Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
will be purchased or leased by existing farmers with very large operations. At the same time,
there is a concentration of wealth and power in the agricultural input industry and in the mar-
keting of commodities and products from agriculture. There is a continuing move toward
vertical integration, especially in the livestock sector, and an objective to control the product
and the profits from the field all the way to the final sale in the supermarket.
Changes in both the input and the commodity marketing sectors represent a move toward
homogeneity and an industrial model that defies ecological common sense and does not con-
tribute to a sustainable future food system for society. It is essential that our educational
process be designed to guide students in an objective evaluation of current systems as well as
alternative future systems, to provide them with the tools and perspective to learn about the
long-term impacts of decisions today that will shape tomorrow's agriculture and food systems.
This dimension of learning includes the clarification of attitudes about research and educa-
tion, and the development of a capacity for visioning the future, both important dimensions of
education that must accompany the accumulation of more knowledge and new skills at the
university.
Experiential learning
In developing courses, implementing educational programs, and observing students sharing
new experiences along with the instructors, the process of learning is as important as the
specific subject matter. Along with the expert view on pedagogy, it is the authors' experience
that even if learning styles differ, many adult learners thrive on practical examples and hands-
on experience, and that a fruitful learning process is exploratory and constructive (Mezirow
1991). Our educational programs have been organised around the principles of experiential or
action education as first described by Dewey (1933), and developed into a practical model by
Kolb (1984). The incorporation of systems thinking to this experiential model, particularly
from the constructivist position of seeing farming and such other 'soft' systems as human con-
structs, makes it a strong and relevant paradigm of education.
One of the assumptions implicit in this paradigm shift is that students arrive at courses in
agroecology with an extensive background in other courses, as well as lives rich with outside
experiences. The challenge for the educator then is to add to those experiences and provide a
learning landscape where students are encouraged to share their expertise with others in the
learning community and to integrate new knowledge into what they already have. The main
goals are to add value to their existing knowledge and to help develop abilities in critical
thinking and decision making. The new knowledge and skills enable students to process dispa-
rate and often conf licting facts and experiences into an integrated appreciation of agricultural
and food production systems.
To implement such a program requires some adjustment in the attitudes of instructors
toward their roles in the learning process, often in sharp contrast to their prior experience in
the educational system. The emphasis needs to change from teaching to learning. To make the
transition from perceived expert ('the sage on the stage') to an effective catalyst for learning
('the guide on the side') may be more of a change than some are prepared to make. To allow
students to assume responsibility for their own learning also may be difficult, if instructors
have been trained to believe that they are always responsible for everything that goes on in the
classroom and the field. It takes personal confidence on the part of the instructor to assume this
different type of role in the educational process, one that Østergaard and Lieblein have called a
'pedagogy without mercy' (Lieblein and Østergaard 2001), when we transfer some degree of
power to students and cannot predict what challenges that will provide us. These approaches
have worked well for us in the agroecology programs in Norway and in the Midwest of USA.
