Development and instruction of a general education capstone course in international agriculture

NACTA Journal, Dec 2002 by Hubbard, Mark A, Keith, Herbert R

Abstract

A course titled Topics in International Agriculture was developed with the intent to teach about agricultural production on a global scale. Additionally, the course was intended to illustrate and discuss agriculture's connections with society in terms of sociology, history, economics, government, culture and other academic disciplines. The course included a trip to Italy and England to allow students to experience both agriculture and culture in these countries. Course goals, development, content, and instruction are presented and discussed along with considerations for future offerings of this course. It is hoped that this will both inform and aid colleagues as in the development of similar courses.

Introduction

College of the Ozarks is a four year liberal arts college which is unique in a number of ways including the fact that it has an agriculture department. Part of the College's liberal arts mission is students' cultural growth (College of the Ozarks, 2000) and it is toward this aim that the College has funded international travel for a number of years. Many of the agricultural faculty have varied professional experiences in other countries and this led to the desire to teach a course about agriculture from a global perspective and take advantage of the opportunity to combine classroom instruction with a tour of agricultural production systems in other countries.

The goals stated in the course syllabus were to

1) discuss common agricultural production in other western countries, specifically in western Europe;

2) discuss how political, economic, cultural, historical and other factors have resulted in differing agricultural practices and marketing strategies in the U.S. and Europe;

3) discuss how past and current agricultural trade agreements are affecting production throughout the world; and

4) describe the cultures and heritages of European countries in general terms.

Additionally, this course was designated as a General Education Capstone Course which added certain prescribed guidelines that became a significant component of the course. Those guidelines included:

1) linkage of the major course topics with at least one other general education discipline (i.e. history, language, art, etc.);

2) a research project that was connected to the students major field of study; and

3) instruction that emphasized and encouraged skills such as critical thinking, writing, discussion and oral presentation.

Development of that course and associated travel abroad was undertaken and the results are described in this paper.

Methods and Discussion

Title

The course developed was entitled "Topics in International Agriculture." That title was carefully chosen as it clearly defined the scope of the course but also allowed for any number of areas that would eventually be included in the course. However, the title soon came under administrative scrutiny as it was seen to have limited appeal to students outside of those specifically interested in agriculture. The course was allowed to proceed as proposed after much discussion and reassurance that the course would extend well beyond "farming" and include study of the relationship between agriculture and societies around the world.

Countries of Study

It was decided to study Europe and specifically Italy and England as part of the course. These countries were chosen partly due to faculty contacts in each country facilitating travel to each, but also they are worthy of study in a number of agriculturally important ways. Italy and the United Kingdom offer many distinctions and similarities to the U.S. in terms of both culture and agriculture. Each country has and does borrow culturally from each other but each does maintain unique cultural traditions. Agricultural production systems also vary within each country. Italy and the U.K. produce many crops similar to the United States but production, for the most part, is very different than in the U.S. Those differences stem largely from cultural, geographic, political and historical factors. The U.S. does share cultural similarities with Italy and certainly the U.K. but there are also noteworthy distinctions that lead to differences in agricultural production. Also, as members of the European Union (E.U.), Italy and the U.K. have very different interests than the U.S. and different interests from each other. Italy and the U.K. will each be affected in very different ways by potential E.U. enlargement as well as development in the central European countries. U.K. production has more similarity to the U.S. but there are significant differences not the least of which are increasing environmental consideration and concerns such as that for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) and foot and mouth. From a purely cultural standpoint, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S. make a fascinating study for comparison and contrast.

Travel to Europe

The course of study began with a trip to Italy and England funded completely through the College's Development Office. The College is dedicated to providing financially needy students with a quality education (full time students work on campus in exchange for tuition) and, therefore, students were not required to pay for anything other than personal items and souvenirs. Eight students were chosen to participate on the trip and were selected from approximately 40 who initially expressed interest. The students were chosen according to their character, academic achievements and extracurricular involvement on campus. Since the trip was to occur prior to the course, students were required to sign an agreement that they would complete the entire course or would have to refund the College for the trip. This was to discourage students from participating in the trip and then dropping the course at a later date and we did achieve that effect. Two male and two female faculty/staff personnel accompanied the students. The itinerary began with travel to Bologna and residence at the University of Bologna hosted by Moreno Toselli of the Department of Fruit Science. While in Bologna we toured the following: