Learning about sustainability education on a biodynamic farm 

 

Six-thirty AM, I am harvesting broccoli, and loving it. We are staying at Alm Ostre, the oldest (since 1974) running biodynamic farm in Norway. Not only is it a beautiful and peaceful place, and a warm community, it is also an interesting example of experiential learning for sustainability. 

“our” house and the shop at Alm Ostre

My last blog was about my experiences at the Center for Collaborative Learning for Sustainable Development (CCL). Being able to learn from and collaborate with the excellent people of CCL was enough for me to make the visit to Hamar worthwhile. However, it didn’t end there. Sacha Kalseth, advisor to the CCL, organized that we could stay at Alm Ostre. We get a room and boarding here in exchange for helping out on the farm. I am very grateful for this experience.  In this blog I would like to share some of the insights the work at Alm has given me about learning for sustainability. 

Practicants working together

Participatory Learning

Working on a biodynamic farm has shown me a great example of participatory learning for sustainability. Alm Ostre is situated in one of the most scenic agricultural parts of the country. It is a community farm, run by five farmers, and around ten volunteers working and living together to produce food in a biodynamic way. The volunteers, called ‘practicants’, are mainly young people who spend time varying from three months to a year working at the farm alongside the farmers. In this way, practicants learn directly how food can successfully be produced in a circular way without using pesticides, herbicides or artificial fertilisers. In speaking with the volunteers with whom we share the big farm house and most meals, I learn about the profound effect working at Alm Ostre has on their lives. A large part of the volunteers want to become an organic farmer themselves. “I didn’t know I wanted to become an organic farmer until I stayed at Alm Ostre, now I am going  to study organic agriculture.” says Colin. Vocational education institutes and universities take their students for practical courses here. Alm Ostre is both a successful farm operation, and a place of learning for sustainability.

An alternative way of living

Alm Ostre also shows an alternative model for operating a farm. The farm is owned by a foundation, and managed not for profit, by the 5 farmers as a group. All farmers have a house on the farmland where they live with their families. Retired farmers are still a part of the community and live here too, all fed by the food it produces. What I find interesting in this model is that it shows an alternative to the conventional farming business model, based on exploitation of natural and human resources for profit. Alm Ostre shows us a way of living and working together, growing food, striving to respect nature and its carrying capacity as well as looking after people. It is often these sustainable societies that we find so hard to imagine. We see the downsides of our economic model based on infinite growth, which farmers have been pushed into for decades. However we struggle to imagine an alternative. To create a sustainable society, we need to be able to envision it. That is why in sustainability education, it is so important to see, and indeed experience, the possibilities if we dare to step outside of the conventional. 

The Learning Pyramid, Source: Dale, E. (1957) Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching. New York, The Dryden Press, Inc.

Experiential Learning

This experience of being part of a community at an organic farm for me stresses again the importance of experiential learning in the real world. As a geography teacher I teach about sustainable food production; but I have learned so much more about this here working at the farm. We educators know that “doing the real thing”, (the Learning Pyramid, Dale 1957), has the largest transformative impact. However it is not a large part of teaching at regular high schools. So, why not? Ask a teacher what the main prohibitor is to taking students outside of school; I bet they will mention at least one of these: Paperwork and a lack of time. Therefore, to incorporate more experiential learning into our teaching practice, teachers need help, especially from school leaders and policy makers: Provide time, support and trust to teachers to include learning in the real world. Creating experiential learning opportunities outside of school takes time, and this should be allocated to teachers to organise this. School leaders; your trust and support can empower teachers to include experiential learning experiences into the taught curriculum. Education for sustainability requires us to take our students outside, into the community, into nature to work and learn alongside people in the “field”. 

 

Wieneke Maris, September 2022 

 

Sunset at Alm Ostre