Integrating Conservation Agriculture (CA)Into Formal Education Systems

Putter C.A.J, Botha R., Kueneman E., Friedrich T., Kassam A.,Lange D., Smith H., Mampholo K.

tonie.putter@ca-academy.nethttp://ca.ecoport.org

Sub-topics Sub-topics

Sub-topics Sub-topics

Common sense attributes of qualificationsCommon sense attributes of qualifications

Sub-topics Sub-topics

Common sense attributes of qualificationsCommon sense attributes of qualifications

Reality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universesReality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universes

Sub-topics Sub-topics

Common sense attributes of qualificationsCommon sense attributes of qualifications

Reality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universesReality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universes

Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology

Sub-topics Sub-topics

Common sense attributes of qualificationsCommon sense attributes of qualifications

Reality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universesReality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universes

Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology

The South African education system and qualification accreditation universeThe South African education system and qualification accreditation universe

Sub-topics Sub-topics

Common sense attributes of qualificationsCommon sense attributes of qualifications

Reality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universesReality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universes

Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology

The South African education system and qualification accreditation universeThe South African education system and qualification accreditation universe

The Conservation Agriculture Academy´s SystemThe Conservation Agriculture Academy´s System

I am a doctor I am a geneticist I am a mechanic

Common sense attributes of qualificationsCommon sense attributes of qualifications

Identity is associated with qualified competenceIdentity is associated with qualified competence

I am a doctor I am a geneticist I am a mechanic

Identity is associated with qualified competenceIdentity is associated with qualified competence

I am a doctor I am a geneticist I am a mechanic

As a client, what are your expectations and assumptions about these occupations?

Identity is associated with qualified competenceIdentity is associated with qualified competence

I am a doctor I am a geneticist I am a mechanic

As a client, what are your expectations and assumptions about these occupations?

As a doctor, a geneticist, a mechanicwhat are your expectations and assumptions ?

Accredited QualificationAccredited Qualification

Identity is associated with qualified competenceIdentity is associated with qualified competence

I am a doctor I am a geneticist I am a mechanic

As a client, what are your expectations and assumptions about these occupations?

As a doctor, a geneticist, a mechanicwhat are your expectations and assumptions ?

Accredited Qualification

Climate SmartConservation Agriculture

Green Prosperity

Qualifications Frameworks as a global phenomenon

Reality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universesReality check: what´s happening in education systems and in the UNESCO – ILO universes

• New Zealand National Qualifications Framework

• Ethiopia National Qualifications Framework

National qualifications frameworks

NQFs

Regulatory/mandatoryTool for national policy implementationEstablishing national standards and regulations

Regional/Transnational qualifications frameworks

Transnational Qualifications Framework for the Small States of the Commonwealth

SADC Regional Qualifications Framework

RQFs

Voluntary/inclusiveTool for translation and assessing comparability of qualifications–communication between countries

• Career ‘dead ends’• Out-of-date irrelevant qualifications• Inconsistent assessment standards• Low public confidence in qualifications• No means of recognising qualifications from other

countries • Some Botswana qualifications are not recognised in

Botswana• Lack of international recognition of Botswana

qualifications• No framework of reference for curriculum

development and credit transfer• Qualification system is too complex and people don’t

understand how it works

What problems do we want to address with the NCQF?

EQF Level s

Ethiopia Level s

Botswana Levels

SADC ten level QFs

Example Qualification from General and Higher Education

8 9 10 10 PhD

7 8 9 9 Masters degree

6 7 8 8 Graduate Diploma or Certificate

6 7 Bachelor degree

5 5 7 6 Diploma

4 4 6 5

3 3 5 4 Advanced Secondary

2 2 4 3 Senior Secondary

1 1 3 2 Junior Secondary Certificate

- Access 2 Entry 2 1 Primary School Leaving Certificate

- Access 1 Entry 1 - Adult Basic Education

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology Ideal attributes of an education and training framework to integrate CA ecology / sociology

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

How?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

Knowledge (K) Practice (P) Experience (E)

How?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

Knowledge (K) Practice (P) Experience (E)

How?

Where?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

Knowledge (K) Practice (P) Experience (E)

SocialInnovation

System

SocialInnovation

System

How?

Where?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

Knowledge (K) Practice (P) Experience (E)

SocialInnovation

System

SocialInnovation

System

“All CA Systems are Social Constructs”A New Culture of Agriculture

How?

