Our Educational Values

Our Inclusivity Policies

 

At the Plant Medicine School, we are all passionate about inclusivity.

We do not tolerate discrimination against people as regards race, culture, religion, gender or sexual identity, class, neurodiversity, age, academic achievement/ abilities, disability and other marginalised identities.

Whenever any issue is flagged up, we seek solutions and are consistently working to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of our courses.

We continue to educate ourselves about the needs and accommodations of our society's many marginalised groups. We offer plant-centred, grassroots, honest, and ordinary education and facilitation.

We are changing all our text to dyslexic-friendly layouts and fonts, providing sound files or a read link for written materials. Assignments can be submitted as voice files.

Every year, we offer several bursaries to people who would otherwise be unable to join our courses.

We accommodate all dietary restrictions.

We can provide private spaces for breastfeeding or prayer and meditation upon request. Breastfeeding in the class space is also entirely okay.

Where possible, we are working towards wheelchair accessibility and accessible toilet facilities.

We provide comfortable seating and provide frequent breaks for movement and time outside/fresh air.

The learning takes place in a combination of indoor and outdoor spaces.

Please get in touch with the local schools for further information on accessibility.

 

Ontology

What is the nature of reality?

Our school is nature-centric. Humans are part of nature and dependent on plants. Plants are conscious and aware, and our direct relationship with them informs us. Nature is a community of interdependent beings. 

Epistemology

What can be accepted as knowledge?

We are interested in how plants affect humans and how humans affect plants. This knowledge can be acquired experientially through plants and by studying knowledge shared by other humans. The holistic, consilience approach is preferable to reductive science.

Paradigm

What are the conceptual and/or methodological models that relate to a specific discipline during a particular period?

We practice a paradigm of self-exploration, experimentation, and self-motivation.

Pedagogy

The act of teaching, how is teaching carried out?

A participatory and relational learning model is used—the development of the individual’s potential as the type of herbalist they wish to become. The teachers/mentors are facilitators for the students who are agents of their own learning and knowledge expansion—self-direction with the mentor's support. Encourage investigation, exploration, and research rather than seeing students as receptacles and recipients of the information. We also are neutral in opinions.

Methodology

How can knowledge regarding a given question be produced?

Practical and theoretical learning. NRM. Organoleptics and plant identification, cultivation, harvesting, and processing. Medicine making, therapeutics. Anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, diagnostic skills, consulting and communication skills, ethics. Nutrition, energetics. Social justice, sustainability

 

Methods

What specific ways of data collection and data analysis can be used?

Teaching methods: Storytelling, demonstration, and participation in practical skills acquisition. Facilitating student inquiry and supporting self-directed learning. Cohort learning with immersions, forums, tutorials, and discussions.

Year 1-History, plant identification, Botany, Chemistry, Medicine making, Nutrition, Energetics

Year 2-Anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, diagnostic skills, consulting and communication skills, ethics, energetics. Social justice, sustainability

   

Academic meanings of terms used above - the jargon, so to speak 

Main question


Ontology

What is the nature of reality?

 

The Ontological Assumptions: Prior to clarifying the type of ontology used in these studies, it is important to define ontology. Ontology is defined by (Crotty: 2003:10) as “the study of being”. It is concerned with “what kind of world we are investigating, with the nature of existence, with the structure of reality as such”. Guba and Lincolin (1989:83) state that the ontological assumptions are those that respond to the question ‘what is there that can be known?’ or ‘what is the nature of reality?’

 

Epistemology
What can be accepted as knowledge?
 

The Epistemological Assumptions: Epistemology is ‘a way of understanding and explaining how we know what we know’, (Crotty,2003:3). Epistemology is also ‘concerned with providing a philosophical grounding for deciding what kinds of knowledge are possible and how we can ensure that they are both adequate and legitimate.’ (Maynard, 1994:10) in Crotty, Ibid, 8).

 

Methodology

How can knowledge regarding a given question be produced?

Methods
What specific ways of data collection and data analysis can be used?
Paradigm
What are the conceptual and/or methodological models that relate to a specific discipline during a particular period?

 

The Methodological Assumptions: Methodology is “the strategy, plan of action, process or design lying behind the choice and use of particular methods and linking the choice and use of the methods to the desired outcomes.” Crotty, (2003: 3). It aims to describe, evaluate and justify the use of particular methods. (Wellington, 2000).

 

REF: Abdelhamid Ahmed Assistant Lecturer at The Curriculum & Instruction Dept., Faculty of Education, Helwan University, Egypt. Currently, a PhD student at School of Education & Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter, UK https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED504903.pdf

 

Pedagogy is often described as the act of teaching:[2] The pedagogy adopted by teachers shapes their actions, judgments, and teaching strategies by taking into consideration theories of learning, understandings of students and their needs, and the backgrounds and interests of individual students.[3][4] Its aims may range from furthering liberal education (the general development of human potential) to the narrower specifics of vocational education (the imparting and acquisition of specific skills). Conventional western pedagogies view the teacher as knowledge holder and student as the recipient of knowledge (described by Paulo Freire as "banking methods"[5]), but theories of pedagogy increasingly identify the student as an agent and the teacher as a facilitator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy

Philosophical concept
https://research-methodology.net/research-philosophy/ontology/

The ontological aspects of Freire’s theory are central to this task. Freire’s ontological understanding of the human experience finds its fulfilment in his theory of conscientisation. The two pillars of conscientisation are personal and collective awareness. And it is the personal awareness aspect, as it relates to the pedagogy of the adult educator, which we are most concerned with here.

http://icep.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ICEP19_paper_4.pdf