Building on my background in Education through Art, I’ve been informally studying and practicing* elements of Montessori pedagogy, Reggio Emilia, and Forest School without seeking certification. At the same time I’ve been formally training in Steiner pedagogy (nature-focused, mindfulness-, freeplay- and observation-based, radically inclusive, and community-embedded –at least in its ideal forms) which has vastly deepened my understanding of early years pedagogy, and has connected me with a network of experienced educators and teacher trainers who offer support, mentorship, and guidance.
* I’ve been coordinating a local parents co-operative as a way to connect families whose needs are not quite met by the local extended-family support system (e.g. single parent homes, homeschooling or unschooling families interested in skill-sharing, families in transition from abroad, families of children with additional needs), especially during covid lockdowns and isolation. I’ve been organising events and providing support in various ways in the alternative education / homeschooling / unschooling community, and also worked to set-up a pioneer Steiner kindergarten and elementary school in Nicosia. I have now moved away from this and my priorities have shifted to supporting Forest School initiatives, but I continue my Teacher Training in Steiner education as I find it greatly rewarding.
Published by nee
I sought meaning in academic research about conflict transformation in relation to art and media history, and efforts for recovering the commons (PhD Cultural Studies with the London Consortium). I worked and taught with a number of universities, art-centers and internationally funded programs with increasing focus on free and open source technology, until a child reactivated my connection with a circle of heart-giving art educators in Brasil and helped me see what the Situationists' meant with their rejection of alienated labour. My child and I started mapping out and learning from the bravest and most meaningful art-educational initiatives around the world, and we've been focusing on holding space and community for free play, towards what Silvia Federici describes as a re-enchantment. Through my own learning path (including on-going training in Waldorf and Forest school teacher training, What Future for Education, London Institute of Education 2019; Hand in Hand Professional’s Intensive 2020) I have come to see learning as a state of being that is meaningfully embedded and present in its social setting, prioritising applied responses to local and community needs, and contributing to each other’s creative, practical, scientific, emotional and other developmental processes through a recognition of the abundant nature of the necessary resources, materials, information, peer-to-peer learning, and tools. | neeii.info
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