Experiential Learning In Agroecology Includes Stakeholder Participation.

Agroecology education embraces the ecology of food systems, including all the complex interactions starting with use of natural resources through production, processing, marketing, and consumption. We’ve observed that students can best understand these systems through immersion in the environment of the farm and in the rural community. The phenomena that the students encounter then serve as the starting points for their learning. Twelve years’ experience has convinced us there is no substitute for living and working with farmers and interviewing other stakeholders in the context of their community. Goals of the stakeholders become the goals of the study teams, and students work to discover the long-term aspirations of stakeholders to help them meet their goals. During two weeks in the field, students can absorb much of the complexity of natural resource and human interactions that are central to the productivity and economic viability of the area. For the past three years we have been invited by communities participating in the national Ekoloft program that is geared to increasing production and consumption of organic foods. Now the County Governors Offices are paying half of the expenses of student teams, alleviating our project budget concerns and raising the stakes of the activity for all concerned. For students, this recognizes the importance of the project work and provides additional incentives for them to deliver a quality report. The project as implemented will help meet the national goals of 15% organic food in Norway by the year 2020.   Through this work, in combination with activities in the classroom, students start developing the core agroecology skills of active participation, deep reflection, rich observation, creative visioning and dialogue-based communication. We think that these skills will be important also for students in agronomy, plant- and soil sciences.