The Regeneration Lab

What happens when students step out of everyday culture and into shared experience outdoors? In this conversation, Tom Potter reflects on decades of experiential outdoor education, from emotional and philosophical learning to student-led expeditions, reflection and re-entry. We explore how nature can help people peel back social layers, build trust, take responsibility and discover capacities they did not know they had. Tom also reflects on assessment, institutional pressures, business education, and why outdoor education may become stronger when it is woven across disciplines rather than kept at the margins.

Key themes
Outdoor experiential education · Relational learning · Student agency · Reflection · Place connectedness

About the guest
Dr. Tom Potter is Professor Emeritus at Lakehead University, whose work spans outdoor and experiential education, leadership, place connectedness and the development of outdoor education in higher education. Across several decades of teaching and research, he has explored how meaningful outdoor experiences can support relational, emotional and embodied learning, while helping students develop responsibility, judgment, leadership and a deeper relationship with place.

Selected publications:
Dyment, J. E. & Potter, T. G. (2021). Overboard! The turbulent waters of outdoor education in neoliberal post-secondary contexts. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. 
Potter, T. G. & Dyment, J. (2016). Is outdoor education a discipline? Insights, gaps and future directions. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 16(2), 146–159.
Dyment, J. & Potter, T. G. (2015). Is outdoor education a discipline? Provocations and possibilities. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 15(3), 193–208.
Schwass, N. R., Potter, S. E., O’Connell, T. S. & Potter, T. G. (2021). Outdoor Journeys as a Catalyst for Enhanced Place Connectedness and Environmental Stewardship. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 24(2), 215–231.

What if transformative learning grew through relationships rather than instruction? In this conversation, Ruth Förster explores embodied, nature-connected approaches to learning, leadership and change. From sensory awareness and threshold walks to safe-enough spaces, storytelling and reflection, we discuss how transformative learning can engage the whole person. Ruth also reflects on bringing these practices into higher education and business contexts, working through institutional constraints, and why process-oriented education needs different ways of valuing progress, assessment and the often unseen relationships that help change take root.

Key themes
Embodied learning · Nature connectedness · Transformative learning · Regenerative leadership · Process-oriented education

About the guest
Dr. Ruth D. Förster is an educator, researcher, facilitator and coach whose work brings together transformative learning, embodiment, nature-based practice and regenerative leadership. She chairs the saguf Working Group on Education for Sustainable Development and is Co-President of Scaling4Good. Across higher education, leadership development and professional learning, Ruth creates experiential spaces that strengthen connection with self, others and the more-than-human world while supporting meaningful transformation.

Explore Ruth’s work and resources:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthfoerster/
saguf Working Group - https://saguf.ch/en/working_groups/education_for_sustainable_development
Scaling4Good - https://scaling4good.com/
Learning for Transformation - https://learning-for-transformation.ch/
Förster, R. & Sägesser, A. (2025). Connecting to Self and to Nature. In Imagining, Designing and Teaching Regenerative Futures.

What if education began with the places we already love? In this conversation, Karin Wilterdink Molenaar explores nature-connected learning through geography, outdoor education and storytelling. From inviting students to bring photographs of their favourite places to using landscapes as living classrooms, we discuss how emotional connection can deepen curiosity, well-being and care for the Earth. Karin also reflects on uncertainty, giving students space to form their own relationships with nature, working with teams outdoors, and why meaningful change in higher education may begin with small experiments, supportive communities and patience.

Key themes
Place attachment · Outdoor learning · Emotional connection · Storytelling · Student agency

About the guest
Karin Wilterdink Molenaar is a lecturer at Hogeschool KPZ whose work explores sustainability, Earth systems and nature-connected learning through experiential and practice-oriented education. With a background in geography and earlier work developing the Earth and Climate programme at Aeres University of Applied Sciences, she is particularly interested in how outdoor experiences, personal stories and emotional connection can help learners develop their own relationship with the living world.

Explore Karin’s work:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-wilterdink-molenaar

What if education helped us grow through connection, reciprocity and place? In this conversation, Richard Owens explores regenerative learning, systems awareness and the conditions that help people and communities thrive. From river red gums and permaculture to regenerative futures, Indigenous knowledge and place-based learning, we discuss how education can reconnect self, others and the living world. Richard also reflects on institutional constraints, youth voice, business education and why meaningful change may begin by observing, sensing and building relationships before rushing towards solutions.

Key themes
Regenerative learning · Systems awareness · Relational learning · Place-based education · Indigenous knowledge

About the guest
Dr. Richard Owens is Director of the Woodleigh Institute, Convenor of ReimaginED Festivals, and National Director of the Australian Centre for Systems Awareness. His work spans regenerative learning, systems change, futures, leadership and educational innovation, with a particular focus on relational and place-based approaches that connect personal development, community and the living world.

Explore Richard’s work:
Woodleigh Institute - https://www.woodleigh.vic.edu.au/woodleigh/woodleigh-institute
Australian Centre for Systems Awareness - https://systemsawareness.org

What if creativity and learning do not begin with ideas, but emerge through relationships? In this conversation, Jason Frasca and Iain Kerr explore creativity as a more-than-human, ecological process shaped by people, materials, tools and environments. From embodied experimentation and the spaghetti game to co-emergence, uncertainty and “blocking” familiar assumptions, we discuss how education can move beyond knowledge transfer and solution thinking. Jason and Iain also reflect on business education, the limits of classrooms, and what becomes possible when the event itself is allowed to become the teacher.

Key themes
Emergent learning · More-than-human creativity · Embodied experimentation · Co-emergence · Uncertainty

About the guests
Jason Frasca and Iain Kerr are co-founders of Emergent Futures Lab, a collaborative community of practice exploring creativity and innovation as emergent, relational and more-than-human processes.

Iain Kerr is a designer and innovation researcher working across creativity, ecology and emergent systems, and co-directs the MIXLab at Montclair State University. Jason Frasca is an Associate Teaching Professor and co-director of the MIXLab, whose work brings together entrepreneurship, emerging technologies, innovation and systemic change. Together, they are authors of The Innovation Design Approach and co-host the WorldMakers community of practice.

Explore their work:
Emerging Futures newsletter - https://emergentfutureslab.com/newsletter
The Innovation Design Approach - https://emergentfutureslab.com/innovating-emergent-futures
WorldMakers community - https://emergentfutureslab.com/worldmakers