. Engaging values in sustainable agriculture and food systems education: Toward an explicitly values-based pedagogical approach. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2(3) AbstractAgriculture education programs that provide integrative learning experiences that reflect the complexities, values, and challenges inherent to sustainable agriculture and food systems (SAFS) continue to evolve as faculty, staff, and students implement, experience, and modify them. Higher education institutions, especially land-grant universities, have strengths that position them to implement transformative learning and action methodologies. In this article we explore the principles, approaches, and practices consistent with integrative learning and a values-based pedagogical approach to curriculum design and teaching specific to SAFS. By a values-based pedagogical approach, we mean paying explicit attention to the values that (1) underpin different agricultural and food systems and their governance, (2) inform and shape educational strategies and experiences, and (3) are held by different individuals in various encounters in the learning environment. A values-based approach to SAFS curriculum development, teaching, and integrative learning is dynamic rather than static. We provide illustrations of practices across the education "lifecycle" -curriculum design, implementation, and evaluation -that have used values-based pedagogy to guide the development, modification, and strengthening of SAFS curricula. Finally, we discuss some limitations and issues that arise when using such pedagogical frameworks. We conclude by challenging educators to focus on connecting values relevant to SAFS with innovative curricular practices that allow emergence of new ways of teaching, learning, and knowing for all.

Historically, land grant universities and their colleges of agriculture have been discipline driven in both their curricula and research agendas. Critics call for interdisciplinary approaches to undergraduate curriculum. Concomitantly, sustainable agriculture (SA) education is beginning to emerge as a way to address many complex social and environmental problems. University of California at Davis faculty, staff, and students are developing an undergraduate SA major. To inform this process, a web-based Delphi survey of academics working in fields related to SA was conducted. Faculty from colleges and universities across the US were surveyed. Participants suggested that students needed knowledge of natural and social science disciplines relating to the agri-food system. In addition, stakeholders suggested students learn through experiences that link the classroom to field work, engaging a broad range of actors within applied settings. Stakeholders also emphasized the need for interdisciplinary and applied scholarship. Additionally, they proposed a range of teaching and learning approaches, including many practical experiences. Given the diverse suggestions of content knowledge and means of producing knowledge, the survey presented unique challenges and called into question the epistemological and pedagogical norms currently found in land grant colleges of agriculture. This study has implications for land grant universities seeking to develop undergraduate curriculum appropriate to the field of SA. Abbreviations:LGCA -Land grant colleges of agriculture; SA -Sustainable agriculture Damian M. Parr is a doctoral student of Agricultural and Environmental Education, in the School of Education at the University of California at Davis. His professional interests include organic farming, sustainable agriculture, experiential and transformational learning, critical pedagogy, and participatory action research. He is currently working on linking on-campus student initiated sustainable farm and food systems projects to curricula at land grant universities Cary J. Trexler is an assistant professor of Agricultural and Environmental Education at the University of California at Davis where he teaches courses in the history of agricultural education, experiential learning, and research methods for practicing teachers. His research focuses on experiential learning, sustainable agriculture education, and needs of teachers and informal educators within the context of the agri-food system Navina R. Khanna is a graduate student pursuing an MS in International Agricultural Development at the University of California at Davis. She is committed to facilitating community dialogue and education about sustainability issues. Her work at the university focuses on the process and goal of sustainability in agricultural education and campus food system sustainability. Her primary professional interests include democratic participatory process in agri-food system sustainability and urban revitalization Bryce T. Battisti is a doctoral student of Agri...

In this paper we use a critically reflective research approach to analyze our efforts at transformative learning in food systems education in a land grant university. As a team of learners across the educational hierarchy, we apply scholarly tools to the teaching process and learning outcomes of student-centered inquiries in a food systems course. The course, an interdisciplinary, lower division undergraduate course at the University of California, Davis is part of a new undergraduate major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. We provide an overview of the course's core elements-labs, exams, assignments, and lectures-as they relate to social constructivist learning theory and student-centered inquiries. Then, through qualitative analysis of students' reflective essays about their learning experiences in the course, we demonstrate important transformative outcomes of studentcentered inquiries: (1) most students confronted the commodity fetish and tried to reconcile tensions between what the food system is and ought to be, and (2) students repositioned themselves, their thinking, and social deliberation in relation to the food system. Students' reflections point to the power of learning that emerges through their inquiry process, including in the field, and from critical self-reflection. We also highlight the importance of reflective essays in both reinforcing experiential learning and in helping instructors to better understand students' learning vis-à-vis our teaching.Keywords Critically reflective research approach Á Food systems Á Pedagogy Á Social constructivism Á Student inquiry Á Transformative learning Transformational theory is an expression of democratic culture: it demands that we become aware of how we come to our knowledge and about the values that lead us to our meaning perspectives. As individuals, we are accountable for what we know and how we come to know it. Effective learners in an emancipatory, participative, democratic society-a learning society-becomes a community of cultural critics and social activists. Our goal is a viable

Student farms, developed largely out of student efforts, have served as centers for the development of experiential learning and sustainable agriculture and food systems educational activities on land‐grant colleges of agriculture well before most formal sustainable agriculture and food systems programs were proposed. This study explored students’ perspectives regarding effective learning approaches in sustainable agriculture and food systems (SAFS) education, how their experiences on student farms were integrated into their formal educational programs, and their motivations for participation in student farms. Focus groups were conducted with students who worked and studied at student farms (SF) located at three geographically diverse land‐grant colleges (in the Northeast, Midwest, and Western parts of the United States). Students’ learning preference for integrating classroom and fieldwork showed strong resemblance to the experiential learning theory that knowledge is constructed when learners resolve tensions between abstract conceptualization and concrete experience, reflective observation, and experimentation. Students and SF staff and faculty formed a SAFS community of practice that emphasized horizontal knowledge co‐construction, rather than simply privileging faculty (expert) transmission of abstract theory. Students sought out the SF to gain agricultural and horticultural production, marketing, and community development competencies in organic, small‐scale agriculture. Students were motivated by the empowerment they experienced when practical learning directly aligned with, and in some instances was an extension of, their values, ideals, and deeper sense of purpose. Findings suggest student farms are fertile locations for nurturing experiential learning activities as part of land‐grant colleges of agriculture curricula.

In the mid-1970s, University of California, Davis, students concerned about the environmental and social consequences of modern agriculture were interested in exploring the practice and theory of “alternative” agriculture. These students organized to create new educational opportunities to address needs that were not being met by the existing curricula. These student-initiated opportunities emphasized interdisciplinary analyses of agriculture and field-based experiential learning; they included student-organized courses and the development of the Student Experimental Farm (SEF) as a site for student education, research, demonstration, and extension projects. Over the next three decades, the SEF developed diverse experiential educational projects, classroom and field-based courses focusing on sustainable and organic agriculture, and several departments and programs offered additional, related courses and curricula. In 2004, an interdisciplinary curriculum committee within the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences began to develop an undergraduate major in sustainable agriculture. A team of faculty and students within the committee conducted a broad stakeholder survey of agricultural practitioners, academics, students, and alumni to help inform decisions regarding what content, skills, and experiences to include in the curriculum. The survey findings reinforced the original curricular and pedagogical themes articulated and acted upon by students 30 years prior. The proposed curriculum is aimed at integrating disciplinary and interdisciplinary coursework in natural and social sciences, significant on- and off-campus experiential learning, and an emphasis on professional and interpersonal problem-solving and communication skills. Educational theory supports these diverse educational approaches and is useful in helping design courses and curricula in organic and sustainable agriculture.