Book Description

This investigation gave rise to and subsequently analysed the transformation process within a higher education institution (University of the Azores – UA), arisen from the commencing delivery of an organic agriculture scheme. Proposals were made to the UA to include such a scheme in their Agriculture Sciences Department through cooperation with the network of European universities already engaged delivering the subject at various academic levels. Once this co-operation was established and the course had been designed, a series of interviews were carried out with different stakeholders in an attempt to understand the issues affecting the implementation of the new scheme, with view to identify the actions required in order to achieve desirable outcomes. The results obtained from the interview analysis showed that such a process of change offers considerable challenges. Whilst there were several motivations for change, the driving force behind the need to change was clearly student recruitment. The main challenges identified were tied in with: changing teaching methods and contents to target the needs of the future professionals in the sector; facilitating change in perceptions and attitudes; and the need for professional experience to be gained by the teaching staff in the subject of organic agriculture. Findings suggest that students are open to more participatory approaches, action research and experiential learning as means to improving their problem-solving ability in real-life situations. The findings were consistent with the literature, suggesting that there is recognition of the limitations of the traditional learning environment (with emphasis on the failure to address complexity in areas such as organic agriculture), and a will to change. Systems education seems to provide an adequate framework for that to happen, as proven by the examples of success in Northern-European universities.