I begin with a review of the literature on extension service curriculum development in natural resources / sustainability issues contexts. However, my literature research did not reveal many articles dealing with these aspects of extension services and learning. For that reason I also chose to critically review a sample of extension services curricula, using the seven principles outlined above, to establish the ‘status quo’ of extension service curriculum development. This is necessary for the final development of recommendations towards a model for extension services curriculum in the final phase of the study, after the empirical cases of learning and co-management are reported in Chapters 4, 5 and 6.
In the review I looked at extension and training curricula from a few European institutions, a few from the Asia and also a few from Africa. The purpose of the review was not to compare the different curricula from different regions but to tease out some of the fundamental issues that will inform recommendations for extension and training in this study.
2.5.1 Curriculum review in the European context
There are a variety of ways in which extension education is offered in European universities. These include the bodies of knowledge used, the structures of the programmes and in the way their administrative organisations are set up as per their teaching and learning research interests and also according to different university policies. A critical review of the curriculum literature (Wallace, 1999; Garforth & Lawrence, 1997; Peters & Matarasso, 2006) shows that extension and training curricula are aimed at improving farmers’ capacity to deal with their problems, and that there is evidence of a systems approach to curriculum development. According to Wals et al. (2010), curricula based on a systems paradigm offer an educational process more appropriate for an era of limits. He continued to say the interpretation of our planet as the ultimate global ecosystem requires an acceptance of natural limits to human activities and services to instil a context culture, where a sense of belonging and responsibility for sustainable development are promoted. The emphasis in curricula development is on the context where they see extension as a supporting process aimed at motivating and enabling extension partners for problem solving through appropriate curriculum development processes.
However, Wallace (1999) argued that the development and implementation of extension and training curricula in some European universities do not respond to the current needs of the farmers. He argues that, to address the current unsustainable issues the agriculture and extension curricula, thorough needs assessments should be conducted to more accurately establish what issues need to be incorporated into the curriculum in order to respond to the existing needs. In their argument on the importance of a curriculum that emphasises on
engaging farmers in order to provide new skills to the farmers, Garforth (1993) and Smith (1994) from the University of Reading in the UK noted that curricula for extension and training need to build capacity of extension agents to have skills for negotiation, conflict resolution and the nurturing of emerging community organisations, indicating that they have a co-learning and social learning orientation embedded into their assumptions for the extension agent’s practice. It was noted that lack of the above affect the training of extension staff in various institutions in the United Kingdom and other European institutions.
Based on a review of international literature on extension I was able to identify that there are a number of characteristics that are considered in the extension education curricula in different agricultural extension institutions in a European context (Levander, 2008). The key characteristics identified are: the curriculum should be able to offer training that prepares learners for professional agricultural extension or rural development work, the training should prepare professionals in change management for any occupation, and the training should prepare professionals in extension to be more multi-disciplinary and multi- dimensional to be able to work with rural communities. It has been argued in one of the papers by Smith (1994) that curricula designed to foster social and environmental interdependence have more chance to offer students multiple opportunities to experience learning within the context of their neighbourhood and that this will allow them to acquire important skills and knowledge of local cultural traditions that will help them to take an active role in the care and management of their communities.
2.5.2 Curriculum review in the Asian context
In the literature review of the South East Asian curricula, there is evidence of segmented efforts in the curriculum development process. A paper by Wallace (1999) noted that one of the challenges experienced in South East Asia was a curriculum which is a written document which to him was essentially a menu or checklist of topics to be taught with some instructions on how to teach them. The review revealed that there is a need to develop a deeper understanding of the local context so that the implementation of curricula responds to specific contexts. In his paper Wallace argues that the effectiveness in promoting changes in environment and sustainability related to behaviour among both extension workers and clients require an approach which models greener, soft and more holistic lifestyles management approaches and learning systems within the training system itself. Highlighting the need for curriculum reform in the South East Asian context, Wallace expressed the need for both training institutions and curricula to reflect the global concerns for the environment and sustainability and that education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of people to address the environmental and development concerns. Peters and Matarasso (2006) conducted a study in Vietnam on participatory curriculum development, and cited the important role of environmental education programmes in
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demonstrating the relationship between people’s activities and their effects on the environment and in encouraging people to get involved in both the curriculum development process and also taking full responsibility in the management of their environment.
