ESD Principles and learning goals

Food citizenship, food democracy and Education for Sustainable Development are ideals, which cannot be measured. They are situated in what Schnack (2003) would refer to as “utopia” (or a non-place) along with “democracy” and “sustainable development”, which are all ideals – something we can strive towards, but not reach (Schnack 2003). However, ESD also has a set of concrete educational principles, which in combination with the content and educational approaches in food and agricultural literacy has the potential of fostering more citizens’ awareness and action related to food. The general ESD principles or broader learning goals for primary education (and later in life) by Breiting and Schnack (2009, p. 9) (Breiting, Schnack 2009) are listed below and have been adapted to the food area. They include to be able to:

 participate in considerations and mutual learning about sustainable development.

 consider risks, uncertainties, complexities and long-term and comprehensive global consequences in relation to one’s own as well as the practice of others, e.g. in relation to one’s food and other consumption choices or in relation to GM foods and global food supply demands.

 acknowledge, reflect and discuss sustainable development as something that requires discussion of values in relation to possible solutions. It is not about deducting the “right solution”, but about assessing what would be the good and poor actions related to dilemmas and conflicts continuously appearing in relation to long-term development. In the context of food, it could be a discussion of values and pros and cons of purchasing food produced from local farmers or eating imported food.

 analyse limited sustainable development as problems and challenges of understanding social, cultural, economic, ecological, institutional and political structures, dynamic cooperation, power relations, resource distribution and historical courses of development.

 comprehend and handle ecological contexts as well as contexts between societal and ecological development, globally and locally.

 relate ethically, actively, democratically, critically and constructively/innovatively to sustainable development as socio-cultural change processes on all levels.

 think and work in an interdisciplinary, holistic and problem-solving manner.

6.2.2. ESD learning methods

Breiting, Schnack and others working with ESD at the School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark highlight the following methods and concrete learning situations as being essential:

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 Learning through pupil participation, experiences and feeling of ownership for the problem or

‘project’.

 Learning takes place through multidisciplinary and holistic problem solving (problem based learning).

 Learning occurs through facilitation of dialogue about everyday practices, values, dilemmas, conflict and choice based on uncertainty

 Learning through working with different perspectives and developing empathy by identifying themselves with others

 Learning occurs through concrete utopian thinking (visions) and critical, innovative processing.

 Learning takes place through experimentation and practical experience as well as related reflection.

 Learning occurs through the use, presentation and critical assessment of different positions of stakeholders and of news from the mass media.

 Learning through working with power relations and conflicting interests, e.g., in the local situation, between countries, between current and future generations.

 Learning through examples that are useful and fruitful in other situations, in opportunities and alternative actions. (Mogensen, Schnack 2010, Breiting, Schnack 2009)

These learning principles can also be applied to food and agriculture teaching and farm-school collaboration and will be followed-up in chapter 7 and 8.

ESD principles in primary education take their point of departure in a citizenship and life world perspective, which, however, go beyond the principles described earlier related to food and agricultural literacy programs. What is especially highlighted and where ESD approaches distinguish themselves from these programs and environmental education are by actively working with student participation, different interests, conflicting opinions and future visions; that there are many futures (or future paths) to choose from. (Breiting, Schnack 2009) According to Breiting and Schnack, it is important that students understand how to analyse different issues, and most importantly their complexity. For this reason, it is important not to convey concrete and finished solutions to the students: but rather for them to learn how to assess different solutions, understanding that there is not one ‘right’ way, but to relate to dilemmas and being open to several solutions. (Breiting, Schnack 2009)

6.2.3. Learning goals and methods related to food from an ESD and food citizenship perspective Smith (2009) and Caraher and Reynolds (2005) – all from the home economics field, - however, talk about food within a sustainability and future perspective, highlighting a number of similar principles as the more general ESD principles (which can be seen as an umbrella of educational programs within a sustainability perspective);

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 Developing critical thinking skills related to food;

 Addressing multiple problems at the same time;

 Re-skilling to counteract the deskilling that has taken place within food with the rise of the global industrial food market;

 Emphasizing re-investing in community and public spaces as sources of locally grown foods;

 Providing a critical framework for decision-making including questioning the role of food companies in marketing in the educational environment

 Using storytelling and narratives to explore the meanings (e.g., cultural, social, geographical) of food;

 Examining the elements of traditional and local food patterns for those elements that may be helpful for health (of ourselves and the environment) and ecological sustainability;

 Exploring and strengthening our connections to food (including food preparation); and exploring and strengthening our connections to those who produce our food. (Smith 2009, Caraher, Reynolds 2005)

However, they do not integrate future visioning and student participation, which is essential to the ESD learning principles mentioned earlier by Breiting & Schnack (2009).

6.2.4. Food and agricultural literacy from an action competence perspective

In addition to these insights, skills and critical/reflective competencies within food that are stressed above, additional competence related to ESD and action competence is relevant in the food and agriculture area. The following has been inspired by the work of Jensen & Simovska (Jensen, Simovska 2005) and Breiting & Schnack (Breiting, Schnack 2009):

 Commitments: refer to the promotion of students’ commitment and motivation to work with food issues and to contribute to positive solutions. This component is closely linked to knowledge in the sense that knowledge about a problem is not transformed into action if motivation and commitment to become involved is absent. According to Breiting and Schnack, commitment or mental ownership is critical for further action: that the students get concrete practical action experience thereby developing commitment and ownership. The importance of practical experience, encouraging students’ reflections and trust amongst the students in their ability to act are all key factors.

