I’have been involved with the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE) since I moved to Scotland in 2007. Initially I worked on the CHE’s Community Programme with the aim of introducing the Training for Transformation in Scotland. My colleague Nick Wilding and I worked as a team and trained a number of community activists in this approach. Later on CHE took part in a European-funded partnership, led by several Scottish black and ethnic minority organisations. Our role was to offer the Training for Transformation approach to empower black and ethnic minority grassroots groups.

In 2000, I started to teach on our Master’s programme in Human Ecology, then based in Edinburgh and accredited by the Open University. When we moved to the department of Geography and Sociology at the University of Strathclyde, I became the Course Coordinator.

Our premise in this course was that our relationship with nature has become fundamentally dysfunctional, as well as our relationship with one other as human being. We were interested to inquire into the root causes of this fracture (how on earth have we created all this mess?) as well as inquire into processes of change that might enable healing and restoration of the earth’s and humanity’s wellbeing. Our course was a unique programme within academia, combining intellectual rigour with a solid grounding in experiential learning and the formation of a peer-learning community. Our students were encouraged to explore different ways of knowing – the ‘head, heart and hand’ of human ecology. Creativity, deep ecology, practical engagement with communities and a practice of inquiry were at the heart of our programme. I believe that what differentiated our MSc from similar programmes within the Academy is that we took our inquiry beyond traditional analyses of what is at the root of our environmental and societal crises (such as ‘capitalism’, ‘overpopulation’ or ‘the uneven distribution of power and resources’). Instead we asked and experimented with 2 fundamental questions: What does it mean to be a human being?  And what is required of us to wake up to a consciousness that goes beyond violence, greed, ego and the profound destruction of nature? Rebuilding community and learning to be in relationship was at the heart of what students were exploring on the course. Recent stories that we collected from a number of our graduates show how profoundly the course has impacted on their life as well as inspired them to find their voice and path as change agents.

In April 2009, CHE and the department of Geography and Sociology made the decision to stop running the programme in its present form. This was due to the implementation of a new financial and accounting system for masters’ programmes within the University and a reduction of funds available to run the HE course. An active discussion & a collaborative inquiry amongst our graduates is taking place within the CHE at the moment. It's an exciting time of transition and we are expecting this year's AGM (in July) to unleash new energy and vision.