The Dartington Hall Trust.

Printed on 100% recycled paper using vegetable inks.