Exploring agricultural vocational pedagogy in Uganda: students’ experiences

Abstract

Increasingly studies claim that building young people's vocational interest in agriculture, as a sector of meaningful employment, is a central dilemma of Africa's education and labour market systems. With Ugandan students' voices, this article examines some of the methodological dilemmas of agricultural education and training. The article draws from evidence generated through a qualitative case study of a public agricultural college. We undertook the study in line with our conceptual argument for mainstreaming young people's voices in the search for solutions to improve agricultural education practice. The study explored and analysed students' experiences and perceptions of the college's vocational pedagogy. Findings that uncover weak agricultural vocational pedagogy at the case study college are analysed and discussed to inform our recommendation for the embedding of craftsmanship virtues in vocational education practice to optimise students' achievement.

Reclaiming the educative power of vocational placements: Experiences from agriculture education practice in Uganda

“…Relatedly, the World Bank reported that feedback from Ugandan employers indicated that current training programmes were failing to equip trainees with practical skills and job-relevant competencies (World Bank, 2012). It is equally evident that tertiary AET institutions most times teach agriculture theoretically with negligible students' exposure to practice (Jjuuko et al, 2019).…”

2020 Annual trends and outlook report: Sustaining Africa's agrifood system transformation: The role of public policies

“…In its place, short-term and topic-specific training was the main instrument to improve farmers' knowledge and agricultural practices, and young farmers learned farming techniques from their parents (Šūmane et al 2018;Afere et al 2019;ILO and UNESCO 2019). However, evidence shows that short-term training (lasting a few days or weeks) alone does not sufficiently qualify young farmers and other professionals in the agrifood sector, nor in the rural sector as a whole (Haggblade et al 2015;Minde et al 2015;Eissler and Brennan 2015;Brewer and Comyn 2015;O'Donoghue and Heanue 2018;Jjuuko, Tukundane, and Zeelen Source: Kirui and Kozicka (2018).…”

Youth Transition, Agricultural Education and Employment in Uganda

“…The agency freedom and professional autonomy of frontline social actors, especially the AET educators, to practice craftsmanship, democracy and associated transformative approaches is an equally key core argument. Finally, I restate the claim that worrying about the negative influence of dispositional factors, including assumed lack of interest in agriculture education and work as key drivers of limited youth labour market transition, is indeed only one side of the coin (Jjuuko, Tukundane, & Zeelen, 2019). On the other side should be the great concern about how AET institutions and the entire agriculture industry are structured to support the agentic participation of young people.…”

“…Under chapter five I present a detailed account of the state of agriculture education practice at the AET institutions as derived from experiences and perceptions of frontline social actors of the seven VTIs and the case study AET institution. Also, in the article on 'Exploring agricultural vocational pedagogy in Uganda: Students' experiences' published by the International Journal of Training Research (Jjuuko, Tukundane, & Zeelen, 2019), the experiences are used to strengthen the arguments for a craftsmanship embedded vocational pedagogy in Uganda and similar contexts.…”

“…The sub section on vocational pedagogy and craftsmanship is an edited extract from an article titled 'Exploring agricultural vocational pedagogy in Uganda: students' experiences' published by the International Journal of Training Research(Jjuuko, Tukundane, & Zeelen, 2019). The article draws on findings from this study.…”