Project

Exploring learning approaches and competencies for shaping effective change-agents in sustainable agriculture in Burundi

In a context where more than 85% of the population are agriculture depend and yet food insecurity and extreme poverty are the daily experience due to unsustainable agriculture practices, it is worldwide recognised that education can play an important role by fostering competencies for change-agents that can work to address this sustainability challenge.

It is under this perspective that the PhD candidate, Jean Claude Nyamweru, worked on developing and implementing a module on Participatory Integrated Planning (PIP) in vocational agriculture schools in Burundi in the attempt to build competencies for extensionists that would work as change-agents at the grassroot level for changes to happen in a bottom-up process. The ambition of Jean Claude Nyamweru was to offer a different national context perspective on the connection between competence-based education approaches, agricultural education and sustainability practices. Jean Claude Nyamweru is an assistant professor at the Department of Rural Economy, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, University of Burundi, Burundi.

Promotor:

Harm Biemans: Associate Professor at the Education and Learning Sciences Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2955-8211

Co-promotors:

  • is an Assistant Professor at the Soil Physics and Land Management Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0954-1896.
  • :Associate Professor at the Department of Rural Economy, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences at the University of Burundi, Bujumbura, Burundi. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3888-1232.


Published:
Nyamweru, Jean Claude, Willy Marcel Ndayitwayeko, Aad Kessler, and Harm Biemans. "Fostering sustainable agriculture in Burundi: which competencies for change-agents should vocational agriculture education prioritize?."The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension(2023): 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1389224X.2023.2205395.

Submitted for publication:
Competence-based vocational agriculture education for sustainability in Burundi: Perspectives from different educational stakeholders (submitted to Journal of Vocational Education & Training – JVET)