Action-oriented Education Research Articles

Engagement of stakeholders in action-oriented education for sustainability: a study of motivations and benefits and development of a process model

ABSTRACT Purpose Engagement of non-academic stakeholders is an important element of education for sustainability, but is rarely mentioned in contemporary agricultural education literature. This article investigates the process of engagement of non-academic stakeholders into higher education programs on agriculture. Non-academic stakeholders refer to private firms that are focused on the acquisition of knowledge with the objective of achieving a competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach Eleven cases of agricultural education at the undergraduate (Bachelor’s degree) and graduate (Master’s degree) levels in three different countries (Italy, Greece, Norway) were analysed through interviews with teachers and stakeholders and in-situ observations. Findings Qualitative analysis revealed three categories of motivation (inspiration, marketing, sharing experience), two benefits (energy, problem-solving) and four combined categories (exchange, new knowledge, new workers, practical contribution). A conceptual model, developed in the study, provides guidelines for the engagement process, enabling more collaborative education approaches in agriculture and food. Practical implications The proposed model provides educational institutions with a tool for assessing stakeholder engagement process in new/existing education initiatives, enabling transformation of education from narrow individual disciplines to integration of knowledge sources and a variety of learning arenas in education. Theoretical implications Within the framework of university-industry collaboration in combination with action-oriented education for sustainability, findings provide unique insights into the engagement of stakeholders in education. Originality/value This study contributes to knowledge by applying principles of action learning and focusing on the education side of engagement. The results demonstrated that engagement in action-oriented collaborative education offers several benefits to non-academic stakeholders. This was found to have real effects on farm businesses, manifested as changes in production processes and discovery of new marketing opportunities.

Development of a Multi-site Curriculum for Inequities in Newborn Care (CINC) Informed by Pediatric Resident and Community Engagement.

Inequities in health care are a well-identified contributor to adverse outcomes in neonates of vulnerable populations. 1 2022 March of Dimes Report Card. Accessed March 8, 2023. 〈https://www.marchofdimes.org/report-card〉 Google Scholar , 2 Warren M.D. Hirai A.H. Lee V. Accelerating Upstream Together: Achieving Infant Health Equity in the United States by 2030. Pediatrics. Published online January. 2022; 3e2021052800https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-052800 Crossref Scopus (2) Google Scholar , 3 Sigurdson K. Morton C. Mitchell B. Profit J. Disparities in NICU quality of care: a qualitative study of family and clinician accounts. Journal of Perinatology. 2018; 38: 600-607https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-018-0057-3 Crossref PubMed Scopus (61) Google Scholar Societal and institutional inequities rooted within implicit biases and racism result in variable quality of care in the nursery, such as differences in time spent skin-to-skin with infants, clinical resource allocation based on racial background, and a lack of motivation to establish a therapeutic alliance with families who have differing social and cultural needs. 3 Sigurdson K. Morton C. Mitchell B. Profit J. Disparities in NICU quality of care: a qualitative study of family and clinician accounts. Journal of Perinatology. 2018; 38: 600-607https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-018-0057-3 Crossref PubMed Scopus (61) Google Scholar Most significantly, this inequitable care results in the increased mortality of non-Hispanic black and Hispanic infants as compared to infants of non-Hispanic white backgrounds. 4 National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 69, Number 7 July 16, 2020, Infant Mortality in the United States, 2018 : Data From the Period Linked Birth/Infant Death File. Google Scholar In light of these inequities, the Academic Pediatrics Association (APA) implemented initiatives rooted in active anti-racism to dismantle oppressive power structures across pediatric organizations. 5 Cohen A. et al. Changing Who Has a Seat and Voice at the Table: How the Academic Pediatric Association is Responding to Systemic Racism. Academic Pediatrics. 2022; 22: 352-355https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2022.01.002 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar This urgent commitment to action is further supported by the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) which maintains that anti-racism involves actively dismantling racism in all that we do. 6 Blankenburg B. et al. Dismantling Racism: Association of Pediatric Program Directors’ Commitment to Action. Academic Pediatrics. 2020; 20: 1051-1053https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.08.017 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (9) Google Scholar Focus groups of trainees at 4 Bay Area academic medical centers explored gaps in education on newborn health inequities to best understand how to support providers in actively practicing anti-racism in clinical care. Trainees spotlight inequities in their rotations, but feel helpless to address them given a lack of action-based tools, education on inequities, protected time for reflection, and faculty role-modeling. 7 Hume P. , Bowers K. , Robertson L. , et al. Residents’ Perspectives on Neonatal Health Inequities to Guide an Innovative Curriculum. Poster Presentation presented at: APPD; March 2023; Atlanta, Georgia. Google Scholar Given these highlighted gaps, we sought to provide our pediatrics faculty and trainees with action-oriented education to address inequities.

