Exploring tensions, identities, and equitable science assessment practices in undergraduate agroecology education (original) (raw)
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Sociocultural tensions and wicked problems in sustainable agriculture education
Agriculture and Human Values, 2016
Future practitioners of sustainable agriculture and agroecology must have the capacity to address the wicked problems in the food system to make progress toward sustainability. Undergraduate sustainable agriculture students from a variety of backgrounds may struggle with the question, is the challenging and complex work of addressing wicked problems of agroecology for me? Our case study investigated sociocultural tensions associated with identity encountered when wicked problems teaching units were integrated into the Advanced Practices of Sustainable Agriculture course at a large, Midwestern Land Grant University. The research and course employed a four-part framework that focused on (1) attending to individual needs and identities, (2) facilitating practice-based and community-based learning, (3) engaging in problems situated in regional contexts, and (4) supporting awareness of local and global political and ecological issues. Researchers used a community of practice theoretical lens, and focused on the sociocultural tensions that may have impacted individual and community identity formation. Two wicked problems teaching units are described by drawing upon documentation and audio recordings from planning meetings, course sessions, student and instructor interviews, and course artifacts. Vignettes were constructed to situate four interrelated types of sociocultural tensions encountered by instructors and students. These tensions reflected forces at the individual, community, local, and global levels which interact to influence learners' capacity to become full participants in sustainable agriculture. The study fills a gap related to affective dimensions of learning like identity in agroecology education. Dilemmas and implications related to identity, pedagogy, and epistemology are discussed.
Students Creating Curriculum Change: Sustainable Agriculture and Social Justice
Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis
As the sustainable agriculture movement in the U.S. evolves, it faces the challenges of integration and inclusivity. Including social justice questions within sustainable agriculture education facilitates broader discussions about inequality and who benefits from this education and its practice. In this article, we present a case study in which we share our process and lessons learned from our student-led effort to integrate social justice work within the sustainable agriculture graduate curriculum at a Midwest public land-grant university. We analyze different sources and data to discuss: a) how students' efforts can lead to curriculum development, change, and implementation; b) how integrating social justice within sustainable agriculture curricula can fulfill existing gaps in content and pedagogy; and c) professional and personal lessons learned from this process. Conclusions and recommendations center on how programs undergoing or considering embarking on similar endeavors can learn from our efforts.
Cultivating Pedagogy for Transformative Learning: A Decade of Undergraduate Agroecology Education
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2021
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 th...
Agriculture and Human Values, 2007
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.
Elem Sci Anth, 2017
Undergraduate courses provide valuable opportunities to train and empower students with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to advance society in more sustainable directions. This article emphasizes the value of bridging primary scientific research with undergraduate education through the presentation of an integrated experiential learning and primary research model called Farm-based Authentic Research Modules in Sustainability Sciences (FARMS). FARMS are collaboratively designed with agricultural stakeholders through a community needs assessment on pressing food system issues and opportunities with the objective for faculty and students to jointly identify evidence-based management solutions. We illustrate the implementation of FARMS in an undergraduate course in Ecological Agriculture at Dartmouth College, NH where students assessed various agroecological solutions for managing plant vitality, weeds, soil quality, pests, pollinators, and biodiversity at the Dartmouth Organic Farm. Student reflections indicate that the FARMS course component was beneficial for understanding agroecological theories and concepts while also motivating involvement in sustainability sciences despite the challenges of primary research. Educator reflections noted that the FARMS pedagogical approach facilitated achieving course objectives to develop students' ability for systems thinking, critical thinking, and interdisciplinarity while fostering students' collaboration skills and overall motivation for creating change. Adopting the FARMS model should enable faculty in the sustainability sciences to serve as bridges between the learning, practicing, and scientific communities while supporting educational programming at student and community farms. Ultimately, it is expected that the implementation of FARMS will increase student capacity and prepare the next generation of leaders to address complex challenges of the food system using an evidence-based approach.
Assessing Agroecology Education: Qualitative Analysis of Student Learner Documents
Student learner documents have been used each semester for self-evaluation in a fulltime, sixteen-week agroecology course in farming and food systems. These provide an in-depth reflection by each student of their learning process and personal role in classroom, discussion sessions, team field activities, and interactions with stakeholders on farms and in the community. Learner documents submitted over a period of 14 years are studied through text analysis to organize the content with a systematic classification process of coding and to interpret the documents by identifying themes. This qualitative meta-analysis can identify core consistencies and meanings from a large volume of text. The approach allows for an empirical, methodological, controlled analysis of the descriptions and expressions from students, exploring how they view the learning experience within their context of understanding and communication. Thus, the perspectives of the students' texts can be better interpreted by educators who want to evaluate student experience in understanding key systems issues, higher order conceptualizing of challenges facing clients, and building personal capacity for applications in thesis projects and lifelong learning. Results of this evaluation are used to redesign learning activities in the classroom discussions, the field projects on farms and in communities, and in assessment of learning. While students are acquiring tools and perspectives that will guide their future studies and life work, teachers are learning how to improve the educational process that will better help current and future students achieve their goals.
