Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 99
6
A Call for Change
This report has highlighted a number of challenges and opportunities
that have the potential to transform undergraduate education in agriculture.
In recognition that those opportunities will require action, this chapter out-
lines a number of essential recommendations whose implementation the
committee believes is necessary for the future success of the agricultural
sciences. The committee sees agriculture as uniquely positioned to respond
to students’ interest in making the world a better place and in responding to
such important societal needs as food, health, environmental stewardship,
sustainability, and energy security.
Implementing the recommendations described here not only will help
to ensure the future of agriculture but may help to return many colleges of
agriculture to their historical place at the heart of the university. Following
through on the reforms called for in this report will require lasting com-
mitment on the part of many stakeholders—students, faculty, departments,
colleges, universities, industry and other employers, professional societies,
farmers and farm organizations, commodity and interest groups, government
and other funding agencies, environmental organizations and land trusts,
food and environmental justices groups, science education organizations,
community and other nongovernmental organizations, and others. All those
players will need to participate in the conversation and play important
roles in implementing the recommendations. The suggested interventions
will require commitments of time, attention, and in some cases financial
resources; the urgency and the need highlighted in Chapter 1 make the case
for the critical nature of these investments.
On the surface, some of the recommendations may seem utilitarian and
similar to those that have been made in past reports. Those who have been
engaged in discussions about agricultural education for some time may see
OCR for page 100
00 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
much that is familiar. But this report is directed to a much broader audience.
Members of Congress, faculty outside of agriculture, and employers have
not heard these ideas before, and the committee hopes that the messages
will be compelling—and actionable—to this wider group of stakeholders
beyond the college of agriculture and beyond the university.
Even if some of these ideas have been offered before, they have not
been universally put into practice. The committee recognizes that many
institutions have adopted some of the ideas in this report, but there are
few institutions that have implemented many, and virtually none that have
addressed all. The true power of these recommendations comes not in imple-
menting one or even two ideas but in thinking about the entire system of
agricultural education and in the synergistic combination of offering many
different options. Although many of the individual ideas seem modest, the
committee believes that they would be potentially transformative if univer-
sally adopted.
The committee has tried to provide advice about how stakeholders
might respond to the recommendations by describing one or more sample
implementations below each recommendation. These are meant to provide
an example of how the ideas might be put into practice at different kinds
of institutions, not a one-size-fits-all prescription on how they should be
implemented. They are written to illustrate how the recommendations can
be made real, but are not intended to be proscriptive or comprehensive nor
will the particular examples be applicable to all institutions.
In addition to taking action, it is important that those implementing
the recommendations described in this report simultaneously develop
an evaluation and assessment strategy that will monitor the degree to
which the interventions have been successful. The evaluations should be
designed to provide formative feedback that will allow institutions and
others to change their implementation strategy as the interventions are
being implemented.
NEED FOR INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING
The committee believes that all institutions offering undergraduate edu-
cation in agriculture should engage in a period of conversation, self-study,
and strategic planning—followed by putting the plan into action. The com-
mittee has chosen not to offer prescriptive recommendations for particular
actions but instead to motivate attention to general focus areas and to
provide examples of the kinds of steps that might be taken. The particular
interventions that will respond to these recommendations will depend on
OCR for page 101
A Call for Change 0
the unique strengths, challenges, and circumstances faced by individual
institutions, which can be addressed only by the institutions and their com-
munities of stakeholders. In short, one size does not fit all in the specifics
of implementing an objective.
As will be discussed several times in this chapter, strategic plans and
conversations about the direction of undergraduate education in agriculture
should be carried out in cooperation with a variety of stakeholders who have
an interest in the undergraduate experience including those who employ
graduates from agriculture colleges. That means not only students, faculty,
and administrators from colleges of agriculture but also faculty from through-
out the campus, professionals in teaching and learning, employers, local
agricultural organizations, graduates, community members, and other inter-
ested parties. High-level academic administrators will need to be actively
engaged in these discussions to be sure that campus leadership is committed
to implementing the strategic plan and prepared to identify and commit the
necessary resources.
RECOMMENDATION 1
Academic institutions offering undergraduate education in agriculture
should engage in strategic planning to determine how they can best
recruit, retain, and prepare the agriculture graduate of today and
tomorrow. Conversations should involve a broad array of stakeholders
with an interest in undergraduate agriculture education, including fac-
ulty in and outside agriculture colleges, current and former students,
employers, disciplinary societies, commodity groups, local organiza-
tions focused on food and agriculture, farmers, and representatives of
the public. Institutions should develop and implement a strategic plan
within the next two years and to revisit that plan every three to five
years thereafter.
Sample Implementation: Six months after the release of the report, one
0 land-grant institution conened a steering committee of stake-
holders from in and outside of the uniersity to oersee a strategic
planning process focused on undergraduate education in agriculture.
