Gaia Schools
🚸 How to apply Regenerative Education, Environmental Education
and Ecovillage Design into Schools? 🌱
🗓️ May 6th, 2025
⏰ 9am Ecuador / 2pm GMT - UTC / 3pm BST / 4pm CEST
(1:30 hour session)
How can we bring regenerative education, environmental awareness, and ecovillage design into our schools?
Join us for an inspiring global conversation with educators who are doing just that. This FREE webinar invites teachers, facilitators, and changemakers to explore how schools around the world are integrating regenerative principles and practices into their daily learning environments.
You’ll hear firsthand from:
🌿 Piedad Viteri – Johannes Kepler School, Ecuador
🌿 Mugove Nyika – Poshayi Primary School, Zimbabwe | ReSCOPE
🌿 Margarita Hamatsu – Hjallastefnan School, Iceland
Together with the Gaia Schools Network, they’ll share real-life experiences and innovative practices that are transforming education to meet the challenges of our time.
Whether you're a formal educator or an informal learning facilitator, this session will offer insights, tools, and community to support your journey in regenerative education.
What to expect:
✔️ Stories and inspiring examples from pioneering schools
✔️ Interactive Q&A with the speakers
✔️ Opportunities to connect with the Gaia Schools Network
Let’s co-create the future of education rooted in sustainability, a deep connection with nature, and community.
Speakers
Piedad Viteri
Johannes Kepler School (Ecuador)
Piedad Viteri has dedicated decades to integral regeneration, weaving together art, education, community, and ecology. Her journey began with the Rainbow Peace Caravan in the early 2000s and evolved into over a decade of leading street art initiatives rooted in community mobilization and post-disaster regeneration.
A skilled connector across public, private, and academic sectors, Piedad has been instrumental in fostering networks for reforestation, ecosystem restoration, zero-waste education, and the development of social design tools. Her work centers on facilitating cooperative learning processes that reconnect people with nature and reimagine schools as hubs for resilient regeneration.
Currently, she serves as the Environmental Education and Management Director at Johannes Kepler School, where she is implementing a transformative model that integrates ecovillage education and permaculture. This approach has had a significant and growing impact on Ecuador's education system.
Mugove Nyika
Poshayi Primary School (Zimbabwe), ReSCOPE
Mugove is a farmer, educator and community development facilitator whose work is focused on building resilience and food sovereignty in communities across the African continent. Over the last three decades he has played a central role in the development of the Integrated Land-use Design (ILUD) process as a tool for inclusive participatory whole-school land design and community engagement.
Mugove facilitated the founding of the Regional Schools and Colleges Permaculture (ReSCOPE) Programme in 2006 and the hosting of the International Permaculture Convergence in 2009 in Malawi. He is the Founding President of the Friends of International Permaculture Convergences (FIPC). Mugove is also an eco-village development facilitator and a member of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) Africa Advisory Council.
Margarita Hamatsu
Hjallastefnan School (Selfoss, Iceland)
Margarita’s journey is rooted in her passion for education, sustainability, languages, cultures, and the well-being of society. She holds a master’s degree in Educational Science with a specialization in Education for Sustainability from the University of Iceland, along with a degree in International Studies in Education. She is also a certified Life Coach and a trained facilitator with the Global Ecovillage Network, where she actively promotes holistic and regenerative practices.
Margarita currently serves as Project Manager for Outdoor and Nature-Based Education at Hjallastefnan Preschool in Selfoss, Iceland. She is the co-founder of Adventures for Students Iceland and Futureroots.Education, both dedicated to reimagining sustainability in education. These initiatives focus on empowering educators through capacity-building, well-being, and transformative training that integrates ecological, social, economic, and cultural dimensions into everyday teaching.
Margarita also contributes her expertise as a member of the South Iceland education committee, run by the National Protection Agency. Her broad experience includes work in an internationally recognized Ecovillage in Iceland, Sólheimar. At the heart of her work is a commitment to environmental advocacy, community resilience, and meaningful human connection.
...and the Gaia Schools Network!
Facilitated by
Taisa Mattos
Gaia Education
Gaia Education Face-to Face Programmes Coordinator, Gaia Schools Coordinator, Taisa has coordinated and taught Ecovillage Design Education Programmes since 2009, having contributed to 30 certified EDEs all over in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Argentina, and online. Lead facilitator for Gaia Education's Training of Trainers in Mexico.
Education & Research Coordinator at the Global Ecovillage Network (2019 - 2024). Board Member of the International Communal Studies Association (ICSA). Co-founder of Terra Una Ecovillage (Brazil). Author of the book Ecovillages: Building a Regenerative Culture. Taisa is passionate about ecovillages and regenerative education.
