Necessity of combining traditional and scientific agroecological knowledge in higher education trainings

Abstract

The agroecology education due to its holistic approach presents a remarkable challenge for higher educators. Identification of agroecological elements and their complicated connections require an entirely new educational strategy. SAGITER international project team focuses on the promotion of agroecological knowledge transfer, by combining science-based approach with informal knowledge resulting from everyday experiences. In order to help educators and trainers, SAGITER project team creates training modules that reflect the complexity of agroecology, and teaching tools that facilitate the knowledge transfer. In Hungary, selecting the best knowledge transfer method depends on the basic knowledge of the target group, therefore a thorough real user need assessment was carried out among BSc and MSc students. One of the priority issue of the survey was the ecological farming. Results of the survey proved that there are significant differences in knowledge level related to organic farming originate from their different level and year of study, their different orientation of study, and also the gender was a determining factor. In general it can be stated that students are familiar with the impact of organic farming on the environment, but they are not familiar with its social and economic aspects. The most significant factor that influences students’ knowledge is their previous experiences acquired by practice. This result highlights the importance of the practice in higher education. As a response to the survey, we developed a training ‘offer’ of modules which covers those knowledge gaps that were explored during our survey: economic and social aspects of agroecology besides environmental protection.