The committee consisted of three faculty members from the School of
Agriculture and Natural Sciences, a faculty member from each of the
School of Business, the School of Health Studies, and Department of
Social Sciences, the county superintendent of schools, and one repre-
sentatie each from a local seed company, a large farmer’s coopera-
tie, the State Department of Enironmental Protection, and the State
OCR for page 102
0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
Department of Rural Affairs. After a series of listening sessions with a
group of stakeholders and discussions oer the next months, the plan
was deeloped and refined, een despite the retirement of a key senior
administrator at the uniersity. Two years after the report, the plan is fully
implemented, and the institution has formalized a process for regular
reiew and amendment.
Strategic planning should be the beginning of an extended and ongoing
process of change, evaluation, and adaptation. Implementation will need to
follow the ideas, and pilot-testing and continual assessment used to refine
and improve new programs and policies. The committee emphasizes that
action and implementation are necessary steps for achieving the goals of this
recommendation and encourages academic institutions to include timelines
for implementation as formal parts of their strategic plans.
The committee reinforces that the stakeholders brought into discussions
of undergraduate education in agriculture should be broader than those who
have traditionally been involved. Faculty, students, and commodity groups
should continue to be integral participants, but institutions should think
broadly and include a more inclusive group of stakeholders in and outside
the university than have been engaged previously at many institutions.
AGRICULTURE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
One of the most important actions that institutions can take to enhance
student interest in agriculture is to increase agricultural literacy. That means
helping students understand such issues as where their food comes from and
the role of agricultural products in energy production. It also means demon-
strating that 21st-century agriculture means much more than farming.
Among the ways that more students can be exposed to agricultural
topics are the incorporation of agriculture examples in courses outside agri-
culture and the offering of team-taught and interdepartmental introductory
courses that serve students in a variety of majors. More radically, institu-
tions may wish to consider whether the current organization of their natural
and social science and engineering disciplines in and outside agriculture
is most appropriate for today’s research and education needs. Although the
committee believes that agriculture colleges have a unique and continuing
role, it may be appropriate for institutions to consider the organizational
structure that is most appropriate for their own setting, as many institutions
have already done.
OCR for page 103
A Call for Change 0
RECOMMENDATION 2
Academic institutions should take steps to broaden the treatment of
agriculture in the overall undergraduate curriculum. In particular,
faculty in colleges of agriculture should work with colleagues through-
out the institution to develop and teach joint introductory courses
that serve multiple populations. Agriculture faculty should work with
colleagues to incorporate agricultural examples and topics into courses
throughout the institution.
Sample Implementation: The faculty at one of the nation’s largest agri-
culture colleges decided that cross-disciplinary education was important
and committed that each department in the college would offer at least
one introductory course that is cross-listed with a department outside
of the agriculture college. They sought support for this idea from the
Provost, who provided a small amount of course development funds that
enabled faculty across the campus to develop courses that fulfilled the
curriculum requirements in their respective departments. The revamped
series of introductory courses now enroll students from throughout
the university and integrate agriculture with courses in several other
colleges, including the College of Life and Environmental Sciences,
the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Public
Health, and the College of Business and Finance.
Sample Implementation: The provost at a non-land-grant institution
decided to hold a meeting involving all of the faculty teaching intro-
ductory courses in science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and
mathematics in the next semester. This meeting, which actually became
a monthly conversation, helped to foster communication between the
courses taught concurrently and enabled faculty to share their syllabi
and suggest ways that the courses might be effectively integrated. Social
science and humanities faculty are preparing similar coordination for
their disciplines.
The committee further encourages agriculture courses to take advantage of
research in student learning and to draw on real-world examples, engage
students actively, and be informed by agricultural science and practice from
a variety of viewpoints.
The committee hopes that interdepartmental connections extend far
beyond course content and include a greater number of joint faculty appoint-
ments, interdisciplinary research and education centers, and structures for
OCR for page 104
0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
collaboration. The close methodological and content connections between
disciplines in colleges of agriculture and throughout the university—in col-
leges of arts and sciences, education, medicine, and engineering, among
others—demand that faculty communicate more directly and collaborate
more often; it will often be necessary to break down administrative barriers
to facilitate such interactions.
CHANGES IN HOW STUDENTS LEARN
During an undergraduate education, students should master a variety
of transferable skills in addition to content knowledge. Employers value
the skills at least as much as book learning. Communication, teamwork,
decision-making, critical thinking, and management should be emphasized
and made important parts of the curriculum. Rather than create new courses,
the committee recommends that institutions integrate these experiences
into existing courses so that students have opportunities to speak and write,
to work together, and to lead and manage as part of the activities in their
“standard courses.”
