Cultivating Pedagogy for Transformative Learning: A Decade of Undergraduate Agroecology Education

Abstract

Existing scholarship on agroecology and food systems education within U.S. colleges and universities has focused primarily on preparing students to be professionals working in agrifood systems. Developing students' skills and competencies, though vitally important, may not suffice for supporting transformative learning. Transformative learning shifts students' perceptions and awareness and informs future actions, constituting a potential avenue for leveraging education to support transformations toward more socially just and ecologically viable agrifood systems. It is unclear, however, what pedagogies and educational practices enable transformative learning. This paper explores the integration of multiple pedagogical innovations within an advanced agroecology course taught at the University of Vermont. Over a decade, the teaching team has made iterative adjustments to course content and pedagogies with the goal of catalyzing action toward transforming agrifood systems. In this paper, we evaluate our pedagogical approach, asking: (1) How well do course content and pedagogy align with our definition of transformative agroecology as transdisciplinary, participatory, action-oriented, and political? (2) How well does our approach enable transformative agroecological learning, and how is that identified? We present our course evaluation as a case study comprising qualitative analyses of course syllabi, student comments on University-administered course evaluations, and most significant change (MSC) reflections. MSC reflections proved to be a valuable method for identifying and assessing transformative learning. Through a curricular review, we found that substantial changes to course content and evaluative assignments between 2010 and 2020 align with a transformative approach to agroecology. This is validated in students' MSC reflections, which provide evidence of transformative learning. In sharing evaluative results, processes, and insights, we aim to contribute to a broader movement of scholar educators committed to iteratively and collaboratively developing transformative pedagogies within agroecology and sustainable food system education. We contend that reflexive practice among educators is necessary to leverage education for transforming agrifood systems.

Becoming agroecologists: A pedagogical model to support graduate student learning and practice

“…Agroecology programs, therefore, must enact alternative epistemologies in order to counter dominant agronomic paradigms and prepare students to engage with food systems work. Prior scholarship has identified four main agroecological epistemologies: holistic systems, action learning, horizontal learning, and multiple ways of knowing (Jacobsen et al, 2012;Hilimire et al, 2014;Horner et al, 2021). Holistic systems includes multiple frameworks and approaches to understand food systems as whole, connected, and socially constructed.…”

“…However, experiential and participatory learning differ in the learner's level of embeddedness. Experiential learning often involves activities such as field trips, open-ended case studies, internships, farm visits, etc., which are implemented in both undergraduate programs (Galt et al, 2012;Valley et al, 2018;Ebel et al, 2020) and individual undergraduate/graduate courses (Wiedenhoeft et al, 2003;Jordan et al, 2005;Francis et al, 2018;Horner et al, 2021). In participatory learning, students are embedded in collaborations with community partners, which is often used in graduate programs with thesis or dissertation projects (Migliorini et al, 2018;Rivera-Ferre et al, 2021) or in undergraduate research experiences (Parr and Van Horn, 2006;Salomonsson et al, 2009).…”

“…As a discipline, agroecology often integrates multiple ways of knowing through transdisciplinarity, which recognizes that knowledge exists beyond and across the confines of academic disciplines (Méndez et al, 2015;Gliessman, 2018). Inter-, multi-, or transdisciplinary learning are key components of university agroecology programs and courses (Parr and Van Horn, 2006;Galt et al, 2012;Hilimire et al, 2014;Francis et al, 2018;Valley et al, 2018;Ebel et al, 2020;Ingram et al, 2020;Horner et al, 2021). While there can be important distinctions between inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary learning (Francis et al, 2011;Hilimire et al, 2014), some differences reflect evolving language (Parr et al, 2007).…”

“…There are several ways that the agroecological epistemologies described earlier may still perpetuate these dominant ontologies. One of the most common emerging critiques of agroecology curricula is that prior scholarship over-emphasizes skill/competency development and professionalization, which perpetuates a neoliberal emphasis on market-based interventions (Classens et al, 2021;Horner et al, 2021;Dring et al, 2022). Emphasizing skills and tools is also more likely to focus on scientific or technical solutions, such as replacing chemical inputs (Migliorini et al, 2018;Rivera-Ferre et al, 2021), resulting in academic and Extension programs that separate agroecological science from social/political movements (Wezel et al, 2009;Gonzalez de Molina, 2013;McCune and Sánchez, 2019;Rivera-Ferre et al, 2021).…”

“…Habits of mind are the habitual and automatic ways in which we think, so developing new habits of mind builds a set of mental responses to new situations or knowledges. Furthermore, analysis of student artifacts from courses at the University of Minnesota (Jordan et al, 2008), UC Davis (Galt et al, 2013), Trent University (Classens et al, 2021), and the University of Vermont (Horner et al, 2021) have all affirmed that critical reflection can result in transformative learning experiences that shift how students engage with individual and collective action.…”