A Process Explanation and Results Exploration, by Peter Cow (May 2014)
This Survey was carried out in March 2013, at the EPT meeting in Vale da Lama, Portugal. Its aim was to identify what PDC subjects people considered important and core to a PDC, and which were less crucial.
This work was inspired by a similar survey carried out online in the UK in 2011/2012, which has led to a UK core curriculum for PDCs that are certified by the PAB.
Curriculum topics for the survey were gathered from the original UK online survey, with additions from the Slovenia meeting. Blank spaces were left at the end of the survey for more topics to be added as well during the survey itself by survey participants.
A large grid listing each topic was drawn up on a roll of paper with spaces alongside to add ticks to indicate how important participants think each topics is.
This grid was introduced to people at the start of the meeting, and then stuck onto the wall next to the main meeting room in Vale da Lama, so all participants passed it many times a day.
During the meeting at least 42 people filled in the survey, and the results were typed up into a raw data spreadsheet (EPT Curricula Survey Raw Data) and later a spreadsheet was created displaying the topics in order of considered importance, from highest to lowest (Curricula survey).
We also compared it side by side with the results from the UK survey (EPT and UK curriculum survey results).
Results digest –
Top of the list came design tools, ethics, principles and the design exercise.
Then came more design tools and principles, alongside some application areas and some techniques.
Prioritised areas for appying permaculture included:
- Zone 00
- Zone 1
- Waste management
- Zone 5
- Appropriate technologies
Prioritised techniques to be taught included:
Water retention in the landscape
UK Core Curriculum document – View the current UK core curriculum, which all teachers must teach on a PDC if they give out Permaculture Association (Britain) certificates.