Students should also have opportunities to engage in a variety of expe-
riences that help to make the content knowledge come alive, including
undergraduate research, internships and other extra-institutional programs,
international experiences, and participation in service learning and in exten-
sion and outreach. The ability to connect undergraduate education and
extension is an opportunity unique to colleges of agriculture; it not only
expands the sphere of institutional and statewide extension and outreach
but provides a chance for undergraduate students to give back to their com-
munities and become spokespeople for agriculture.
RECOMMENDATION 3
Academic institutions should broaden the undergraduate student expe-
rience so that it will integrate:
• numerous opportunities to develop a variety of transferable skills,
including communication, teamwork, and management;
• the opportunity to participate in undergraduate research;
• the opportunity to participate in outreach and extension;
• the opportunity to participate in internships and other programs
that provide experiences beyond the institution; and
• exposure to international perspectives, including targeted learning-
abroad programs and international perspectives in existing
courses.
OCR for page 105
A Call for Change 0
Sample Implementation: The College of Agriculture at a land-grant
institution established a committee of faculty, students, and employers
to deelop a list of skills and competences that all students should hae
upon graduating. The list explicitly detailed how these skills were incor-
porated into its undergraduate majors or how they could be included
by offering additional experiences. Two faculty members requested
supplements that would support undergraduate research experiences in
conjunction with extension. They receied matching funds from the state
soybean council to organize studies inoling undergraduate students
and farmers in identifying best practices for reducing run-off.
The committee recognizes that not all students will choose to participate
extensively in all those activities, but every undergraduate should be exposed
to them and have the opportunity to explore chosen ones in depth.
Providing such opportunities will require resources, but several can be
provided at relatively low cost. In some cases, public and private funding
agencies may need to provide new awards or to extend existing programs to
new activities. In other cases, agencies might expand the use of supplements
to existing awards to support specific educational aims; for example, the
National Science Foundation (NSF) offers supplements to foundation-funded
research projects to support undergraduate research experiences. Even with-
out increased extramural funding, however, the committee urges universi-
ties to prioritize these experiences and to redirect institutional resources to
support them.
As will be discussed below, some of the experiences might be made
available to students through partnerships with companies and other organi -
zations outside the university. Such opportunities as internships, cooperative
education programs, and service learning can also help students to develop
transferable skills, conduct research, and gain exposure to a wide variety
of viewpoints and ideas.
CHANGES IN HOW FACULTy TEACH
The scholarship of teaching and learning has developed substantially
over the last several decades. As outlined in Chapter 3, the consensus of
the research is that students learn more when they are actively engaged
and have the opportunity to consider real-world situations and examples.
Nevertheless, universities still tend to use an outmoded method of teaching
in which lecturing is the norm and the focus on facts is predominant. Many
classes fail to engage students or to take advantage of the research in how
people learn.
OCR for page 106
0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
In general, university faculty do not receive much training in effective
teaching, nor are they exposed to research on student learning; faculty in
agriculture are no exception. Therefore, it will be necessary to provide
opportunities for faculty to learn about the research on how people learn
and to have access to resources to implement course and curricular changes.
A variety of stakeholders will need to devote attention and resources to
faculty development both in the short term and on a continual basis. The
committee especially encourages graduate programs to build those topics
and competences into training for the next generation of faculty.
Faculty will need access to professional-development opportunities and
to the resources necessary for implementing effective instructional strategies.
Educational innovation is generally much less expensive than investment in
research, but it is not free. In fact, time may be a more precious resource than
money for many faculty: time to develop new courses, redesign curricula,
and identify, adapt, or create the necessary teaching materials.
RECOMMENDATION 4
Several actions are necessary to prepare faculty to teach in the most
effective ways and to develop new courses and curricula:
• cademic institutions, professional societies, and funding agencies
A
should promote and support ongoing faculty-development activities
at the institutional, local, regional, and national levels. Particular
attention should be paid to preparing the next generation of faculty
by providing appropriate training to graduate students and postdoc-
toral researchers. Moreover, academic institutions should take steps
to ensure that the responsibility for faculty development rests not
with individual faculty members but with departments, colleges,
and institutions.
• cademic institutions and funding agencies should leverage existing
A
resources or provide additional resources to support the develop-
ment of new courses, curricula, and teaching materials. Among
the needed resources are faculty release time, support for teaching
assistants, attendance at education-focused workshops, and use of
education materials and technologies.
Sample Implementation: One institution restructured their resources
for professional deelopment to enable each faculty member teach-
ing undergraduate courses to attend at least one education-focused
OCR for page 107
A Call for Change 0
workshop per year. The dean of the college of agriculture committed to
proide $,000 in startup funds for noel educational endeaors. One
junior faculty member used these funds to support a research study to
deelop and assess the effectieness of an actiity to teach a difficult
aspect of plant biology; the study was subsequently published as a peer-
reiewed article in the Journal of National Resources and Life Sciences
Education and presented at the annual Plant Biology meeting.