La importancia de la educación financiera para los jóvenes emprendedores

In the current context of increasing financial complexity and entrepreneurial opportunities, financial education emerges as a crucial factor for the success and sustainability of young entrepreneurs. This article examines the relevance of financial education in the development and performance of youth-led entrepreneurship. Through an exhaustive analysis, the advantages and challenges that financial education brings to entrepreneurs in their formative and operational stages are explored. Ultimately, this article underscores the importance of financial and action-oriented education for young entrepreneurs. As young entrepreneurs face financial challenges in a dynamic world, financial education becomes a critical resource for empowering the next generation of business leaders and fostering a thriving and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem. This article was developed through a qualitative methodology allowing to understand the importance of finances today in young people.

Islamic Boarding School Program as a Means of Improving Reading and Memorization of the Al-Qur'an for SD IT An-Najah Aceh Tengah Students

Aceh Tengah, Takengon, is an area with a majority Muslim population. The problem that occurs in today's young generation is that many children are not fluent in reading the Qur'an and make many mistakes in reading it in terms of makharijul letters, tajwid, and the length of the reading. Therefore, the implementation of the boarding school program at one of the educational institutions in Takengon is expected to be a medium for children to improve how to read the Qur'an. Then increase their memorization after attending the boarding school program conducted by students of STAI As-Sunnah. The method used in research is CBR (Community Base Research). Community Base Research is research with a collaborative pattern between the community and the world of action-oriented education with service learning to support social movements. The result of this activity was a change in the quality of reading and memorizing the Qur'an of the students of SDIT An-Najah, when reading and memorizing the Qur'an, they became smoother and following the rules of tajwid and makharijul letters. With this activity, it seems that the community is very enthusiastic and enthusiastic, with them fully supporting this activity and their children, who are also very enthusiastic about learning.

Climate Strikes and Curricula: Insights from Norway

Abstract In this article, the author analyzes environmental pedagogy in the Norwegian curricula for environmental and sustainability education from 1997 to 2020. The author investigates how climate-striking youth evaluate the outgoing curricula through a survey in which 88 respondents participated. The survey reveals that young climate activists demand a more action-oriented education that emphasizes political change. The author discusses the findings against the background of radical eco-pedagogy and the works of Richard Kahn, Chet Bower, and David Orr and concludes that the youth striking against climate change is practicing the curriculum they are asking for and that schools should welcome the strikes.

Prospect of Sustainability Course for Student’s Engagement in ESD

Educating and preparing young graduates with an actionoriented education program is the prime requirement for any country. Therefore, the Sustainability course is designed to develop resource persons to fulfill the immediate country’s demand for adequate ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) skilled graduates. Currently Bangladesh is thriving for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by implementing the sustainability practices into the educational institutions. However, IUBAT is the pioneer for setting the sustainability course in undergraduate studies for any disciplines. Since today more than 10,000 undergrad students of the different disciplines have been taught the sustainability course where they engaged and practiced for any environmental degradation and resource conservation. Moreover, these students also spreading their sustainability knowledge and practices going to secondary and higher secondary school and colleges as a part of course assignments. Meanwhile IUBAT is a Green Campus, therefore students can practice for ESD with the appropriate green facilities. The aim of this paper is to disseminate the knowledge sharing that IUBAT leads introducing sustainability education at undergraduate level. This also highlights how IUBAT students are dedicated to participate and practicing for sustainable education for their lifelong learning which ultimately supports a nation’s dream of achieving SDGs by 2030.

Decolonizing indigenous education: an indigenous pluriversity within a university in Cauca, Colombia

ABSTRACT Indigenous movements in southwestern Colombia have shifted their focus from their original goals of asserting indigenous identities, reclaiming land, and uniting the country’s diverse indigenous communities. The Autonomous Indigenous Intercultural University (UAIIN) reasserts indigenous identities by appropriating a western educational model but returning education to processes of cultural reproduction among peers, by requiring all students to engage in community investigation and popular education within their own communities. In this paper, I argue that the UAIIN strives to be a pluriversity that builds on the diversity of its participants in order to foster thinking-feeling students who engage Mother Earth through deep and spiritual connections. These efforts are contradicted, however, by the UAIIN’s administration’s desire to meet the Colombian Ministry of Education’s requirements for universities and to gain official recognition for its degree programmes. In practice, the UAIIN is a pluriversity within a university. Through its pedagogy, the UAIIN seeks to build indigenous solidarity across cultural difference, connects students to Mother Earth through action-oriented education, and strategically universalizes a pan-indigenous national identity.

Empowering Tribal Youth in Cultural Heritage Management: A Case Study from the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

This paper explores a collaborative program focused on identifying the role of archaeology in heritage education and management delivered under cultural leadership. The method of delivery and teaching is reflexive and adaptive, via on-ground conservation projects that have tangible social outcomes focused on empowering Alaskan Native youth. A case study from the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska examines how action-oriented education, via conservation, is critical to the development of a more socially relevant archaeology. At the same time, the program ensures the archaeological process links with the transmission of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the incorporation of local cultural structures for practical landscape management.