2.5.3 Curriculum review in the African context
A paper by Worth (2008) on developing the capacity of curriculum markers for agriculture extension in South Africa noted that training in agricultural extension, as with training in any formal discipline, is the product of an educational process which has unique scientific content. This places emphasis on the knowledge of the discipline. Van Crawder, Lindley, Brucing and Doron (1998), emphasising the participatory and mediating practices of extension agents, noted that some of the issues that need to be considered for successful agricultural extension development are experiential learning, collaborative learning approaches and participatory teaching and learning strategies. In this literature review it is emphasised that development and implementation of a curriculum is supposed to be needs based. An example is given in the case of a Ghanaian extension and training curriculum process where each year the organisation which is managing the training programme allow the managerial and field staff to come together and identify the specific skills and knowledge required to work effectively (Okorley, Gray, & Reid, 2009). This example shows how a curriculum can be developed to take stronger account of local needs and how staff can also be involved in the determining of the needs. A critical feature of field staff training from the Ghanaian case is the involvement of farmers in training processes (Pasleur, 2002). The process is seen to improve the field staff’s knowledge of farmer’s practices and the reasons behind the practices (ibid.).
In Wallace’s (1999) paper on training for extension in environment and sustainable agriculture for sub-Saharan Africa, he emphasises that training involves partnership with learners and other stakeholders, responsiveness to changing situations and needs, and openness amongst training provides. In reviewing the status of extension service training curricula in sub-Saharan Africa, Wallace, Mulhall and Taylor (1996) noted that most are not responsive to the needs of the people in the local context. Taylor (1999) commented that participatory curriculum development dialogue and interaction among stakeholders is crucial for a curriculum to be responsive to its context. Chambers (1997) also drew attention to a more learner-centred approach to extension training in Africa, and suggested that in the context of experiential and learner centred education, learners are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning and that trainers should have an input into what they teach and also how they do it.
In another participatory curriculum development for agricultural education and training paper by Taylor (1999), he argued that most of the development programmes in agriculture extension and training attempt to bring about change. Here he suggested that through
effective extension programmes, change may come about in people’s knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and behaviour and that change should result in person’s increased capacity to make informed decisions, a point that was also raised in Section 2.5.2 above. The extent to which this is actually taking place in extension training is, however, not clear.
A review of the fisheries and extension curricula for both the Malawi College of Fisheries and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources respectively, revealed that both have comprehensive content of extension and natural resources management aspects and that they contain instructions on how the trainer should approach the curricula with an outline of literature. A checklist of things to cover in different learning areas is provided. However, there is need in both curricula to explore broader aspects of extension and training curriculum to be able to capture the complexity of the fisheries sectors. A more reflexive, collaborative and open curriculum that focuses on sustainability and context will be responding to the current social-ecological, socio-cultural and socio-economic issues in extension and training and would potentially add value to extension and training of extension officers at both diploma and degree levels that will allow them to work with clients out there.
The above critical analysis of the extension and training curricula from different institutions shows that there are efforts for collaborative approaches to curriculum development in different contexts in European, Asian and African contexts. However, it is emphasised in the literature review that there is a need to explore in-depth understanding of reflexive and sustainability practices for the extension agents to understand their role of motivating their clients to participate and also for the extension agents to be co-learners and facilitators. A review of different curricula shows that lack of understanding and a broad overview of ways in which curricula are developed and what goes into the development of curricula that is reflexive, open, responsive and appropriate to extension and training, are common challenges. Wallace (1999) discussed the need to have a curriculum that has the collaboration and partnership with all those involved in extension and training, a curriculum that is responsive to changing situations and needs and also openness amongst training providers. In the review from Wageningen University, Wals 2009 emphasised transformative action learning, learning that supports the creation of meaningful synthesis between theory and practice including other relevant learning areas.
A literature review of the fisheries curricula both at the Fisheries College and at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources showed that there is a need for a wider and in-depth understanding of curricula that are reflexive, open and also responsive to the current fisheries management challenges. Potentially responsive extension and training curricula could consider curricula that combine collaborative management (which strives to respond to some of the crucial questions in extension and social learning: Who learns? How do they
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learn? What do they learn?) and adaptive co-management which focuses on sustainable ecosystem management, where the focus is on building knowledge, addressing issues of complexities in natural resources management, creating networks between multiple actors and foster effective leadership among co-management stakeholders. This approach to the extension and training curricula could provide a shift from the conventional curriculum development to a more collaborative, open and reflexive kind of curriculum which strives to respond to the needs of the society.