Food, Farms & Justice: What's Education Got To Do With Them?

Catalog description

This course intends to unite students' minds, hearts, and bodies in an historical, sociological, and experiential exploration of food and farms and their educational possibilities. Students' minds will be engaged as they explore the 20th century history, contributions, and legacy of industrial agriculture and the emergence of alternative approaches related to food and farming in recent decades. Students' hearts will be engaged as they consider their own relationship to food, to soil and place, and to learning. Finally, students' bodies will be engaged as they directly participate in farming/gardening and communal meal preparation and enjoyment. The uniting of mind, heart and body culminates as students become teachers - applying their embodied knowledge in the creation of learning activities that are taught to others. Guiding questions for students' explorations include: (1) How is food - its cultivation, preparation and enjoyment - a cultural, ecological and moral activity? and (2) How might farm/garden based education cultivate abiding relationships between people and their places/communities, their soils, their bodies, and to more just and humane relationships to others? In the first half of the course, students will be introduced to influential writers representing diverse perspectives within the humanities.The aim is that students conduct a reckoning of industrial, large-scale and corporate orientations to agriculture. Why? To discern desirable alternatives that promote the health and well-being of people, soils, and communities. Students will discern a vision of a just, sustainable and meaningful life. In the second half of the course, students apply their understandings of food, farm, justice and sustainability to developing farm/garden based learning experiences for others. To this end students will be introduced to farm/garden based education; constructivist, student-centered learning theories; curriculum development approaches; and the design of performance assessments. Finally, having studied instructional/curricular theory and practice, students will apply their learning through a "field-based" teaching practicum, showcasing their skills in developing farm/garden based curriculum and instruction.