“We can keep the fire burning”: building action competence through environmental justice education in Uganda and Germany

ABSTRACTThe global dimensions of climate change necessitate a response that takes national differences – social, economic, geographic, and cultural – into account. Action-oriented education has a key role to play in advancing citizen engagement in a culture of sustainability. This paper describes research conducted with one such education programme, Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC), which operates in six countries and engages university-aged youth in discussion and practice related to global sustainability, systems thinking, and environmental justice. YLEC aims to advance four key competencies; this paper focuses on the goal of action competence, which involves acquiring knowledge, reflecting on experience in the context of one’s values, envisioning alternative futures, and acting individually and collectively to advance those alternatives. The present article examines the impacts of YLEC on environmental action competence in two of the countries involved in this research: Uganda and Germany. In-depth interviews were conducted with participants in both countries to examine the development of action competence during and after the programme. Findings suggest that outcomes differed in each country, reflective of participants’ different lived experiences. YLEC effectively built on the conditions faced in each country to accompany youth to a higher level of awareness and action. These findings have implications for environmental education programmes striving to work with multiple nations and diverse participants.

Connectedness as a Core Conservation Concern: An Interdisciplinary Review of Theory and a Call for Practice

Calls for society to ‘reconnect with nature’ are commonplace in the scientific literature and popular environmental discourse. However, the expression is often used haphazardly without the clarity of the process involved, the practical outcomes desired, and/or the relevance to conservation. This interdisciplinary review finds that the Western disconnect from nature is central to the convergent social-ecological crises and is primarily a problem in consciousness. Connectedness with nature (CWN) is therefore defined as a stable state of consciousness comprising symbiotic cognitive, affective, and experiential traits that reflect, through consistent attitudes and behaviors, a sustained awareness of the interrelatedness between one’s self and the rest of nature. CWN sits on a continuum comprising information about nature and experience in nature but is differentiated as a more holistic process for realizing transformative outcomes that serve oneself and their community. Various instruments are available to measure the CWN construct, although their cross-cultural transferability is unclear. Multiple benefits of CWN linked to physical and psychological well-being have been identified and CWN is distinct in that it supports happiness and more purposeful, fulfilling, and meaningful lives. CWN has been found as a reliable predictor and motivation for environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). CWN may benefit conservation discourse by providing: a more compelling language; hope and buffering frustration in the face of environmental crises; a more enduring motivation for ERB; and an accepted avenue for tackling ‘fuzzy’ concepts often avoided in conservation. Bolstered by interdisciplinary collaborations and action-oriented education, CWN presents itself as a radical but necessary prerequisite for realizing desired conservation and environmental behavior outcomes.

Education as a tool for addressing the extinction crisis: Moving students from understanding to action

Human activity is leading to mass species extinctions worldwide. Conservation biology (CB) courses, taught worldwide at universities, typically focus on the proximal causes of extinction without teaching students how to respond to this crisis. The Extinction of Species 360 course has been taught yearly each fall semester to several hundred students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for over two decades. In 2007 the instructor and five teaching assistants combined principles driving extinctions, based on traditional lectures and discussion sections, with action-oriented education targeting individual consumer habits, to a group of 285 students. Students learn the science underpinning conservation efforts, as evidenced by highly significant learning (< .001) gains in a 22 question survey in every measured category, and also make direct and immediate changes in their lifestyle and consumption habits. This course succeeded in each of its three primary goals: a) informed students about the value of and threats to biodiversity, similar to traditional CB courses, b) emphasized our personal role (as consumers) in perpetuating the extinction crisis and c) facilitated activities to reduce our impact and help alleviate the crisis. The results suggested students learned CB concepts and understood biodiversity's value, increased their awareness of the connection between personal consumption and extinction, and reduced their collective ecological footprints. Furthermore, students complemented their learning and multiplied the potential for consumption reduction, by participating in action-based activities. Such academic courses can provide a rigorous treatment of the direct and indirect causes of extinction while developing a student's sense of personal empowerment to help slow the extinction crisis.

School-community links for environmental health: case studies from GREEN

Environmental education should be a catalyst for simultaneous improvement of both the educational and community environment Founded on this premise, the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN), an international, non-governmental organization, focuses on community-bas ed watershed education and networking. Principles and components of GREEN guide developing local projects as students and teachers shape learning in response to community needs, student decision making and student action taking. Two case studies from the US illustrate the environmental health benefits accruing from such action-oriented education.

Facilitating experiential learning in environmental design

The challenge facing the future of design education is the preparation of design students for a life and professional career in a world of change. The experiential inquiry approach is presented. The approach stresses the facilitation of an action-oriented education environment which promotes affective and cognitive development and values clarification skills.