Learning Agroecological Practices as Components of Complex Farming Systems

Students and many teachers in agriculture are intrigued with details of farming systems, perhaps because of years of training as specialists in discrete disciplines, a desire to simplify questions to make them more understandable, or the immediacy of decisions on farming practices in the field. It has become predictable each year in our agroecology class in Norway that many students come to learn practices. We have learned that a useful way to connect with practically oriented students, as well as those motivated by whole-system thinking and long-term planning for sustainability in agroecosystems, is to observe and participate in as many practical applications as possible within the context of the whole farm in its ecological and societal environment. We explore in this chapter how to involve students in hands-on learning of practices as components of complex farming systems rather than how to attempt to teach and contextualise practices at a distance.