AGROECOLOGY 27 – A transdisciplinary approach to truly sustainable agricultural and food systems
Pisa, Italy
Course
DURATION
5 days
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
24 May 2027
EARLIEST START DATE
Jul 2027
TUITION FEES
EUR 200 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* from EUR 200 to EUR 1000 according to the applicant's annual income
Key Summary
About: AGROECOLOGY 27 is a seasonal school at Sant’Anna School, an Italian special-statute university institution. It introduces agroecology with a transdisciplinary focus on sustainable agriculture, agro-environmental and socio-economic interactions and food-system transformation. Teaching uses active-learning: case studies, group work, role play, serious games and an agro-ecological farm visit.
Career Outcomes: You’ll gain skills for roles in research, farm advisory, extension services, sustainable supply-chain management, policy, education and NGO work. Graduates can pursue careers as agroecology researcher, farm advisor, extension agent, sustainability consultant, food-system planner, NGO project manager, supporting regenerative agriculture, resilient food systems and rural development and food-policy roles internationally.
AGROECOLOGY 27 intends to introduce students to the complex and multifaceted world of agroecology through a transdisciplinary approach, enabling them to acquire basic knowledge and awareness of the importance of the interactions between agro-environmental and socio-economic components as the foundation of the dynamics of transformation of agro-food systems towards true sustainability, and to understand how and why the agro-ecological approach can provide concrete solutions to the great challenges of our time.
Teaching methodologies
The Seasonal School will use highly interactive teaching methodologies focused on Active Learning. Frontal teaching, deliberately reduced and set up on an interactive seminar basis, will aim to frame the theoretical background of the topics progressively introduced and provide participants with basic skills that will allow them to make the most of the subsequent moments of interaction within the group, with the teachers, and with the farmer.
In each morning or afternoon session, moments of frontal teaching and interactive teaching will alternate, in order to create a positive group dynamic and maximise stimulation and participation for both students and teachers, while minimising moments of fatigue. The Active Learning methodologies to be used are: presentation of and discussion on case studies; group work (preparation for the farm visit and ex-post return in plenary); role playing; serious games; visit to an agro-ecological farm during which the participants will interview the farmer and acquire useful elements for the subsequent return in plenary.
AGROECOLOGY 26 is preferably aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students. Given its strongly inter- and transdisciplinary nature, it is open to any degree course in both the experimental and social sciences.
The Seasonal School will use highly interactive teaching methodologies focused on Active Learning. Frontal teaching, deliberately reduced and set up on an interactive seminar basis, will aim to frame the theoretical background of the topics progressively introduced and provide participants with basic skills that will allow them to make the most of the subsequent moments of interaction within the group, with the teachers, and with the farmer.
In each morning or afternoon session, moments of frontal teaching and interactive teaching will alternate, in order to create a positive group dynamic and maximise stimulation and participation for both students and teachers, while minimising moments of fatigue. The Active Learning methodologies to be used are: presentation of and discussion on case studies; group work (preparation for the farm visit and ex-post return in plenary); role playing; serious games; visit to an agro-ecological farm during which the participants will interview the farmer and acquire useful elements for the subsequent return in plenary.