Crossfields Institute is a vision-based organisation, meaning that through our activities our aim is to contribute positively to making the world a better place, while also providing high-quality services to our clients. Our belief is that education has the power and potential to be a force of positive change in the world, if used in the right way, and as an organisation we are on an action research journey to discover what this means in practice. We invite those with whom we collaborate to join us in this inquiry.

While education today can often be driven by the bottom line and by measurable and quantifiable outcomes, we prefer to see education as a transformative journey that is as much about the path as it is about the destination. It is about cultivating openness and unknowing as well as acquiring knowledge and skills. It is also about finding and nurturing passion, interest and a sense of purpose, and about developing capacities to participate meaningfully in the world. Over the years we have identified some core education related principles that guide us in our approach. These include:

Holistic learning. We work with a broader notion of knowing than simply the cognitive and the rational. The knowing that comes with emotion and feeling and the knowing associated with embodied action are equally important. We work actively and in different ways with this expanded notion of knowing in our three domains of activity.

Deep Learning. Deep learning is achieved through experiential and problem-based approaches to learning. It is enabled through engaging with complexity and real-world practice. Deep learning also invites the participation of the whole human being and multiple ways of knowing.

Transformative learning. In our view, education is not just about acquiring new knowledge and skills, it also has the possibility to bring about profound transformation at the personal, political and social levels. Central to our approach is the recognition that taking risks and not-knowing are fundamental if education is to have the potential to be transformative as well as integrative.

Transdisciplinary learning. When separate disciplines meet and mix then new insights can arise that are not necessarily found in any one single discipline. Hence the name ‘Crossfields’. This is particularly the case for the arts, sciences and humanities.

Lifebased and lifelong learning. With the shifting and fluid nature of life today, traditional boundaries between life, work and leisure are blurring. Our approach is to see life in all its aspects as the context for ‘learning’ in the deepest sense, and of course this extends over the whole of life, not just the first three decades. Technology has also greatly expanded the possibilities of what can count as a ‘classroom’ and how and where formal and informal learning can take place.

Diversity and inclusion. Deep learning is enabled through a rich mix of perspectives and experiences. In all our activities we aim to be as inclusive as possible, meaning that no one is excluded from participation on the basis of gender, race, sexual orientation, age or disability.

Care for nature and the environment. We aim to nurture love and care for the environment, whether urban or natural, and we seek to promote environmental responsibility wherever possible.