Agroecologists without Borders

Implementation of the course during the time of distance learning

Sustainability, Creativity, Communication

The goal of “Agroecologists without borders” is to introduce students to the complexity and challenges, both biophysical as well as socio-​​​economic, inherent in agricultural development interventions, and to develop their science communication skills by producing outreach materials in the context of a given case study. Over the last years, SAE researchers organized this course around a case study related to an ongoing agricultural research project in Africa. For example, past courses studied efforts to support agroforestry in central Malawi, or organic soil fertility management in Mozambique.

This year, the course focused on the ongoing research and development project «The Rural-​​​Urban Nexus: Establishing a nutrient loop to improve city region food systems resilience (RUNRES). RUNRES is a four-​​​year project with the overarching goal of improving sustainable and resilient city region food systems in four sites across Sub-​​​Saharan Africa: Arba Minch, Ethiopia; Kamonyi, Rwanda; Bukavu, DRC; Msunduzi, South Africa. Comprised of adiverse and interdisciplinary team of academics and practitioners, the project objective is to support a circular food system predicated on the capture and processing of currently undervalued waste streams to provide locally sourced and sustainably processed nutrients capable of maintaining soil health and fertility. Although RUNRES is introducing numerous interventions such as municipal scale composting, enhanced small scale food processing, or faecal sludge pyrolysis to facilitate this change, the current course is focused specifically on offsite sanitation provision. This technology, or “Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems” (DEWATS), is being introduced as a way to improve the sanitation in a rural South African school, while also contributing to community based economic development and environmental health. Thus, the objective of the course was to provide the students an opportunity, in a structured and facilitated environment, to co-​develop locally appropriate communication and outreach material capable of supporting the successful adoption of this novel technology.

The transfer of all teaching activities to an online format enabled the instructors to rethink deeply about the format of the class. In this sense, adaptations required by the current crisis inspired innovations in the pedagogy of the course.

Specifically, the shift to an online format facilitated participation and dialogue across continents in new ways, ones that have presented previously unimagined possibilities. In keeping with the participatory spirit of RUNRES itself, the lecturers decided to exchange more closely with a wide range of key actors engaged in the transition towards sustainable and equitable community development based on DEWATS, and a circular bioeconomy more broadly, in South Africa. This multistakeholder group (i.e. project manager, agricultural extension officer, local university students, school community and staff, etc.) in South Africa worked intensively with the ETH students through an innovative transdisciplinary framework (using design thinking) supported by online tools such as miro, to map the system, gather data, produce insights, and reflect on the main components of the system. Hence, a cross-​​​continental dialogue was established through online sources to enhance the learning about the local context for which the students were designing the science communication.

The majority of the lectures were conducted with direct interventions by the different stakeholders to ensure a close and fruitful exchange with the project partners in South Africa. The students formed groups of 4 to 6 and their objective was to create different communication packages for pertinent target audiences: school students and teachers, school parents, and community citizens. Throughout the 14 sessions of the semester, the students had multiple opportunities to develop their project and present it to their peers and the different stakeholders involved in the process for feedback. Ultimately, each student team presented their project to the lecturers, the schoolteachers and director, and selected students of the school. This format allowed the students to present and discuss the progress of their work with South African students, experts of the South African agroecological context, and community leaders in the project site. This continuous exchange enabled them to discuss and understand better the specificities of the context and test their communication prototypes. The format of the lecture also allowed for the development of social and personal competencies such as creative and critical thinking, cooperation and teamwork, sensitivity to diversity, self-​​​awareness, and self-​​​reflection.

Overall concept of the course before the pandemic – during – after

Before the pandemic the students were invited to apply their knowledge on sustainable agriculture, tropical soils and land use to a case study related to a current research project from the Sustainable Agroecosystems group. The seminar was already offering interactions with researchers and extension specialists working in the context of agricultural development. In fall term 2019, the case study was on agroforestry in central Malawi. The case study was closely related to the ongoing research project «Trees for the enhancement of mycorrhizal functioning in lowinput maize cropping systems» by Janina Dierks and science communication materials were developed for the
implementation in a rural context in central Malawi. However, aside from the scientists involved in the project, the students had no interaction with the main audience for their communication material. The main difference brought by the pandemic is to enable a stronger and deeper dialogue between the students and different stakeholders involved in the project. Before the pandemic the outcome of the group work was only brought to the stakeholders of the project at the end of the class.

In the new format (during the pandemic), students were also invited to focus on ways to reach out to a wider public the complexity of science. The seminar was offering continuous interactions with researchers, but also local project managers, schoolteachers, university students, and also artists and other stakeholders of the food system. In the future, various sub-​​topics like the role of socially engaged art, political ecologies, and decolonial food systems will be explored throughout the lecture. During the pandemic, students were invited to work concretely with the stakeholders to make sure that their work would benefit the dissemination of the RUNRES project in this municipality. From a transdisciplinary perspective, we aimed to engage students in a transdisciplinary lecture as well – co-​creating and sharing knowledge with the key stakeholders of the project.