Promoting AgRoecology transition deMands Innovation in education

Abstract

• Agricultural systems all over the World face complex problems : natural resource depletion, loss of biodiversity, climate change, increasing food and ecosystemic services demands…
• Agroecology addresses this challenge by designing agroecosystems based on biological regulations (Altieri, 1995; Gliessman, 1990).
• Agroecological systems are knowledge-intensive  training and education is one of the major limiting factors
• Putting agroecology into training and education is an exciting and difficult challenge: multidisciplinarity (ecological technical and social issues), unstabilized and hybridized knowledge, systemic approach, local and generic knowledge.
• The results of recent projects (ANR PEPITES, PAMPA Formation, EcoHort, Uved) showed that the construction of digital learning resources is a very interesting way to overcome these difficulties (de Tourdonnet, 2014).

Goal

The aim of PARMI is to create, deliver and test innovative pedagogical resources on agroecology, taking advantage of the diversity and complementarity of a consortium, that combines 7 research units from Montpellier, 3 education Departments of SupAgro and the University of Antananarivo.

Action

To analyse the gaps in numeric educational resources on agroecology
To design new digital resources in the form of learning objects
To integrate these objects into a database to facilitate their capitalization and their use in different training pathways.
To use and test these numeric resources in five training situations in the North and the South :
1. a summer school in agroecology opened to graduate and PhD students and to researchers;
2. course tailored to curricula in Master levels at Montpellier SupAgro
3. course tailored to curricula in Master and PhD levels organized by the University of Antananarivo;
4. resources tailored for technical education in agriculture;
5. a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) on agroecology dedicated to a larger audience.

Results

• To structure a scientific community which covers the disciplinary fields necessary to build an interdisciplinary debate and a shared vision of Agroecology.
• To promote knowledge sharing and joint construction of educational resources based on innovative pedagogical tools: e-learning, Mooc, reverse pedagogy…
• To test these pedagogical resources in a wide range of training situations :
o at different academic-levels: technical training, L, M, D, life-long learning
o in different contexts: France, Madagascar.