Participation in Higher Education Curricula Development in Armenia and Possible Effects for the Labour Market—The Case of an “Organic Agriculture” Master’s Program
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- To describe the process of participatory curriculum development using the case of the Organic Agriculture Master’s program in Armenia;
- To understand the role of the stakeholders in participatory curriculum development—to fulfil the gap of organic professionals in the labour market; and
- To illustrate what participation in higher education has to offer to the current Armenian labour market through the Armenian Organic Agriculture Master’s program.
1.1. Background
1.1.1. Challenges of the Armenian Labour Market
1.1.2. Participatory Curriculum Development (PCD); towards Student-Centred Higher Education and “Real-World” Relevance
1.2. The Case: Organic Agriculture Master’s Program at the Armenian National Agrarian University
2. Theoretical Framework
- →
- Participation by consultation, when participants are usually experts and they are being interviewed, and the project team has no obligation to follow ideas of interviewees;
- →
- Functional participation, when usually external participants are part of the project and objectives are identified in advance;
- →
- Interactive participation, when participants are also decision makers and action-plan developers, and they are actually participating in data analysis as well; and
- →
- Self-mobilization, when participants initiate a project themselves independently.
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results
4.1. Conceptual Mapping of the Participatory Curriculum Development
“There is need for a revolution in curriculum development.”Lecturer interview N2
- University representatives:
- Two students from previous focus groups were elected amongst themselves to represent their voice in the stakeholder committee;
- Three lecturers (a so-called core team of lecturers) representing teaching staff of the master’s program, who also were knowledgeable about administrative requirements of the University regarding curriculum.
- Organic production representatives:
- Three organic processors and two producers who wanted to shift to organic.
- Certification body representative:
- Ecoglobe LLC—the only national organic certification organization—was represented by either the head of the organization or by the head of one of its departments.
- Representative from the Ministry of Education:
- One member to fulfil the requirements of the curriculum license.
- Project team:
- Project coordination from ANAU;
- The PhD researcher.
4.2. Effective Collaboration Possibilities between ANAU and the Agricultural Sector for Graduates’ Better Employability
- Creating a platform that is accessible to all stakeholders; this would first of all build a network of the organic stakeholders, and will further build a solid base for a dialogue between university staff and practitioners;
- Planning the cooperation at least one semester ahead, taking into account the needs and opportunities of both sides;
- Mutual visits, invited lecturers, presentation of success stories (for theoretical, methodological, and practical inputs); the university should not be isolated from the “real world”, and therefore visits of the lecturers and students to the farms and practitioners’ visits to the classroom should be on a regular basis;
- Legal long-term regulation of collaboration (laws, agreements, contracts). In order to have a long-term collaboration, a state regulatory framework is needed; for instance, it should be stated in the labour codex on which regulatory basis the students can be paid for their internships (the income tax paid by the learner to the state should be returned to the student for paying a tuition fee), or how the practitioner will be taxed for employing a student, etc. Agreements or contracts need to be signed between the university and the practitioner for more reliable collaboration.
4.3. The Possible Effect of Participatory Curriculum Development in Higher Education on the Labour Market in Armenia
- ○
- “Education takes time, so it is not possible to have a rapid effect”;
- ○
- “The sector of organic agriculture is rather small in Armenia, so the effect on the labour market will not be significant, either”;
- ○
- “The awareness of organic agricultural products is quite low; there is still work that needs to be done here”.
- ○
- In the export field of organic products;
- ○
- In the field of consultancy; not only in the production of organic produce, but also in organic certification services; and
- ○
- When students become practitioners themselves and use their own knowledge for producing organic products on their own.
5. Discussion
“No change is easy, but we must do it if we want to change something in our educational quality.”Focus group with organic stakeholders of Armenia
Lessons Learned
6. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
ANAU | Armenian National Agrarian University, Yerevan, Armenia |
BOKU | University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria |
PAR | Participatory action research |
PCD | Participatory curriculum development |
Glossary
Course structure | The structure of a single subject within a curriculum, including topics, teaching methods, literature, and learning outcomes. |
Course | A separate subject within the Organic Agriculture Master’s program curriculum. |
Curriculum | An entire educational program, such as the Organic Agriculture Master’s program. |
Curriculum development | Includes the initiating, design, and implementation of the curriculum. |
PCD | Includes the initiating, design, and implementation of the curriculum in which participatory methods dominate. |
Stakeholders | Students, farmers, organic producers, lecturers, organic certification body representatives, officials, and “Organic Armenia” Association representatives. |
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Teaching/Learning Methods | Participants’ Choice (with Possibility to Choose More than One Answer) | |
---|---|---|
1 | Practical classes | 75% |
2 | Real case studies | 70% |
3 | Group discussions | 60% |
4 | Presentations | 55% |
5 | Learning by doing | 50% |
6 | Lecturing | 37.5% |
7 | Online learning | 5% |
8 | Other | 2% |
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Hovakimyan, H.; Klimek, M.; Freyer, B.; Vogel, S. Participation in Higher Education Curricula Development in Armenia and Possible Effects for the Labour Market—The Case of an “Organic Agriculture” Master’s Program. Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, 331. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10090331
Hovakimyan H, Klimek M, Freyer B, Vogel S. Participation in Higher Education Curricula Development in Armenia and Possible Effects for the Labour Market—The Case of an “Organic Agriculture” Master’s Program. Social Sciences. 2021; 10(9):331. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10090331
Chicago/Turabian StyleHovakimyan, Hasmik, Milena Klimek, Bernhard Freyer, and Stefan Vogel. 2021. "Participation in Higher Education Curricula Development in Armenia and Possible Effects for the Labour Market—The Case of an “Organic Agriculture” Master’s Program" Social Sciences 10, no. 9: 331. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10090331
APA StyleHovakimyan, H., Klimek, M., Freyer, B., & Vogel, S. (2021). Participation in Higher Education Curricula Development in Armenia and Possible Effects for the Labour Market—The Case of an “Organic Agriculture” Master’s Program. Social Sciences, 10(9), 331. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10090331