Where?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

Knowledge (K) Practice (P) Experience (E)

SocialInnovation

System

SocialInnovation

System

“All CA Systems are Social Constructs”A New Culture of Agriculture

How?

Where?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

EcologyEcology SociologySociology

EcolacyEcolacy

Knowledge (K) Practice (P) Experience (E)

SocialInnovation

System

SocialInnovation

System

“All CA Systems are Social Constructs”A New Culture of Agriculture

How?

Where?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

EcologyEcology SociologySociology

Accredited Qualification

EcolacyEcolacy

Knowledge (K) Practice (P) Experience (E)

SocialInnovation

System

SocialInnovation

System

“All CA Systems are Social Constructs”A New Culture of Agriculture

How?

Where?

It has become a paradigm that a swing to CA requiresa paradigm shift, mind-set changes and new values

Accredited Qualification

EcolacyEcolacy

CA Ecology

EcologyEcology

Farmer Field Schools

SociologySociology

The South African education system and qualification accreditation universeThe South African education system and qualification accreditation universe

OFO Organising Framework for Occupations

The OFO is a skills classification system. Its authority and purpose is described in the 2008/9 amendment of the National Skills Development Act (NDA; No. 97 of 1998 as variously amended).

OFO Every occupation in our economy has a unique name and a numeric serial number. Conservation Agriculture Systems Manager # 134901.

OFO

NQFNational QualificationsFramework

All the qualifications linked to OFO occupations fall under the jurisdiction of the NQF Act, which is the legal authority that regulates all qualifications that are awarded by education and training institutions.

OFO

NQF

SAQANational QualificationsFramework

OFO

NQF

SAQA

QCTO

The QCTO is one of the Quality Councils established under authority of the NQF. The other two being the HEQC overseeing university level education & qualification and UMALUSI, which oversees school level education and qualification.

Quality Council: Trades & Occupationsensuring fit for purpose occupational qualifications

OFO

NQF

SAQA

QDP

The QDP’s role and function is to design a ‘model package’ of curriculum and open-source courseware that will be used to deliver the knowledge- practice- and experience-focused components of the learning and qualifying strategy prescribed by the QCTO.

ADP

QCTO

CAACAA

OFO

NQF

SAQA

ADP

The ADP’s role is to develop and document the specifications and

criteria for the assessment of learner performance and competence as

required by the SAQA qualification accreditation process, thereby to enable the QCTO to confer post-graduate National Occupational

Awards.

CAA

QCTO

CAACAAQDP

OFO

NQF

SAQA

Community of Experts

The QCTO will only engage in the development of a qualification if the subject is widely endorsed as important enough to our national economy to warrant the existence of the new occupation. In addition, any institution proposing a new qualification must have the support of key stakeholders, assembled as a CoE (Community of Experts), who will endorse the enterprise.

CAA

QCTO

QDP ADPCAACAA

Green Communities of Practice

Occ

upati

onal

Pro

file

Occ

upati

onal

Tas

kO

ccup

ation

al T

ask

Knowledge- Topics

Practical Skills- CCFOs- Task skills- Role/job skills

Work Experience

Knowledge

Practical Skills

Work Experience

Subject SpecificationDisciplinary, Practice, Generic

Practical Skills Module SpecificationGiven X do Y in order to Z

Work Experience Module SpecificationRange, Settings, Circumstances, Interfaces

Knowledge and Theory Standard

Practical Skills Standard

Work Experience Standard

Occupational Profile Learning Process Design Occupational Qualification

Occupational Curriculum 0verall Process mapCurriculum Scope

Integrated Final External Assessment Specification

Curriculum Document

BC F

A

E

D

Products/Services

Occupational Responsibility

Occupational Context

Products/Services

Occupational Responsibility

Occupational Context

Workplace Knowledge

Workplace Knowledge

Contextual variables

Modules per occupational / developmental task

Knowledge topics into subjects at each NQF level

Conservation Agriculture System Manager

K P E

The Conservation Agriculture Academy´s SystemThe Conservation Agriculture Academy´s System

Climate SmartConservation Agriculture Green

ProsperitySo what?The facilitators required to mainstream CA praxis must know as much about constructivist learning praxis, communicative action and social learning as they do about CA ecology and agronomy. They must know how to catalyse and empower innovation systems by working with, and in, local Communities of Practice and with selected outsiders who understand that CA systems are, first and foremost, social constructs. Therefore, the learning space (Conservation Agriculture Ecosystem, CAKE) wherein this competence is acquired and assessed must be on farms, in response to farmers´ needs and not at distant, academic institutions.