Sample Implementation: An agriculture college restructured its gradu-
ate curriculum to include a course in teaching and learning within
agriculture as part of its core curriculum. In preparation for the course,
the college sent two faculty members and two graduate students to a
national meeting on enhancing the preparation of graduate students
for careers in teaching and inited representaties from two institutions
that hae such a course to gie a college-wide seminar and meet with
faculty and students. The course, which is also aailable to postdoctoral
researchers and to faculty, proides an oeriew of practical education,
exposes students to teaching pedagogies and resources, and proides a
forum for discussion of educational issues. The course has become part
of the training for graduate teaching assistants (TAs), and TAs are asked
to incorporate what they learn into their own classroom practice.
Many colleges and universities have developed centers for teaching and
learning and have professional staff trained to provide support for high-
quality teaching. Such centers are an ideal venue for programming and sup-
port for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers in teaching.
Institutions should look for opportunities to expand and enhance the services
provided by such centers or to establish them if they do not already exist.
Institutions are encouraged to involve graduate students, postdoctoral
researchers, and advanced undergraduates in developing educational
materials and fostering excellence in teaching and learning. In addition to
providing additional expertise devoted to improving education, the entire
educational system benefits by engaging these potential future faculty mem-
bers in thinking about teaching and learning early in their careers.
The committee notes that many of the issues related to faculty devel-
opment also apply to teachers at the K–12 level. For example, a wealth
of resources is available to K–12 teachers (such as those described in
Chapter 5), but many teachers are unaware of them.
OCR for page 108
0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
SUPPORTING THE vALUE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
At the Leadership Summit, it was strongly expressed that achievements
in teaching are rarely rewarded in substantive ways and that faculty were
thus prompted to focus their attention elsewhere. That poses a particular
challenge to the implementation of the recommendations in this report
inasmuch as effecting change in undergraduate agriculture education will
require attention to teaching and learning. Although a full vetting of tenure
and promotion criteria and institutional priorities is well beyond the scope of
this report, the committee offers several suggestions of actions that it believes
are essential for improving undergraduate education in agriculture.
RECOMMENDATION 5
Several stakeholders should take tangible steps to recognize and support
exemplary undergraduate teaching and related activities:
• Academic institutions should enhance institutional rewards for high-
quality teaching, curriculum development, mentoring and other
efforts to improve student learning, including rigorous consideration
in hiring, tenure, and promotion. Academic institutions should also
implement new tenure-track faculty appointments that emphasize
teaching and education research in the discipline.
• unding agencies should support and reward excellence in teaching
F
in both education and research grants. Such models as the National
Science Foundation’s “broader-impacts criterion” should be consid-
ered by other agencies.
• rofessional societies should raise the profile of teaching in the dis-
P
ciplines. That may include offering support and rewards for under-
graduate teaching and sponsoring education sessions and speakers
at society meetings, workshops on teaching and learning, education-
focused articles in society publications, and efforts to facilitate the
development and dissemination of teaching materials.
Sample Implementation: The faculty senate at one institution coordinated
a review of tenure and promotion criteria, developing a set of rigorous
criteria that enabled teaching quality, measures of student learning, and
the level of faculty engagement with educational activities to be explicitly
considered for hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions. The criteria
developed also include methods of evaluation for measuring each of
OCR for page 109
A Call for Change 0
these qualities and assessing student learning and the effectiveness of
instruction without overreliance on traditional student evaluations.
Sample Implementation: A major private funder of agricultural research
began to require grant applicants to explain how their research would
impact undergraduate education or how it would be incorporated into
public outreach and extension activities. Applicants who wish to receive
this funding must, therefore, commit to educational activities, along with
evaluation of their impact and success. The sponsor organized a regional
workshop of its grantees so that they might share their experiences and
results with each other.
Sample Implementation: The board of a major professional research
society in the agricultural sciences voted to enhance the profile of edu-
cation within the discipline. Within a year, they committed to sponsor at
least one education-focused plenary speaker at the society’s annual and
regional meetings and publish at least one education-focused article in
each issue of the major research journal published by the society.
INCREASING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS
Many colleges and universities offer programs in agriculture, but they
tend to exist in isolation, with few connections between institutions even
in the same geographic area. Moreover, community and tribal colleges are
playing an increasingly important role in undergraduate education, enroll-
ing large numbers of students and especially high percentages of members
of groups traditionally underrepresented in four-year colleges. But there are
few pathways for those students to pursue agricultural careers. Similarly,
there are opportunities for colleges of agriculture to work with other, often
smaller institutions to develop and enhance agriculture programs.
