Incubating a community of learner-educators

Between October 2024 and March 2026, a group of 19 Earth Education Fellows embarked on a transformative journey of understanding environmental education in the Indian context, in order to gain a deeper sense of what it may mean to be a nature educator in these changing, shifting times. Fellows from across the country – from Rajasthan, Havelock, Goa to Visakhapatnam – met across 3 in-person residencies and worked together to  explore, develop and fine-tune their capacities as facilitators, leaders and entrepreneurs, while also developing their identities as nature educators.

An integral part of this journey consisted of the Passion Project, where each of the fellows worked towards a community project of their own, which formed the core of their learning put to practice. Collectively, they impacted around 6000 learners (aged 5 and above) over a thousand plus learning sessions, taking place across the ecoregions of the Western Ghats to the Himalayas, as well as the Deccan Peninsula to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

While each fellow had to navigate sessions in their own landscapes, the collective stayed in touch through the uncertainties they had to face. Sessions were not just about what was to be taught and successfully accomplished, but rather, “what did the children want to know and learn, and what did they already know that I could learn from them instead?” In questioning how learning could occur sensorially and experientially, and not just in the classroom, Earth Education Fellow Angeline, found that “birds had become the tool to introduce children to nature… and from there to see that everything is available in the world for them to experience.” She noticed that her hours of work with the children brought them this expansive sense of exploration and abundance.

Such questions and experiences deepened their methodological expertise, contributing to a varied toolkit of session activities, including storytelling, art, and theatre. The result was a visible shift towards collaborative, learner-led facilitation, all while strengthening their foundations of self –  of being educators.

As India’s neighbourhood nature incubator, we look forward to continuing to lead similar journeys for educators in the years to come. Find more details of this Cohort’s journey, the residencies, virtual engagements and passion projects, in the report below.

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