Assessing Agroecology Education: Qualitative Analysis of Student Learner Documents. 2014
2014
Student learner documents have been used each semester for self-evaluation in a full-time, sixteen-week agroecology course in farming and food systems. These provide an in-depth reflection by each student of their learning process and personal role in classroom, discussion sessions, team field activities, and interactions with stakeholders on farms and in the community. Learner documents submitted over a period of 14 years are studied through text analysis to organize the content with a systematic classification process of coding and to interpret the documents by identifying themes. This qualitative meta-analysis can identify core consistencies and meanings from a large volume of text. The approach allows for an empirical, methodological, controlled analysis of the descriptions and expressions from students, exploring how they view the learning experience within their context of understanding and communication. Thus, the perspectives of the students’ texts can be better interpreted by educators who want to evaluate student experience in understanding key systems issues, higher order conceptualizing of challenges facing clients, and building personal capacity for applications in thesis projects and lifelong learning. Results of this evaluation are used to redesign learning activities in the classroom discussions, the field projects on farms and in communities, and in assessment of learning. While students are acquiring tools and perspectives that will guide their future studies and life work, teachers are learning how to improve the educational process that will better help current and future students achieve their goals.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2013
In this paper we use a critically reflexive research approach to analyze our efforts to implement transformative learning in food systems education in a land grant university by applying scholarly tools to the teaching processes and its learning outcomes. As a team of learners across the educational hierarchy, we evaluate our efforts of creating transformational learning outcomes through facilitating students' inquiries in Food Systems,!an interdisciplinary, lower division undergraduate!course at the University of California, Davis, and 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 student-centered 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 us better understand students' learning vis-àvis our teaching.
2014
from many professional and personal influences. First I would like to thank my chair, Dr. Kim Niewolny for shepharding me through the process and teaching me so much along the way. Your time given to me has been invaluable. This has been one of the most difficult experiences I have tackled and I know I would not have the quality work that I have now without your drive toward producing the best work possible. No matter how frustrated or ready I was to just get it done, I left your office with motivation. I acknowledge Dr. Susan Clark, without her efforts to create such a student driven minor I would not have had the most wonderful experience teaching and learning in higher education. Susan was always an ear to listen and give guidance to navigating my way through the weeds. Thank you for your passion. Dr. Kate McConnell was invaluable to both my graduate education and my research, teaching me a skillset in assessment that has made me more valuable as a faculty member. Thank you for sharing your expertise and also for helping me navigate the strategic process of employment and networking. I would also like to thank Dr. Curt Friedel for bringing to light the role of the educator and giving such keen insight to the overall process and learning theory. After acknowledging my committee members that shared this process with me I would like to thank the Civic Agriculture and Food Systems Curriculum Taskforce for allowing me to participate as a researcher with them teaching and learning in sustainable agriculture education curricula. I also want to acknowledge the Agricultural and Extension Education deparment faculty, staff and students for creating such a wonderful collaborative environment to grow as a graduate student and professional. I want to also thank Jenny Schwanke for always being a voice of compassion, encouragement, and validation. Our talks have meant more to me than you know. v Personally, I would not have made it through the ups and downs of the graduate life without the support of Andrew Culhane. From little surprise massage certificates to weekend getaways and garden planning, there was always positive energy and fun love to get me past the hysterics. I am so very happy that I have made my home in Blacksburg with you and know that there are still so many more amazing experiences to come as we travel along this path together.
Journal of Agricultural Education, 2016
Agricultural literacy connects knowledge, skills, and attitudes/beliefs (KSABs) about agriculture to KSABs in environmental education, education for sustainable development, and science education identified in recent reform initiatives. This study conducted a content analysis of 12 current upper-elementary U.S. science textbooks and curriculum programs to examine the representations and contexts of agricultural concepts. The findings revealed the reviewed materials did not include thorough representations of agricultural concepts or a wide distribution of KSABs and lacked systematic development of agricultural concepts. Implications for integrating agriculture into the elementary science curriculum to promote environmental, agricultural, and scientific literacy are discussed, as well as recommendations to guide developers to redesign science curriculum and promote agricultural literacy.