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This "Laboratory" is a sub-set of the wider subject of Education which many are busy questioning in our network.

The Chaordic PC Institute design came about originally as a result of dialogues about the DiplomaProcess .. so here is a call for a Diploma Group to make more available and explicit the continuing thinking on this subject.

For now this page is just collecting basic info (if you have some please share..)

Diploma Criteria & Methods around the Globe

Australasian Systems

DipAUS

DipNZ

European Systems

DipEU

US Systems

DipUS

South American Systems

DipChile

Gaia Uni

Gaia University programs

In may09 Gaia University with Appleseed Permaculture, Peninsula Permaculture and the Regenerative Design Institute started co-ordinating around a shared diploma system - documented here:

http://sites.google.com/site/permaculturediploma/Home

Questions relating to the diploma systems (participate*)

* (if you don't know how to edit this page directly in order to put your answers, just emai them to Tomas or Stella and we'll put them up for you)

Thanks for proposing these questions Tomas, I´ve added numbers for easier answering - hope other chip in.  Stella

1) What are the yields of the permaculture diploma for the individual student?

Stella feb09 - (firstly to clarify I´ve some practical experience of the British System and am currently promoting the new NodoEspiral Spanish system because I think it improves on current systems - see DipEU for details of both).   Mainly I see the PC Diploma process as offering the student a good supported action-learning process as s/he progresses with designs with the company and feedback of colleagues on same path + tutors occasionally giving feedback and direction.  Also one gets to celebrate personal progress and learning with one's community, and a public recognition of a new milestone reached when s/he has achieved the Diploma.  Also a qualification in terms of reference of ability (this can be very important for some people in some countries, varies greatly).  This last one being very shaky however as there is currently no way of seeing what the standard actually is.

2) What are the yields for the international permaculture community as a whole?

Stella feb09 - Very little under the current systems: A) the handful of colleagues who see the work in progress and / or the Diploma celebration (I´ve seen and lived this in the British System) get to learn some interesting new stuff (especially if the work is innovative).  But as long as diploma portafolios then stay hidden in some DipPerm's filing cabinet gathering dust, much of the possible yield is totally lost.   Also, B) as long as there is no standards checks, the word 'Diploma' can remain quite meaningless in reality (unless you're fortunate enough to be one of the few people 'in the know') and so we don´t even achieve a credible qualification (which - with very little but co-ordinated work) could become an international credible qualification, without massive bureocracy.

3) How can we improve these yields?

Stella feb09 - By publishing the design portafolios on the web.  In Spain we're promoting keeping web-based portafolios because this way the yields are multiplied many times:  in teaching permaculture, in making possible many fertile connections (eg. between people working on similar stuff), in showing the great variety of work that permaculture designers do, in advancing research - less likely to re-invent wheels, etc.   But especially, with this added and essential transparency, we can collectively SEE what the standards / levels of current diploma-awarding bodies are - which is an essential pre-cursor or having any dialogue (and later possible agreement) about diploma standards.   Language IS a barrier but increasingly there are multi-lingual permaculture designers (who could feed-back across cultures and languages) and also web-based free translation software to help with this.

4) What processes have the diploma systems got developed for student support?

Stella feb09 - So far in the new spanish system we have a 3 day short introductory course (explaining the whole process), and an international diploma-students support group (by email).  Students are expected to set up their own local and 'flesh and blood' support groups.  Tutors (and other students) feedback on portafolio material whenever student asks (which is very easy to do as the portafolio is accessible by internet: these can be wikis, websites, blogs, sent documents, publicly available or with restricted access - eg. password).   We also helped create this PermacultureInstitute wiki where students can put their profiles which serve as the 'index and introduction page' to their web-based portafolio.  

5) What processes have the diploma systems got developed for tutor support?

Stella feb09 - Weak point of the system.  Our tutors support each other (emotionally and intellectually) and this works well but could be a lot better if we managed to change the 'everyone for himself' culture we seem to have mostly created amongs PC teachers in our (national as well as international) networks.  Other great source of (moral and intellectual) support is the great enthusiasm and admirable work from of our best students, which are the ones who end up wanting to do the Diploma and share their work and process.  It is very important however that the time and skill put in by tutors is supported financially (materially) also, and to this end we are wanting to co-ordinate at International (or at least European) level to agree Diploma processes and fees.  This was going well to some extent with the German and British systems as they had clear pricing policies which we were trying to adjust to, but then the French system came in recently with (what appears to be) a no-charge system .. which rather stopped us in our tracks (being our neighbours and not that distant linguistically and culturally either): until we understand better how they propose to make the system sustainable (without sacrificing the tutors) we are hesitant to finalize a cost structure for our system -  believing that 'the competition of the free market' is not an intelligent road to go down in any permaculture design of this kind, and that maybe they have something we can learn from and improve our design with.

6) How is the quality of the diploma guaranteed in different systems?

Stella feb09 - so far, it isn't, in any system (as far as I know): it is the tutor's word that the students are up to standard.  And the tutor's CVs aren't (mostly) even publically available (or at least they are not easy to cross-reference to the students Diploma accreditation): this at least is something that the Chaordic Institute could (and does, already, to a certain extent) easily facilitate.

Making the portafolios available for anyone to see, easily, on the web, would be a way to guarantee the quality of the diploma in each (and eventually across) different systems.

7) How/ where can interested people access diploma students’ documentation?

Stella feb09 - so far, they can´t (realistically speaking) unless you´re 'someone in the know', close friends with the tutors who issued the diploma, or know the student who gained the diploma.  

Eg. (concrete examples of the difficulties): I´m on friendly terms with several British tutors who support diploma students but (even if they had permission to show the diploma work by the student) I am never physically close enough to actually see the portafolios - which I assume they would let me see if I asked.   On the other hand, I asked Bill Mollison if I could see the (very many) diploma files he had stored on site when I visited his farm in january09, and although he stated various times in a surprised tone that 'they are all there and nobody's ever asked me to see them', I was not allowed to see one of them (the question was avoided in different ways until it became clear to me that he had no wish for me to see the files and so I stopped insisting).