Learning Agroecology through Involvement and Reflection

Francis, Charles; Østergaard, Edvin; Nicolaysen, Anna Marie; Lieblein, Geir; Breland, Tor Arvid; Morse, Suzanne

doi:10.1201/b19500-6

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Encouraging student agency in course design contributes to a more participatory approach to agroecology education. This aligns with both a core tenet of transformative agroecology and with calls to expand student roles in developing agroecology education (Lieblein et al, 2012;Francis et al, 2016;Code, 2017). We see evidence of the efficacy of this participatory approach to agroecology education in the MSC reflections, in which student empowerment emerged as a forceful theme.…”

Section: Lessons Learned From Ongoing Curricular Reviewmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Integrating reflection, research, and on-farm actions, PAR may be a way of simultaneously enabling transformative student learning and leveraging university education as a site of AE transformation toward equitable agrifood systems. This could be explored as a reinterpretation of the dual ladder approach (Francis et al, 2016) in which individual student learning occurs concurrently alongside broader, collective learning that transgresses traditional educational boundaries. Despite the challenges of integrating long-term research and undergraduate education, our course evaluation indicates that PAR holds unique promise as a pedagogical approach for transformative agroecology education.…”

Section: Lessons Learned From Ongoing Curricular Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students' reports of integrating experiential and abstract learning are particularly important in addressing the ontological reversal that defines much of the theory-centric pedagogy within institutions of higher education. Francis et al (2016) argue that a phenomenological approach to agroecology education is necessary to resituate lifeworld phenomena as the foundation for theoretical, model-based, or conceptual understanding. Considered in this context, experiential learning may support transformative learning by shifting students' perceptions of both learning processes and the validity of lived experience as a foundational source of knowledge (Francis et al, 2016).…”

Section: Participatory Pedagogy Is Powerfulmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

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

Horner

Morse

Carpenter

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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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.

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Section: Lessons Learned From Ongoing Curricular Reviewmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Lessons Learned From Ongoing Curricular Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Participatory Pedagogy Is Powerfulmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Horner

Morse

Carpenter

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Program learning activities are summarized in the book by Mendez, Bacon, Cohen, & Gliessman (2015), Agroecology: a transdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented approach. Chapter 5 in this book, "Learning agroecology through involvement and reflection" (Francis et al, 2015), outlines the importance of students gaining perspective and practice while achieving five specific competencies of observation, dialogue, participation, reflection, and visioning. The overall learning goals in both the original doctoral short courses and the current MSc two-year curriculum continue as they were initially conceptualized [Ibid., p. 86], with students developing:…”

Section: The Evolving Educational Landscape In the Agroecology Msc In Norwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformative education in agroecology: student, teacher, and client involvement in colearning

Francis

Nicolaysen

Lieblein

et al. 2020

IJANR

Self Cite

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Educational methods have evolved rapidly in agroecology, which is a complex and holistic field without a long history or the formal tradition of any single academic discipline. Definitions of agroecology have evolved from its initial conception as a marriage of agriculture with ecology, to an aggregation of different paths including science, practices, and movements, and recently as a broad appreciation of the ecology of food systems. In contrast with traditional courses that begin with a history of the discipline and review the contributions of early leaders, we have embraced phenomenology to firmly establish roots in students’ learning through their experiences interacting with farmers and practitioners in food systems. We have pursued close collaborations among students, teachers, farmers, processors, retailers, consumers, and government officials to build ownership of the learning process in a transdisciplinary education model. Working together in the learning landscape, we have codeveloped visions of sustainable systems for the future. As a team, we are searching for meaning and applications to help advance substantial changes in the production and consumption of food and more importantly, a transformation in thinking about educational alternatives. Our learning program’s focus is catalyzing the student journey by developing five competencies: observation, dialogue, participation, reflection, and visioning. Implementing the program requires fundamental changes towards colearning involving students, instructors, and stakeholders, plus modifications in the institutional environment. With well-focused skills and practice, our graduates are prepared to deal with a complex and unpredictable future, where many of the questions and challenges are yet to be discovered. By involving students and others in design, this becomes a process of empowering each participant to take responsibility for their education and preparing them for lifelong learning with the motivation to be an active and responsible agent of change.

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“…Since one of our assumptions was that the shift from traditional teaching and learning to an experiential approach implies incorporation of the activity of metacognitive reasoning, a way of learning that Mezirow [18] calls transformative, we were interested in exploring such a dimension. In the autumn of 2013 the course in sustainable agriculture was run at UNISG, based on experiences from an MSc program in agroecology at NMBU [19]. Our research questions were:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitating Transformation and Competence Development in Sustainable Agriculture University Education: An Experiential and Action Oriented Approach

Migliorini

Lieblein

2016

Sustainability

Self Cite

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Abstract:The need to strengthen the connection between academia and society has received increased attention over the past years. The importance of bringing university students closer to stakeholders in society as part of their learning process is high regarding sustainable agriculture, because of its applied approach. University programs based on experiential and action-oriented learning have been developed over the past decades, but more knowledge is needed about the impact of these educational activities. In a short course in sustainable agriculture at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Italy, we examined the impacts of experiential and action-oriented learning on competency development as well as transformational impacts on the students. We found that students improve on several core competences as a result of their participation in the short course, and also signs of deep transformational processes among the students.

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Learning Agroecology through Involvement and Reflection

Cited by 5 publications

References 16 publications

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

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

Transformative education in agroecology: student, teacher, and client involvement in colearning

Facilitating Transformation and Competence Development in Sustainable Agriculture University Education: An Experiential and Action Oriented Approach

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