RECOMMENDATION 6
Academic institutions offering teaching and learning opportunities
in food and agriculture should enhance connections with each other
to support and develop new opportunities and student pathways. In
particular, four-year colleges and universities should further develop
their connections with community colleges and with 1890 and 1994
land-grant institutions. In addition, four-year institutions should work
with other institutions to establish and support joint programs and
OCR for page 110
0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
courses relevant to agriculture and develop pathways for students
pursuing agricultural careers.
Sample Implementation: Four months after the release of this report, a
major land-grant institution organized a meeting of all academic institu-
tions within 00 miles that offer undergraduate instruction in agriculture.
This group included seeral community colleges as well as 0 and
land-grant institutions. The meeting resulted in a commitment
to deelop cross-registration and articulation agreements to facilitate
student exchange. A multi-institution faculty committee has also begun
establishing a regional center of excellence in a field of agriculture rel-
eant to the region, with support from USDA; when up and running, the
center will offer both undergraduate and graduate instruction aailable
to students at any of the institutions and will create a locus for research
in that field.
Articulation agreements and transfer partnerships should be developed
between two- and four-year institutions when appropriate—but connec-
tions should not be limited to those arrangements. Institutions may wish to
develop multi-institution programs, share resources, allow easy exchange of
faculty and students, and generally work together to support and promote
initiatives of common interest.
Partnerships should exist without regard to an institution’s official status
as a land-grant institution but be based on common purpose and goals.
INCREASING CONNECTIONS WITH PRECOLLEGE SETTINGS
Reform of the role and perception of agriculture is a challenge far beyond
the scope of this report, but it is clear that action in this area cannot occur
solely in institutions of higher education. The committee believes that there
are many opportunities to develop K–12 students’ interest in agriculture,
including formal academic programs and extracurricular programs, such
as 4-H and National FFA. Higher-education institutions have a particular
capacity to effect change in K–12 settings and a responsibility to lead.
RECOMMENDATION 7
Colleges and universities should reach out to elementary-school and
secondary-school students and teachers to expose students to agricul-
tural topics and generate interest in agricultural careers. Although the
specific partnerships will differ from institution to institution, programs
OCR for page 111
A Call for Change
that might be considered include agriculture-based high schools, urban
agricultural education programs, and summer high-school or youth
enrichments programs in agriculture. In addition to formal partner-
ships and academic programs, colleges and universities should explore
partnerships with youth-focused programs, such as 4-H, National FFA,
and scouting programs.
Sample Implementation: Four months after the release of the report, a
non-land-grant college of agriculture called a meeting of the regional
K– school systems as well as area chapters of agriculture-focused
youth and community programs. One outgrowth of the meeting was the
initiation of a program for undergraduate and graduate students to spend
two days per month working with middle- and high-school courses in
agriculture. Seeral uniersity students also signed up to be mentors to
students in the Boy Scouts interested in agriculture.
Sample Implementation: In one western state, the state board of educa-
tion put out a call for proposals to the state’s public institutions, asking
them to propose programs in food and agriculture for secondary school
students. The state made two awards: one recipient has established a
Goernor’s School in food and agriculture that offers two four-week
sessions each summer; the other recipient has deeloped a series of
day-long actiities that are offered to high-school classes surrounding
its urban location.
INCREASED PERMEABILITy BETWEEN
ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AND EMPLOyERS
Discussions at the Leadership Summit and elsewhere testify that
academe and industry operate in largely distinct spheres, although indus-
try is a major employer of food and agriculture graduates. Moreover, many
employers have little understanding of how colleges and universities are
organized, and academe has little understanding of needs outside the
academic sector. Although a number of universities have long-standing
partnerships with particular industries or corporations, there are many
opportunities to expand such collaborations to a wider array of institutions,
companies, and sectors.
To reduce the “silo effect,” the committee offers a multipart recom-
mendation to enhance communication and coordination between academe
and employers at different levels. Each of the elements in the recommenda-
OCR for page 112
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
tion is meant to provide a mutually beneficial relationship. For example,
students benefit from such activities as internships and cooperative educa-
tion programs to gain real-world work experiences, and industry gains an
opportunity to recruit and attract talented young people and hire workers
who already have experience working in the company.
RECOMMENDATION 8
Stakeholders in academe and other sectors should develop partner-
ships that will facilitate enhanced communication and coordination
with respect to the education of students in food and agriculture. The
partnerships should include the following elements:
• cademic institutions should include representatives of industry and
A
other employers on visiting committees, on advisory boards, and in
strategic planning. Companies should include academic faculty on
their advisory committees.
• xchange programs should be developed that enable food and agri-
E
culture professionals to spend semesters teaching and working at
academic institutions and enable faculty to spend sabbaticals work-
ing outside of academe.
• pportunities for students to work in nonacademic settings should
O
be developed and greatly expanded. Programs might include
internships, cooperative education programs, summer opportuni-
ties, mentoring and career programs, job shadowing, and other
experiences.
