Agriculture and the Undergraduate (1992) / Chapter Skim
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25 Emphasizing the Social Sciences and Humanities
25 Emphasizing the Social Sciences and Humanities
Pages 208-221
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From page 208... ...
Given this background, much of the work that might have been expected in a chapter emphasizing the social sciences and humanities has already been done. What is more, the completion of the Social Science Agricultural Agenda Project (Johnson et al., local)
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From page 209... ...
Programs of core education that stress Great bookst' or a unified approach to understanding society and civilization through the study of art, literature, or history are quite likely to exclude these special topics in a systematic and deliberate way. If these special topics are not introduced into the education of agricultural and natural resources students at the upper division or graduate level, the core education movement to emphasize the social sciences and humanities will, in fact, deprive 209
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From page 210... ...
. CRLA claimed that producers who have aggressively sought a competitive edge have benefited disproportionately from publicly funded agricultural science, at the expense of small farms and the farm labor that had been displaced by the resulting technological changes.
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From page 211... ...
Others include the questions of field testing engineered organisms, determining the acceptable risks associated with agricultural chemical residues in food, examining our commitment to the development of agriculture in less developed countries in light of domestic farm interests, preserving genetic diversity, and environmental and public health regulations as barriers to trade in agricultural products. These are among the most difficult of a long list of topics that, more broadly, include world hunger, environmental quality, animal welfare, and the traditional agrarian philosophy of farming as a way of life.
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From page 212... ...
There should be undergraduate courses that take up the politics of the policy process and the histories and organizational structures of groups (commodity organizations, environmental or animal welfare activist organizations, consumer groups, etc.) that influence agricultural and natural resources practices.
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From page 213... ...
A similar situation holds for course work on social psychology, development theory, and cultural analysis that might be offered by sociologists and anthropologists with appointments in colleges of agriculture and natural resources. Such organization does little to serve the broad educational needs of undergraduates.
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From page 214... ...
The state of agricultural educationts ability to investigate and disseminate a comprehensive and unified vision of food systems in modern society has, if anything, been damaged rather than improved by curriculum reform efforts that stress the hot new technologies. Faculty may also have thought that such a stress would be consistent with the existing research and educational capacities of agricultural and natural resources faculty.
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From page 215... ...
To a large extent, however, these more commonly cited barriers are all functions of the existing research and educational capacity within agricultural universities, since each is the result of expectations and values that are held by individuals who currently occupy faculty and administrative posts. Although it would be naive to ignore such barriers in promoting curriculum change, it would be equally naive to think that an effective effort to enhance an agricultural faculty's ability to integrate values issues into more technical subjects will not simultaneously improve the prospects for overcoming institutional barriers of this sort.
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From page 216... ...
Finally, there has been a follow-up phase in which faculty from the various disciplines maintain contact, sometimes in a systematic way by initiating more structured collaborative projects, but often by way of informal networking. These four stages are not necessarily a temporal succession; they represent levels of activity that can be pursued simultaneously.
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From page 217... ...
There has been too little organized follow-up from previous agricultural and liberal arts projects or from curriculum development activities sponsored by the office of Higher Education Programs of USDA. A commitment by the dozen best agricultural and natural resources universities to demonstrate progress in emphasizing the social sciences and humanities over the next decade would pro 217
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From page 218... ...
Mississippi State Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Special Publication. Mississippi State: Mississippi State Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.
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From page 219... ...
Second, and as a response to the first point, this boost may well come most effectively from work undertaken jointly by those in agriculture in partnership with those educated in the humanities and social sciences. Common agreement existed in the group on the need to incorporate philosophy, political science, history, and sociology into the core of some agricultural studies.
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From page 220... ...
Only after deciding this can other disciplines be integrated and the level and mix of specially needed skills be determined. Moreover, the administrative and instructional arrangements for faculty and staff cooperation, which are to be used most efficiently in difficult financial times, await decisions on what we want students to be after they have moved beyond the undergraduate experiences we provide them.
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From page 221... ...
Can cooperation across department or college lines be ensured? When these four sets of questions about student needs and the university's ability to provide for them are answered, curriculum designers can move on to compare and contrast the benefits of numerous administrative approaches to organizing instruction: multidisciplinary programs or majors, interdisciplinary courses, joint faculty appointments, or even the creation of departments that have no disciplinary center.
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