Benin: Permaculture and Global Education

5/11/2016

This course and program with travel to the Republic of Benin will provide an opportunity for students to not only travel to a developing country, but also gain a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness how one of the poorest countries in Africa is able to organize schools, establish governments, produce food, and maintain a sustainable economic structure with limited resources and with residual colonial structures.

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Program Details

Students will investigate how the issues of immigration and our connections to the world through technology and social media are changing the face, and our understanding, of local and international communities. An understanding of sustainability and permaculture, through the visit to Songhai, will provide a framework and experiences for how all nations may grapple with scarce resources such as food, water, shelter and basic supplies. One key aspect of sustainability (or permaculture), utilizing local resources to meet (or exceed) local need, will be explored both in the United States and in Benin, at Songhai. The school visits in Benin will provide additional context for why immigrants are coming to the United States and what immigrants bring with them, culturally, linguistically, politically, and educationally. The before travel component of the program will provide a comprehensive, theoretical examination by way of readings, discussions and reaction papers. This will provide a solid theoretical foundation for the authentic visit in Benin.

What are the specific objectives for this course?
Through assigned discussions, activities and writings, students will be able to:
1. Compare and contrast educational decision making and pedagogical, practices based on economic,environmental, cultural, social and linguistic issues. (KNOWLEDGE, AUTHENTIC LEARNING)

2. Describe how the meaning we make of educational institutions schools is affected by several factors including: the everyday conditions of society, prevalent ideologies, current content and pedagogical practices, key social issues and the participants in educational institutions (KNOWLEDGE).

3. Explain the history of formal and informal schooling in this country in terms of the relationship between material conditions, ideologies, teaching conditions and pedagogy (KNOWLEDGE).

4. Explain how you can use this broad framework of the discourse of education to address issues you will face as a teacher (KNOWLEDGE, REFLECTION, AUTHENTIC LEARNING).

5. Make a commitment to be active participants in constructing a meaning of schools that benefits all children (KNOWLEDGE, REFLECTION, SOCIAL JUSTICE).

6. Identify strategies you can use to work against obstacles that inhibit all citizens from being actively involved in this democracy (KNOWLEDGE, REFLECTION, SOCIAL JUSTICE, COLLABORATION).

7. Explain how concepts of pedagogy, professionalism, ideology, discrimination, oppression and multi-culturalism relate to today’s education (KNOWLEDGE, REFLECTION).

8. Predict where you will fit into the future of public school teachers that has grown from the legacy of teaching (KNOWLEDGE, REFLECTION, LEADERSHIP, PRACTICE).

9. Explain how meaning is socially constructed especially as it relates to the social construction of race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, religion, schooling, and teaching (KNOWLEDGE).

10. Provide examples of how the meaning we make of a concept determines how we act in relation to that concept, whether it is schooling, the role of teachers, multi-culturalism, and so on; and how our actions continue an on-going meaning- making process (AUTHENTIC LEARNING).

11. Compare and contrast developed nation sustainability efforts and effectiveness with developing nation efforts and effectiveness. (KNOWLEDGE)

12. Identify and describe the unique environmental, educational, political, and economic characteristics that are pertinent to the developing nation’s (agri)cultural sustainability. (KNOWLEDGE, AUTHENTIC LEARNING)

13. Use a broad framework (material conditions, ideologies, teaching conditions, pedagogy) to investigate the impact of permaculture institutions (Songhai) on local and global social, environmental and economic development.(SOCIAL JUSTICE, REFLECTION, AUTHENTIC LEARNING)

14. Identify and discuss permaculture history, ethics and principals in varied contexts(KNOWLEDGE)

15. Discover individual role in economic, environmental, social and educational systems(KNOWLEDGE, REFLECTION)

16. Observe and discuss parallel ecological, social and political systems (KNOWLEDGE, REFLECTION, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AUTHENTIC LEARNING)

17. Describe the permaculture design process as applied to local agricultural and educational systems (KNOWLEDGE, AUTHENTIC LEARNING, PRACTICE)

18. Observe, analyze and assess site (location) patterns to determine local resources and constraints (PRACTICE, AUTHENTIC LEARNING)

19. Utilize non-judgmental observation processes and whole systems thinking to define issues and implement problem solving strategies(PRACTICE, SOCIAL JUSTICE, COLLABORATION & LEADERSHIP)

20. Explain the purpose and techniques for producing clean water, healthy soil, regenerative food systems, efficient buildings and supporting economic stability (REFLECTION, KNOWLEDGE, AUTHENTIC LEARNING)

21. Explain the complex relationship among politics, economics, cultural values, and globalization in international educational contexts (REFLECTION, KNOWLEDGE, AUTHENTIC LEARNING)

22. Compare, contrast, and interpret international educational assessments and discuss how these assessments impact national and global educational policy decisions (KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICE, REFLECTION)

How does the course make use of modes of instruction, assessment, and learning at the study abroad site that may differ from home institution models?
Instruction is delivered through multiple perspectives: several instructors, system experts, community leaders, varied locations, hands-on, experiential, and service oriented. Assessment is comprehensive, choice-based, multi-modal, group and individual. Cultivation of ideas (learning) is far beyond the classroom, non-linear, and related directly to the individual’s schema and personal/professional path.

