A Special Interview with Karen Blincoe

A SPECIAL INTERVIEW
KAREN BLINCOE – Director of Schumacher College

After a year at the College, Karen takes a moment to reflect on the College, how it was, how it is and how it will be.

Q: What is the most inspiring aspect of Schumacher College?

Karen: A combination of factors, several different things make this an inspiring place. I have been very impressed by the lecturers that have been drawn here. It is an impressive achievement for this College to have a list of 150 or so visiting teachers – experts and pioneers from around the planet.

Whenever I leave the College to lecture or meet with others I am pleased by how many people know about this place. Everyone knows about Schumacher College. They know about the amazing teachers, they know that this is different to other places. It is a place that has this transformative quality. This little place is so well known! Small is beautiful, and small has made an impact.

The dedication of the staff here has impressed me. Everyone is holding their area of work. This is a 24-hour college, seven days a week and 12 months of the year. It is a beehive of good work. The messages get sent out of here all round the world.

What are the highlights of your first year?

A variety of things come to mind. Meeting this dedicated body of staff that we spoke about. Participating in the opening and closing circles. Particularly the closing circle. These are meeting places, opportunities for reflection. People come here for 1, 2 or 3 weeks and we get to hear about what they have learnt in the circle. It is amazing to hear how much they have gotten out of the courses in terms of theory, practice and experiential learning. Everyone learns with such joy, and then go forward with new direction. It is then that we, as staff, remember why we doing what we are doing and why we, from time to time, feel so exhausted with all this activity and transformation going on!

The plans that I have made since arriving have been agreed by the Board of Trustees at Dartington, and with general support by the staff. The hard work has paid off. And whilst I know I could have done some things better, we have achieved an amazing amount in the past year. I have completed the business plan, we have a way forward. I truly believe there are people out there who want to support the College, with money, to help us in taking the next step.

What are the plans for the future?

We are going to expand the college but keep the ‘small is beautiful’ feel. Most likely this will involve the establishment of another centre. The Old Postern will contain the vocational courses, and the academic courses will take place in the new place. We will definitely retain the Tagore philosophy and expand on the quality thinking and learning which people know from our activities. So we will continue to offer the Short Courses, tailor-made courses, external lets, and Masters programme. With this we will develop other activities including academic courses, and a knowledge base, much like Research in Practice, translating research methods and models for use on the ground. The two places will work together – vocational and academic, and we will develop in units, keeping the philosophy of ‘small is beautiful’.

Tell us about the coming year’s new courses?

Well, we continue to develop new courses, testing and trialling. The Certificate in Education is an experiment to try out longer courses in modules where people come to the College at different points across the year. The Certificate in Education was set up in response to the needs of our participants who want to set up ‘Schumacher College-like’ centres. This new course will give them the opportunity to look at education methods and models, plus a range of philosophies, and be able to embrace the fact that in the twenty-first century education needs to shift, and to make most use of that. The Certificate of Education course is filling up so clearly this was a good attempt to address this need. We hope in the future to develop a Certificate in Pioneering Leadership and another in New Economics.

The Ethical Pioneers course is in response to people who have ideas for new NGO’s or businesses but don’t really know business language, how to write funding bids or business plans. This course will give them what they need and help them retain their ethical bias. Again, Schumacher College is doing things in a different way. Everything we do is cutting edge – this makes it very exciting for us who work here and for the people who come on courses.

What are the challenges for the future?

We now need to develop a detailed plan to support both our established and new activities. What can we give to the world? What can we offer? What type of infrastructure do we need, and what are the costs? We need to write a capital appeal and raise funds to help us invest in the future of the College. We then need to implement these plans and see how the College stakeholders respond. We have a particular educational focus here that we will continue to develop.

Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.