For a Committed and Critical Educ-Action Towards the Agro-Ecological Transition: The Controversy School
Résumé
French agricultural education is facing up to crises generated by forms of agriculture and associated food systems that do not sufficiently address to today’s social and environmental challenges. Initial training of future “actants” in agriculture and rural areas is seen as a powerful lever for changing farming practices to agroecology. However, changes in agricultural practices are not easy, and they most often constitute socially acute questions (SAQ), teaching of which in the classroom requires implementation of appropriate educational situations. In this respect, the “démarche d’enquête” modeled by Simonneaux et al. (Revue des Hautes écoles pédagogiques et institutions assimilées de Suisse romande et du Tessin (22):143–160, 2017) is a way of deploying inquiry-based pedagogy, so that students are able to explore their social and natural environment, and participate in its dynamics. We present the dynamics of a collective of teachers from several disciplines and educational researchers involved in a collaborative research supported by the French Ministry of Agriculture leading to the creation of the Controversy School. The pedagogical experiments based on the “démarche d’enquête” are part of an activist approach. One of the aims of this group is to encourage the deployment of an enquiry-based approach to the transition to agro-ecology, through the production of resources gathered on a digital platform. In order to identify what is at stake, the dissemination of this model of inquiry was analysed in the contexts of the Controversy School using translation theory. We highlighted two factors that would encourage a pedagogy supporting socio-political action: the multi-activity of the actors in the Controversy School and the creation of spaces for reassurance.