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

Abstract

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.

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

“…Recent SFSE scholarship has focused primarily on identifying key pedagogies for cultivating students' professional capacity to address "wicked problems" within food systems (e.g., Jordan et al, 2005;Galt et al, 2012;Ebel et al, 2020;Francis et al, 2020). Trends within this scholarship are synthesized by Valley et al (2018), who propose a signature pedagogy for SFSE (SFSESP).…”

“…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. For students accustomed to traditional Western higher education, however, the shift to a more student-centered learning process may be inherently uncomfortable (Lieblein et al, 2012;Hooks, 2014;Jordan et al, 2014;Francis et al, 2020). The potential for student frustration and discomfort when presented with greater agency in their own learning process indicates a need to build more resources and time into curricula to navigate these challenges.…”

An Undergraduate Agroecology Research Fellows Program Engages Co-learning Through Participatory Action Research

“…These approaches referred to the holistic and interdisciplinary methods that involve contextualized visioning and planning for a sustainable future. This led to the work of Francis et al (2020), which brought forth the notion of transforming farmer stakeholders into co-learners so that they could offer their expertise to university programs. These inquiry formats continued to be problem-solving by nature, as they sought to systematically alleviate challenges through adaptive agroecological co-management that required the use of an array of engaged research skills (Francis et al, 2020).…”

“…This led to the work of Francis et al (2020), which brought forth the notion of transforming farmer stakeholders into co-learners so that they could offer their expertise to university programs. These inquiry formats continued to be problem-solving by nature, as they sought to systematically alleviate challenges through adaptive agroecological co-management that required the use of an array of engaged research skills (Francis et al, 2020). Notably, these early scholar-educators of agroecology purported the essential role of educational action research for combined improvements in both agriculture and agricultural education (Francis et al, 2020).…”

Farmer research networks in principle and practice

“…Berthet & Hickey, 2018;Isaac et al, 2007;Warner, 2007;Wu & Zhang, 2013). These and other authors underline the importance of paying attention to social connections and information flows among farmers, of building effective networks that can help circulate learning and innovations, and of involving stakeholders that can be instrumental in fostering these colearning processes (Francis et al, 2020).…”