Agriculture and the Undergraduate (1992) / Chapter Skim
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From page 1... ...
agricultural, food, and natural resource system faces an era of global competitiveness, inequities in worldwide food distribution, environmental and health concerns, and promising new science and technologies. These issues have also transformed colleges of agriculture from their former preoccupation with production agriculture, to a strong business approach, to greater attention to the underlying sciences.
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From page 2... ...
Agriculture will increasingly produce industrial materials and feedstocks and, as an industry, will increasingly become directed toward value-added products instead of raw commodities. Food safety and new perceptions in nutrition will result in linking production, plant and animal genetics, food processing, and transport and marketing.
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From page 3... ...
Constraints to Innovation Changes in curricula and movement in new directions face constraints, some of which are shared by other colleges in the university. A fundamental enigma faces undergraduate education in agriculture, however: People cling to notions of rural pastoralism and simplicity about what is in fact a highly sophisticated system for food production and distribution.
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From page 4... ...
Substantial changes in industry have transformed agriculture: consolidation of production units, replacement of small communities by regional markets, greater market orientation in government policy, computerization and larger, more efficient production and processing equipment, biotechnology, changes in production systems, the dominance of a limited number of large food system companies, coordinated supply and marketing, and the economic dominance of 4
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From page 5... ...
Liberal and General Education Core curricula, distribution systems, liberal education, and general education are themes that penetrate any discussion of curriculum revision in the 1990S, often as hegemonic aspects. The definition and application of these domains, however, are less certain than the expectations that they ought to be there.
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From page 6... ...
it is not limited to the first 2 years of study at a university but is integrated with the whole curriculum, including professional programs; it centers on the individual student and is concerned with the development of the learner. Paul Thompson also called for what he termed "targeted social sciences and humanities education" in the curriculum.
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This traditional social and ethical context of agriculture the special relations with the natural world and the values of labor, the community, and rural life once regarded as unique can no longer form the basis of its operation or existence. With this assertion, Otto Doering argued that the industrial sector has overtaken agriculture and has permanently altered the context of agriculture for many Americans.
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Robert Matthews argued that an environmentally sensitive curriculum should provide both relevant understanding and appropriate analytical skills. To do that, students will need to understand the historical, social, political, and economic contexts within which environmental problems have emerged.
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From page 9... ...
; Project Learning Tree (for students from kindergarten through grade 6 sponsored by the Western Regional Environmental Education Council and the American Forestry institute) ; and Project Wild (for students from kindergarten through grade 12 sponsored by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Western Regional Environmental Education council)
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From page 10... ...
Systems studies can complement studies of social, historical, and ethical contexts. Values studies, however, may have an advantage because there is an identifiable body of research, albeit largely outside of colleges of agriculture, and the support of specific journals in the field.
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Although people sense that science is one of the significant trends shaping the future of agriculture, they do not know and are not concerned about the future shape of that science. Academic institutions should cooperate with the public as it tries to make sense of where science will take them and should be sure that their students even those in specialized disciplines emerge from their universities well-rounded, able to function in a society that looks on Experts" with a mix of admiration and suspicion, and with a level of scientific literacy that helps them respond intelligently when public policy issues affecting science arise.
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From page 12... ...
As technical content is consolidated and integrated, so should the human elements, such as ethics, literature, philosophy, foreign languages, geography, history, and political science. Courses should provide instruction in concepts, synthesis, and process to make students better problem solvers.
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From page 13... ...
There is a need to improve the ways in which graduate students and young faculty are prepared for their role in teaching, such as the development of well-defined skills in communication, contact with master teachers, short courses in methods of instruction, and supervised guidance. To improve the efficiency of faculty contributions to teaching, innovative approaches should be explored: · reducing skill training or how-to courses; · panel teaching of courses by instructors with different specialties or from different fields to facilitate the integration of multiple inputs of information and merged perspectives; · ensuring that each adjunct faculty member has a specified teaching role; · teaching with flexibility with regard to the times and course credits offered; 13
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From page 14... ...
The mechanisms available to colleges of agriculture may be national projects that provide teaching materials, direct provision of information concerning careers in agriculture to the secondary school system, and direct and indirect linkages with science teachers and their organizations. Colleges of agriculture should be involved in the preparation and distribution of instructional materials to maintain the traditional student pipelines and to improve the substance, content, and format of available materials.
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From page 15... ...
However, colleges of agriculture should include a component of education in the social sciences and humanities, over and above university-wide core requirements, that is specifically targeted to provide appreciation for the historical roots of agriculture and for the social, ethical, cultural, and critical issues related to agriculture, food, and natural resources. Support mechanisms, including systems research, should be created for experimentation and implementation of systems studies, including the soft systems approach.
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