Student: Heather Shaw
Graduation date: May 2020
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2017
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Summary
Looking at different situated contexts of environmental education and I intend to compare agricultural and urban areas, focusing specifically in education on food systems. Food systems and the idea of “place” are two key concepts that I will be using to understand the relationship between environmental education in rural and urban areas. In this context I will be using environmental education as a way to focus on how the next generation is learning about the food system. The food system is a broad term, “food is a massive industry and the many key players have very different interests” (Tansey and Worsley 1995). The idea of “place” is critical to the understanding of how environmental education is situated in different contexts. The “critical pedagogy of place ultimately encourages teachers and students to reinhabit their places, that is, to pursue the kind of social action that improves the social and ecological life of places, near and far, now and in the future” (Gruenewald 2003). Applying Gruenewald’s theory to situational environmental education and how food systems are viewed in both agricultural rural areas and urban contexts provides a way for the next generation to be able to “reinhabit their places,” understanding their place in the greater food system. What is critical to remember though, is that broad statements cannot be applied to every culture in the same way and viewing the situated “place” is integral to coming to an understanding of how these topics are addressed by education.
Observing the topic of agricultural rural societies, for example how families operate farms, communities construct cultural meanings and control space (Cloke, Marsden, and Mooney 2006) is critical to understand when looking at situated environmental education in these areas. Students living in agricultural areas have the opportunity to understand how the production of food works on a first hand level, and I wish to explore how this plays into the education they receive on the greater food system. Agriculture has been around for centuries, but the rising local food movement is relatively new and is working to place more responsibility on individual communities about their consumption (Metcalf 2014). I plan to look into how food trends are affecting rural agricultural communities in the way in which they are producing for the greater food system. Rural sociology in part studies how social issues affect rural areas (Friedland 1982), which I will use to explore how these issues that surround societies of rural agriculture play into environmental education and are incorporated into a curriculum. Hopefully this will provide the next generation awareness about their home and the food system that surrounds it.
Urban society is another group that differs geographically and therefore is linked into the greater food system differently. A term that is often used to describe residents of urban areas is “urban consumers”. Davis discusses how over the past decade, urban residents have experienced a consumer revolution at multiple levels in terms of material standard of living and “sustained economic growth has dramatically increased spending on discretionary consumer purchases and urbanites have enthusiastically consumed globally branded foodstuffs” (Davis 2005). It appears in many urban areas there is a disconnect between issues involving the rural food system and cities, cities appear to be preoccupied with other prevalent issues such as transportation, housing and employment (Pothukuchi and Kaufman, 1999). Cities focusing more on these issues are choosing to ignore their levels of consumption and how those impact production coming from the rural side of the food system. Consumerism in urban areas has many sides and how students are educated on these topics in city schools ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade influences their view on the food system, contrasting with education more focused on food production in rural areas.
In general environmental education can influence sense of place through a combination of direct place experiences and instruction (Kudryavtsev, Stedman, and Krasny 2012), this ideology can be applied to food system education and the comparison between agricultural rural areas and urban settings. An interesting study that I feel ties my ideas together assessed teacher perceptions of the agri-food system and education on agriculture, being more focused on farming for younger students and moving toward more about health, food production and the consumption system for older students in order to help them make well reasoned decisions about personal health and the environment (Trexler 2000). The juxtaposition of agricultural rural areas and urban areas in view of education on food systems appear to be intertwined, thought it is important to differentiate between specifics of situated contexts and the generalizations that they imply. I will explore these issues in the regions of an urban environment and an agricultural rural environment. In these two situated contexts I will weave together a breadth of information on how environmental education is changing the views on food systems and how this influences student perceptions of “place”.
Refrences
Cloke, Paul, Terry Marsden, and Patrick Mooney. 2006. Handbook of Rural Studies. SAGE.
Davis, Deborah. 2005. “Urban Consumer Culture.” The China Quarterly 183 (September):692–709. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741005000421.
Friedland, William H. “The end of rural society and the future of rural sociology.” Rural Sociology 47, no. 4 (1982): 589.
Gruenewald, David A. 2003. “The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place.” Educational Researcher 32 (4):3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032004003.
Kudryavtsev, Alex, Richard C. Stedman, and Marianne E. Krasny. 2012. “Sense of Place in Environmental Education.” Environmental Education Research 18 (2):229–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.609615.
Metcalf, Sara, and LaDona Knigge. 2014. “Sustainable Agriculture.” Oxford Bibliographies. March 27, 2014. http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0042.xml.
Pothukuchi, Kameshwari, and Jerome L. Kaufman. 1999. “Placing the Food System on the Urban Agenda: The Role of Municipal Institutions in Food Systems Planning.” Agriculture and Human Values 16 (2):213–24. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007558805953.
Tansey, G., and T. Worsley. 1995. “The Food System: A Guide.” The Food System: A Guide. https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19951806874.
Trexler, Cary. 2000. Elementary And Middle School Teacher Ideas About The Agri-Food System And Their Evaluation Of Agri-System Stakeholders’ Suggestions For Education. Vol. 41. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2000.01030.
Questions
- Descriptive; What is the “environment” of environmental education in rural and urban areas? How does a society’s view of food systems differ in participation and from place to place? What are the ways that people in agricultural rural areas produce and consume food?
- Explanatory; How is education on food systems affected by its “environment”? How are agricultural rural economies influencing the greater food system? Is there any evidence that different educational approaches influence people’s outcomes later in life?
- Evaluative; How and for whom is consumerism a problem or benefit in the context of food systems? Are new food trends positively or negatively affecting rural agricultural communities? What are the problems and benefits surrounding the idea of the “urban consumer”?
- Instrumental; What role should teaching of the food system have in modern education, and how can this role be most effectively achieved? How should the next generation be educated on the differences between rural and urban areas in different situated contexts?
Concentration courses
- ED 205 (Education in a Complex World, 4 credits) taken Fall 2016. This course gave me an understanding of the many complexities and inequalities in the education system, and how even in the US there are many disparities in the way that students are taught.
- Hist 388 (What’s for Dinner, 4 credits) in Spring 2018. In this course I would hope to learn more about the historical, political and economic power of the food system as well as class differences in food consumption.
- ED 455 (Science Education in the 21st Century, 4 credits), Spring 2018. This course will help me to understand the role of science education in a democratic society and what influences students in their excitement about science, this will help me understand students motivation in learning about their environment.
- ED 450 (Environmental Education, 4 credits) Fall 2018. This course will hopefully broaden my understanding of how humans interact with the natural world through education and what social and cultural factors play into the problems and solutions of environmental problems.
- SOAN 249 (Political Economy of Food, 4 credits), Fall 2018. This course will help me to understand better how politics and the food system are interconnected and how people's view of the food system has changed over time.
- ENVS 499 (Independent Study, 4 credits) 2 credits in Fall 2018 and 2 the following Fall 2019, hopefully to do with research on education in Chile while studying at a Spanish University.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.