So what?The facilitators required to mainstream CA praxis must know as much about constructivist learning praxis, communicative action and social learning as they do about CA ecology and agronomy. They must know how to catalyse and empower innovation systems by working with, and in, local Communities of Practice and with selected outsiders who understand that CA systems are, first and foremost, social constructs. Therefore, the learning space (Conservation Agriculture Ecosystem, CAKE) wherein this competence is acquired and assessed must be on farms, in response to farmers´ needs and not at distant, academic institutions.

Climate SmartConservation Agriculture Green

ProsperitySo what?The facilitators required to mainstream CA praxis must know as much about constructivist learning praxis, communicative action and social learning as they do about CA ecology and agronomy. They must know how to catalyse and empower innovation systems by working with, and in, local Communities of Practice and with selected outsiders who understand that CA systems are, first and foremost, social constructs. Therefore, the learning space (Conservation Agriculture Ecosystem, CAKE) wherein this competence is acquired and assessed must be on farms, in response to farmers´ needs and not at distant, academic institutions.

The WCCA5 community must take cognizance of global trends in formal education systems and in particular what other UN agencies such as UNESCO, ILO and others are promoting and doing. Specifically, WCCA5 should consider a voluntary code of conduct calling on all education and training initiatives to obtain official and formal accreditation of the certificates, diplomas and other qualifications that they award.

So what?The facilitators required to mainstream CA praxis must know as much about constructivist learning praxis, communicative action and social learning as they do about CA ecology and agronomy. They must know how to catalyse and empower innovation systems by working with, and in, local Communities of Practice and with selected outsiders who understand that CA systems are, first and foremost, social constructs. Therefore, the learning space (Conservation Agriculture Ecosystem, CAKE) wherein this competence is acquired and assessed must be on farms, in response to farmers´ needs and not at distant, academic institutions.

The WCCA5 community must take cognizance of global trends in formal education systems and in particular what other UN agencies such as UNESCO, ILO and others are promoting and doing. Specifically, WCCA5 should consider a voluntary code of conduct calling on all education and training initiatives to obtain official and formal accreditation of the certificates, diplomas and other qualifications that they award.

Climate SmartConservation Agriculture Green

ProsperitySo what?The facilitators required to mainstream CA praxis must know as much about constructivist learning praxis, communicative action and social learning as they do about CA ecology and agronomy. They must know how to catalyse and empower innovation systems by working with, and in, local Communities of Practice and with selected outsiders who understand that CA systems are, first and foremost, social constructs. Therefore, the learning space (Conservation Agriculture Ecosystem, CAKE) wherein this competence is acquired and assessed must be on farms, in response to farmers´ needs and not at distant, academic institutions.

The WCCA5 community must take cognizance of global trends in formal education systems and in particular what other UN agencies such as UNESCO, ILO and others are promoting and doing. Specifically, WCCA5 should consider a voluntary code of conduct calling on all education and training initiatives to obtain official and formal accreditation of the certificates, diplomas and other qualifications that they award.

The WCCA5 community should consider and exploit the fact that an official and formal process of integrating CA into national education systems is a backdoor into national agriculture policy, a ´Trojan Horse´ that could, in a few years, make the understanding of CA a general, internalised capability that is taken for granted and which, therefore, would not have to be grafted on in post-tertiary corrective training that should have been pre-empted by ecolacy acquired at school.

So what?The facilitators required to mainstream CA praxis must know as much about constructivist learning praxis, communicative action and social learning as they do about CA ecology and agronomy. They must know how to catalyse and empower innovation systems by working with, and in, local Communities of Practice and with selected outsiders who understand that CA systems are, first and foremost, social constructs. Therefore, the learning space (Conservation Agriculture Ecosystem, CAKE) wherein this competence is acquired and assessed must be on farms, in response to farmers´ needs and not at distant, academic institutions.

The WCCA5 community must take cognizance of global trends in formal education systems and in particular what other UN agencies such as UNESCO, ILO and others are promoting and doing. Specifically, WCCA5 should consider a voluntary code of conduct calling on all education and training initiatives to obtain official and formal accreditation of the certificates, diplomas and other qualifications that they award.

The WCCA5 community should consider and exploit the fact that an official and formal process of integrating CA into national education systems is a backdoor into national agriculture policy, a ´Trojan Horse´ that could, in a few years, make the understanding of CA a general, internalised capability that is taken for granted and which, therefore, would not have to be grafted on in post-tertiary corrective training that should have been pre-empted by ecolacy acquired at school.