Sample Implementation: A regional agricultural business consortium
partnered with a local college of agriculture to convene a meeting of
area companies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental organi-
zations (NGOs) with a stake in food and agriculture. As a result of the
meeting, the business consortium agreed to coordinate a student intern-
ship program that would enable a cohort of students each semester to
do an internship at one of the companies or local NGOs.
Sample Implementation: A national organization representing universi-
ties and one representing companies in food and agriculture partnered
to establish a clearinghouse of opportunities for sabbatical research in
industry and institutions willing to offer temporary visiting professorships
for industry professionals. Representatives from the two organizations
OCR for page 113
A Call for Change
also developed template intellectual property policies that facilitate the
exchange of people and information.
These opportunities need not be limited to large food and agriculture com-
panies but could incorporate a wide range of employment sectors from
small family farms to NGOs. The committee hopes that such collaborative
opportunities will have important secondary benefits. For example, closer
connections between academe and industry may encourage industry to call
on academe for assistance in solving industrial challenges; such questions
may serve as case studies in undergraduate classes and provide opportuni-
ties for undergraduate research.
ACCOUNTABILITy AND COMPLIANCE
In order to provide a strong incentive for implementation, the committee
has developed a “checklist” of items that should be used by any individual
or group conducting a review of a program, curriculum, department, col-
lege, or institution (Appendix E). Although the committee does not have the
authority to enforce specific competences, it hopes that these elements will
inform the establishment of review criteria and accreditation standards at
all levels and in a wide variety of settings.
RECOMMENDATION 9
Organizations and individuals conducting reviews related to under-
graduate education in agriculture should incorporate the elements
discussed in this report (summarized in Appendix E) to guide their deci-
sions and reports. This includes accreditation, review of grant propos-
als, department and other institutional reviews, and other venues.
Sample Implementation: Regional accrediting bodies include the list of
questions in Appendix E as a recommendation for the institutional self-
study as well as the external accreditation reiew.
Sample Implementation: An organization representing small agriculture
companies decided to prepare a list of the skills and competences that
they are looking for in hiring college graduates. The organization not
only distributes the list to all agriculture-focused colleges but commits
to including a session at its annual meeting eery four years to reiew
and refine the list.
OCR for page 114
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) might incor-
porate more specific elements into the evaluation criteria for the review of
its programs including—but not limited to—the Higher Education Challenge
Grants Program.1 USDA might also develop workshops for its staff that
provide additional context and background for these issues. Accreditation
bodies within the United States could use these elements to develop a spe-
cific set of benchmarks that institutions might be asked to meet to receive
accreditation. External review and visiting committees might ask institutions
and programs to meet the standards called for in this report. Peer-review
panels might use the elements in Appendix E as goals that submitted grant
proposals should seek to achieve. Professional societies could use these
elements to guide discussions within disciplines and to make decisions
of organizational priorities based upon those elements. The Association
of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) can use the elements in this
report to guide the content of teaching workshops and discussions among
the Academic Programs Section.
The committee expects that monitoring implementation and change
will itself become a topic for research and evaluation. Faculty and graduate
students in agriculture education programs may see this as a fruitful area for
long-term study, tracking change and determining factors that contribute to
institutional change and effective implementation.
IMPLEMENTING CHANGE
The recommendations offered above refer to various stakeholders that
will need to take action. Although it can be easy for one party to see a
challenge as someone else’s responsibility, the committee emphasizes that
each of the many stakeholders has a role in and responsibility for improv-
ing undergraduate education in agriculture. For example, if employers want
better-prepared graduates, they need to be part of the solution. If colleges
of agriculture want students to understand that “agriculture” does not equal
“farming,” they need to reach students from throughout the university and
the general public. If universities want to retain more students in agriculture
majors, they need to foster teaching and learning that promotes student
learning and addresses student interests. If agriculture is to be seen as
1Although the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program solicitation includes several
priority need areas—including curricula design and materials development, faculty prepara-
tion and enhancement for teaching, instruction delivery systems, student experiential learning,
and student recruitment and retention—the current ealuation criteria are quite vague. See
.
OCR for page 115
A Call for Change
science-based, it needs to take its place among other science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics disciplines. The committee hopes that aca-
demic institutions, food and agriculture employers, government agencies,
professional societies, and others will take the recommendations in this
report seriously and implement changes to improve undergraduate educa-
tion on individual campuses.
The Role of Students
As the prime “consumers” of education, students will be most directly
affected by implementation of the recommendations in this report. Although
none of the recommendations explicitly calls for action by students, the
committee believes that students have a responsibility to become edu-
cated consumers and to be advocates for their own education. Students
are encouraged to make the kinds of connections that are described in this
report, enrolling in a variety of courses and taking full advantage of the
opportunities they are given. Students should ask for and pursue the kinds
of experiences that will serve their professional and personal interests, pre-
pare them for a wide array of careers, and provide them with a valuable
undergraduate experience.