 Visions: involve developing visions and creativity of what the food system could be like in general in the future and how society and environment, including the school, could be improved in relation to the food area. It involves working with students’ own ideas, values and perceptions about what the future could look like.

 Action experiences: are real experiences from participating individually or collectively in food related activities from a democratic perspective. It emphasizes the benefit of taking concrete action during the learning process and how these experiences can contribute to the students’ learning and the development of action competence. This could be by having a

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dialogue with different farmers, learning how to grow your own food and examining how our food habits impacts health and the environment.

In some school practice, notably school gardens, aspects of Education for Sustainable Development, food literacy and farm-to-table perspectives have a history of being applied to practice. The review of these programs by Desmond et al. (2004) shows that the basis and objectives of these programs (which cover important aspects of what could be the focus of sustainable food literacy) are to:

“Introduce youth to sustainable agriculture and environmental education using the scientific method as a conceptual and hands-on learning process that stresses critical thinking, reasoning and problem-solving. Youth educators thus draw on rich mixture of multidisciplinary topics such as agriculture, natural resources, environmental management, health and human safety, and horticulture. The impact [of various garden- and agriculture-based programs] has been seen through increased knowledge of scientific methods, plants, fertilizer and pests, as well as positive attitudinal and behavioural changes, increased awareness and facilitation of higher order thinking processes.” (Desmond, Grieshop et al. 2004) (p. 40)

Building closer links in the food system through the establishment of collaboration between local farmers, schools and students to promote sustainable and healthy food behaviours and actions can provide an important practice field for students to enhance their learning and food literacy - and ideally build food citizenship. It can enable them to see, feel, taste and try out various dimensions of food and connect with local farmers and the soil and field where food is produced. An important lesson from education research and reviews of school food experiences is the important link between learning and experience. According to Dewey, learning is fostered and enhanced through the individual’s own actions, thoughts and experimentation in practice and in the surrounding society (Vaage 2000). Action-oriented learning can enable student ownership and develop important action competence (Jensen, Simovska et al. 2005).

Establishing links between the school and local farmers, as part of a local food system, can be an important arena for this kind of experiential education. However, the type and length of collaboration is essential. A study on agricultural literacy and knowledge about the agri-food system amongst Urban Youth by Hess and Trexler (2011) shows that none of the interviewees had ever grown their own food, raised a plant, or cared for an animal. And that in spite of participation in school fieldtrips to farms or a visit to a relative’s garden they could not accurately elaborate on the origins of common foods, post–production activities or what happens to food as it travels from farm to plate. A farm visit only is in other words by far enough to provide students with an understanding of the food system. (Hess, Texler 2011)

6.3. Links to broader perspectives on bildung

There are clear historical linkages between the perspectives presented here on food literacy, food citizenship, action competence and ESD to the concept of bildung, which has a centuries-long

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tradition in German and Nordic educational theory and practice, as a pedagogical ideal. From a classical perspective, bildung is connected to culture, history, spirituality and related individual behaviour and has traditionally had a tendency to be linked to a fixed, general, normative and bourgeois perspective. (Klafki 1983, Kryger 1994) It is in other words based on a thinking and educational tradition of bildung being linked to a ‘right’ kind of behaviour, which the teaching strived towards. Even to this day, this view and criticism could also be transferred to the area of food and food literacy, where there is a tendency to view food behaviour from this perspective, i.e.

that there is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ food behaviour and values from a prescriptive approach of promoting certain food behaviour either from a nutritional, gastronomic or environmental perspective. Schnack talks about bildung either being related to a socialization or adaptation process as a goal, in order for the child to fit into society and a certain kind of behaviour; or from a distinctly different bildung perspective based on the ideal of educating children to become active and politically conscious participants in a democratic society (Schnack 1994). In Klafki’s critical constructive didactics, bildung is about the individual’s self-determination, co-determination and capacity for solidarity. This includes determination over one’s own life, views, values, religious and career choices, but it also includes one’s claims to, possibilities for and responsibility to influence common societal and political conditions. It is based on a learning approach, which promotes the learners’ own observations, assessment, reflection and development of opinions and actions (Klafki 2001). It is therefore linked to a democratic or citizenship perspective, which Schnack also adheres to. The role of education from this perspective is not about an adaptation or socialization process towards fixed views and behaviour to fit the system but rather to educate future citizens to understand and reflect on connections in society and act responsibly. It is also not related to a fixed educational content, but a broad one, focusing on action competence and experiences for children to shape their own opinions about society and related actions for change. (Schnack 1994) These educational ideals and roots of bildung from this democratic and societal perspective are in other words broadly related to the ideal of food citizenship and closely to the ESD principles presented in section 6.2.1. and 6.2.2.. The connections between this bildung concept and ESD is that they both not aim to encourage students to do or think something specific; but are rather open, non-prescriptive principles based on working with multiple views, dilemmas and conflicts of interest.

ESD, however, is much more future-oriented than the bildung concept.

6.4. Discussion - Food and agricultural literacy and linkages to ESD and farm-school