How to develop a Master curriculum in Agroecology?
In September and October two AER workshops facilitated by Prof. Dr. Charles Ssekyewa took place at MMU with the aim of building capacities among MMU staff in the topics of Agroecology (AE), systemic understanding in theory and practice as well as the development and running of an AE master curriculum in Uganda – Lessons learnt from Ugandan Martyrs University, Nkozi.
The first Workshop “Agroecology and its systemic nature” in September aimed to increase the comprehension of the role of interdisciplinary thinking in managing agricultural development agenda, strengthen a systemic understanding of the challenges of the Rwenzori region and improve the skills to integrate a systemic understanding of the complex nature and its dynamics the smallholder farmers into teaching and research.
The 18 workshop participants from MMU were taken through the theoretical content under classroom environment as well as in transdisciplinary field practical sessions.
The workshop was attended by participants including current lecturers in the school of environment and natural resources and the field session involved farmers from the Rwenzori region.
In October the workshop ”Lessons Learnt in Agroecology curriculum development” was designed to introduce the systemic nature of agroecology to the 21 participants and to approach the question on how to integrate the complex nature of the agro-ecosystem into the AE master curriculum at MMU. Development process incl. the challenges of designing and facilitating an integrated curriculum was explained step by step. The participants discussed the challenges in relation to the systemic nature of AE in the context of the Rwenzori region. An understanding of the teaching AE and a first draft for a course outline was enabled and described.
As a follow-up after the two workshops facilitate by Prof. Dr. Charles Ssekyewa, a MMU-internal workshop “Planning and implementing an AE Master of Science curriculum following National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) guidelines” was conducted to enable understanding of the formal processes and regulatory framework specifically for MMU concerning the preparation, submission and accreditation of the Masters programme.