This report is more likely to make it into the hands of faculty and admin-
istrators than into the hands of individual students, and the committee calls
on colleges and universities to help students to fulfill their responsibilities.
That is, we hope that academic institutions pass along the committee’s
encouragement to their students and engage undergraduate and graduate
students as full participants in discussions about teaching and learning.
The Role of Faculty
Many of the recommendations in this report are focused on the
classroom—what is taught and how. Thus, faculty members make up one
of the primary audiences for this report and should be intimately involved
in discussions about how to implement its recommendations. Faculty have
primary responsibility for what and how material is taught, so they should
pay particular attention to the discussions about course content and peda-
gogy. They can lead by example in devoting themselves to high-quality
teaching in their departments, disciplines, and institutions and in recruiting
and supporting colleagues who demonstrate a strong commitment to educa-
tion. Faculty also make up departments, colleges, and universities and will
OCR for page 116
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
need to be committed to the changes that these administrative structures
seek to implement.
The Role of Departments
The academic department is often the most crucial level of organization
in a university setting. Faculty appointments, promotion and tenure, under-
graduate majors, graduate programs, credit for teaching, and even recovery
of indirect costs are often tied to departments. The role and size of academic
departments provide an excellent locus for reform of undergraduate educa-
tion and for recognizing the scholarship of teaching. In fact, the commit-
tee hopes that departments will collectively take on the responsibility for
teaching and learning, not relying on the good will of individual faculty. In
addition, departments have the opportunity to work together on administra-
tive and content issues to reduce barriers to cross-department offerings and
provide students with cohesive undergraduate experiences.
The Role of Colleges of Agriculture
As described in Chapter 4, colleges that include agricultural disciplines
have undergone extensive evolution and transformation, often incorporat-
ing such additional fields of inquiry as natural resources, environmental
sciences, and life sciences in addition to traditional agricultural disciplines.
As the home of agriculture, they have the most at stake and the most to
gain from implementation of the committee’s recommendations and from
taking the ideas presented in this report seriously. Therefore, it is essential
that agriculture colleges play a leading role in changes that may ultimately
spread throughout the university, such as revisiting promotion and tenure
policies, establishing a student-centered curriculum, and providing oppor-
tunities for students to engage with the wider community as part of their
education.
Discussions should occur within and between colleges of agriculture
and should involve faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and staff.
The APLU Academic Programs Section has been interested in these issues for
some time and provided the initial discussions and impetus for this project;
the committee hopes that other groups in and especially beyond agricul-
ture colleges will devote the same attention to the reform of undergraduate
education in agriculture.
OCR for page 117
A Call for Change
The Role of Universities
This report and its recommendations extend beyond the college of agri-
culture to the entire university. Agriculture colleges will need to collaborate
with other parts of their institutions to offer introductory-level courses that
can serve students in a variety of majors, and they should take advantage
of opportunities to participate more fully in general education and extend
the reach of agriculture. In addition, many of the policies and practices
that hamper reform in colleges of agriculture are present throughout the
university. The committee hopes that agriculture colleges can lead the way
in reforming tenure and promotion practices, implementing active learn-
ing, and providing students with greater access to and awareness of career
opportunities, but it will be imperative for universities as a whole to address
these issues.
It is vital that institutions give these issues high priority. Most institu-
tions will claim that undergraduate education is one of the top priorities,
but do their actions demonstrate their commitment? How are decisions
made? Where are resources allocated? Which criteria are used to hire and
promote faculty, to establish new programs, and to construct new buildings?
Institutions will need to back up their spoken commitments and mission
statements with action.
The Role of Industry and Other Employers
Although industry has served as an important consumer of agriculture
graduates, employers have rarely played a large role in education despite
a general concern in industry that today’s agriculture graduates do not
meet the needs of today’s employers. The committee believes that indus-
try and other employers should play a more direct role in the reform of
undergraduate education in agriculture. Only by being more involved in
education will industry have the opportunity to provide input with respect
to the skills and competences that agriculture colleges should be instilling
in their students.
The committee has addressed several recommendations to employers
and urges companies with an interest in food and agriculture to take a
leadership role in discussions, advocacy, and support for high-quality under-
graduate education. The committee calls on employers to be a full-fledged
partner in the educational processes and to help to implement the changes
that are necessary for preparing graduates who have the skills necessary to
work in the food and fiber systems, to work across international boundaries
OCR for page 118
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
in a global marketplace, and to become more educated consumers and
more active citizens. Employers can also foster interactions with academic
institutions, for example, by offering student internships, supporting career
workshops and job-shadowing opportunities, and facilitating exchanges
of academic researchers and industry professionals—including sabbatical
opportunities and encouragement for food and agriculture professionals to
seek visiting-faculty or adjunct-faculty positions.