Students and faculty will have the unique opportunity to engage in experiential learning at SUNY Oswego’s Permaculture Living Lab and at institutions abroad (Songhai, Benin). Both prior to and after travel, students and faculty will have a chance to inform SUNY Oswego’s Permaculture Living Lab through internships, volunteer opportunities, research, workshops and service learning courses.

How does the course enrich the classroom experience through use of location and/or unique resources?
This program will enhance an already established travel course where students visited schools in Benin and taught English in France. The program consists of site visits to (the less commonly visited) Republic of Benin. By analyzing and interacting with an understudied culture, participants will have widened worldviews. The sustainability focus will allow us to use a whole systems educational framework (material conditions, ideologies, teaching conditions and pedagogy), and permaculture theories to understand the individual’s role in cross-cultural educational and environmental pedagogical practices.

We seek to increase student participation by way of expanding upon the multidisciplinary nature of the program. By incorporating permaculture and sustainability as integral components, the program will enrich the university’s current permaculture, sustainability, and economic initiatives. The permaculture component is versatile enough to be a suitable complement to future study abroad programs, and is strongly supported by the institution.

Finally, the course introduces whole systems thinking in both a local and global contexts. Experiential learning at the local campus through the Permaculture Living Lab is introduced early to the students in the pre-travel component as hands on activities demonstrative sustainable techniques. Additionally, travel to a local unique sustainability educational center in Rhinebeck, NY will give the students multiple perspectives of the resources and community here in New York. Students will then have the opportunity to see both similar and new techniques, methods and institutions in Benin.

How is the course integrated into the curriculum of the home institution?
Students are required to take or have taken EDU 301 Schools, Pedagogy and Social Justice or EDU 114 Schools in a Global Context in addition to meeting for three, three hours sessions to complete a set of modules in EDU 305/GLS 402: Permaculture and Global Education in preparation for the travel experience. The prerequisite or corequisite for the travel course will provide adequate background so that students can extend their understandings of permaculture and global issues in education. During in-class and online discussions, students will apply permaculture concepts to investigate characteristics of a culture (Benin citizenry) and relate those beneficial characteristics to place, education, and/or society over time. Three reaction papers are completed before travel, based on permaculture activities and readings. A final reaction paper to synthesize the overall experience, including the travel, is completed after returning home.

Also, this program increases course offerings in the Sustainability Studies Minor as well as provides secondary hands on experience with permaculture in an international context for all majors. Students who travel to Benin through this program will have the opportunity to see innovative ways of training and education that empower community. Through the use of whole systems educational framework and permaculture theories students will have a unique insight into their individual role in their communities both locally and internationally. The following resource synthesizes and expands Songhai’s efforts, through community-based education, to provide young people with the knowledge and skills necessary to become reliant on their own resources for success.

Did you consult any resources on education abroad that were particularly helpful in designing this course? If so, please describe.
Benin Contacts
Akole Wilson is our contact at Songhai. Akole coordinates our food and lodging while at Songhai. Benoit Ahle from the Ministry of Education in Benin, coordinates school visits, transportation, excursions, tour guides, and entrance fees for cultural visits and is our main contact in Benin. Mr. Ahle has coordinated our visits on five different excursions, since 2008.

Course Collaborators
Marcia Burrell Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, has led a group on the Benin/France trip four out of five times the program has been led. Leah Russell, Instructor for EDU 114 Education and the Global Context in the department of Curriculum and Instruction. Ms. Russell speaks Portuguese, Spanish and has extensive travel experience around the world including Brazil. Katherine Spector, Mathematics Department and Permaculture Living Lab Co-Project Manager along with Grace Maxon-Clarke, Office of Learning Support Services and Permaculture Living Lab Co-Project Manager, will co-teach EDU 305/GLS 402: Permaculture and Global Education and coordinate a cohesive permaculture experience in both Benin and Oswego. The link to the permaculture living lab can be found at: www.oswego.edu/permaculture.

If you feel that you have valuable information to contribute to this project that is not addressed in the body of this survey, please elaborate here.

Ultimately, these efforts act to defeat residual colonial power structures and aim to contribute to the independence and self-sufficiency of a nation. More specifically, our education students find many connections, between the systems established in Benin, a developing nation, and the systems established in public schools. Permaculture brings in the experiential learning, interdisciplinary foci and cross cultural aspects needed for teaching in K-12 schools. Please watch here https://vimeo.com/114928719 (Produced by: Danny Chastain and Katrina Van Tassell), to gain another understanding our goals through this program.