Permaculture Code of Ethics for Affiliated Teachers & Mentors

Table of Contents

Purpose

This PiNZ Code of Ethics guides affiliated permaculture teachers in upholding the integrity of permaculture, modelling ethical practice, and fostering resilient, regenerative practice through education. It supports accountability to learners, communities, ecosystems, and the permaculture movement.

1. Ethical Foundations for Permaculture Teaching Practice

1.1 Earth Care — Ethical Responsibility in Teaching

Affiliated teachers recognise that teaching itself is a commitment to ethical teaching practices that:

Embed ecological responsibility in curriculum design, teaching methods, and assessment.
Model care for soil, water, air, biodiversity, and climate through the examples used, sites selected, and systems promoted in teaching.
Minimise ecological harm associated with teaching activities, including material use, site impacts, energy consumption, and travel choices.
Demonstrate long-term thinking by explicitly connecting learning to responsibility for future generations and to the cumulative impacts of design decisions.

Teachers understand their role as educators, shaping ecological values as much as technical knowledge.

1.2 People Care — Ethical Relationships in Learning

Affiliated teachers commit to ethical teaching practices that:

Create learning environments that are physically, emotionally, and culturally safe, inclusive, respectful, and accessible.
Value and respect diversity, including cultures, identities, abilities, lived experience, and knowledge systems, with particular care given to tangata whenua, indigenous and local knowledge.
Support learner wellbeing, agency, and empowerment, recognising learners as active participants rather than passive recipients of knowledge.
Practice professional integrity, including clear communication, informed consent, appropriate boundaries, and responsible use of authority at all times.

Teaching is approached as a relational practice grounded in dignity, respect, and care.

Affiliated teachers commit to ethical teaching practices that:

Share knowledge, resources, and learning opportunities generously and responsibly, rather than hoarding or commodifying them.
Acknowledge power dynamics and privilege inherent in the teaching role, certification, and expertise, and actively work to reduce inequity.
Avoid exploitation of learners, land, communities, or intellectual and cultural contributions for personal gain.
Return surplus—including time, resources, income, influence, or learning outcomes—back to communities and ecosystems wherever possible.

Teachers act as stewards of knowledge rather than owners, recognising permaculture as a shared, evolving commons.

2. Teaching Integrity and Professional Conduct

Affiliated teachers shall:

Represent qualifications, experience, and affiliations truthfully.
Give appropriate credit to permaculture pioneers, co-teachers, and knowledge holders.
Avoid misrepresentation of permaculture as a brand, ideology, or guarantee of outcomes.
Maintain clear agreements around fees, assessment, certification, and completion requirements.

3. Relationship with Communities and Place

Affiliated teachers commit to:

Teaching with consent and respect when working on our whenua (land).
Acknowledging tangata whenua and the cultural context of place.
Ensuring teaching brings benefit rather than disruption or extraction.

4. Accountability and Ongoing Learning

Affiliated teachers commit to:

Lifelong learning, critical reflection, and ethical development.
Peer accountability and constructive resolution of conflicts.
Upholding this Code as a condition of affiliation.
Have a transparent complaints process available to students
Have a built-in evaluation process for each section of their teaching to support their reflection and growth as a teacher.
Affiliated teachers are committed to connecting with the PINZ Affiliated Teachers Community of practice online session at least twice yearly to provide feedback, seek support with their teaching, and offer support to the community of teachers across the motu.

5. Closing Statement

This Code of Ethics is a living framework. Affiliated permaculture teachers are entrusted not only with knowledge transmission, but with cultural stewardship—modelling ethics, systems thinking, and care in action.

Through Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share, permaculture education contributes to a just, resilient, and regenerative world.

* All educators, affiliated teachers, and mentors working under the PiNZ logo agree to abide by these ethics in their teaching.