The Role of Government and Other Funding Agencies
Government and other funding agencies have an obvious influence
on agriculture education. For example, the USDA provides critical funding
to land-grant universities through the Cooperative State Research, Educa-
tion, and Extension Service, the U.S. Department of Education supports the
National FFA Organization, NSF supports research and programs related
to undergraduate education, and a variety of private foundations support
education and agriculture. Despite that investment, the committee asked
whether additional roles could be played by federal agencies and other
funders—roles that could benefit undergraduate education. Although addi-
tional resources are often helpful, the committee believes that refocusing
small amounts of funds or tweaking the criteria for existing funding programs
may produce important rewards with minimal new investment. Moreover,
as agriculture has become increasingly science-based, the committee hopes
that agriculture will be fully embraced by agencies that support science
education in general.
The Role of Professional Societies
As stewards of the discipline, professional societies have an important
role to play in speaking on behalf of those in a given field of study. They
also play an essential role in bringing together faculty across institutional
boundaries and are therefore in a unique position to effect change nation-
wide. One of the most natural roles for professional societies is to provide
discipline-specific information and resources, including maintenance of
repositories of relevant teaching materials and sponsorship of workshops
targeted to specific fields of study. It will also be important for professional
societies to raise the profile of education and of education scholarship in
their disciplines.
Professional societies have a number of unique resources that allow the
dissemination of ideas through a discipline, including scholarly journals that
OCR for page 119
A Call for Change
offer opportunities for dissemination and discussion of new ideas and that
allow scholars to read the ideas of others and to publish their own, profes-
sional meetings and conferences that bring together hundreds or thousands
of practitioners and allow face-to-face meetings and informal conversations
that are essential for moving ideas further, and the ability for a discipline to
speak with one voice, to support new ideas, and to advocate for positions of
common concern. As recommended above, professional societies can give
high priority to education and education reform, demonstrating this com-
mitment by giving space to educational topics and papers in their journals
and newsletters, offering sessions and prime speaking slots at their meetings
and conferences to education topics and speakers, and considering how
they can promote and implement education reform nationwide.
The Role of Commodity Groups
Several participants in the Leadership Summit mentioned the impor-
tance of state-level agricultural organizations and commodity groups in
influencing university decision-making and, in particular, of being barriers to
change. The committee believes these groups may be a source of powerful
leverage and hopes that they can be encouraged to think broadly about the
needs for educating the next generation of professionals in food and agri-
culture. Engaging those groups in discussions that extend beyond the needs
of a single department, crop, or industry can help to provide the consensus
needed to move universities forward in a more integrated fashion—the
interdisciplinarity called for in Chapter 4.
The Role of Other Stakeholders
Listing employers, professional societies, and commodity groups only
scratches the surface of the array of stakeholders with an interest in the issues
who should be brought into discussions. The future of agriculture depends
on the education and preparation of the next generation of professionals
and citizens, and it is essential that all the stakeholders be brought into the
conversation. Alumni, donors, boards of trustees, community members, and
others all have important roles to play not only in influencing decisions
about what should be changed but in helping to bring about that change. All
groups should be encouraged to think beyond their individual interests and
to focus on the future of the agricultural education enterprise as a whole. If
agriculture colleges and disciplines cannot remain vibrant, the future of the
entire food and agriculture system is threatened.
OCR for page 120
0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
CONTINUING THE CONvERSATION
The changes recommended here will not all be achieved immediately;
there will need to be a continuing conversation as plans are implemented
and the context continues to evolve. The committee hopes that a continuing
national conversation will encourage constant sharing of best practices and
implementation experiences and will serve as an opportunity for account-
ability. If academic institutions, food and agricultural industries, professional
societies, and others report on their progress periodically, it will not only
continue the momentum but provide constant encouragement of action
and reform.
The community has already taken steps to continue the conversation of
the Leadership Summit. For example, Texas A&M University organized the
2007 National Conference on Changing Higher Education in Agriculture and
Related Sciences with the theme “From Dialogue to Action—Reinventing
Teaching and Learning.”2 It is hoped that this important follow-up meeting
will be the first of many steps, and the committee hopes that the interest
shown by both APLU and USDA will continue—supplemented by interest
from other national groups that extend beyond land-grant institutions. APLU
and USDA have an obvious national and cross-disciplinary interest in the
issues, and the committee hopes that regional consortia and professional
societies will continue to discuss them in geographic regions and in disci-
plines. Students, employers, and other stakeholders should be fully engaged
in follow-up discussions and specifically invited to participate.
2See for more information about this conference,
which was held June 11–13, 2007, in College Station, Texas.
