Open-Ended Strategies for Case Study Learning.

Motivating students and empowering creativity in field studies with stakeholders require careful planning. Facing challenges where context is complicated and goals loosely defined, students are stimulated to dream large, explore multiple options, and venture outside the proverbial box. Field-oriented courses that enhance learning when student teams interview farmers, walk their fields, and immerse in the context of current farming operations, farmer’s philosophies and world views, current challenges and long-term goals. Teams are mentored in processing this information, drawing rich pictures of farms and their interactions with other forces in the larger economy, and articulating the challenges that are preventing farmers from reaching their goals. Rather than being prescriptive with recommendations, student teams develop relevant future visions and potential scenarios based on their observations, interviews, team discussions, and prior knowledge and experiences. When logistically feasible, conclusions are presented back to farmers for a reality check and further clarification of challenges and potential solutions. The broader learning community of farmer-student-instructor can evaluate a priori the potential impacts and possible successes of each proposed scenario. This educational experience provides growth in understanding of current situations and innovative exploration of future possibilities, plus a rich learning experience for both students and farmers. Students have found this educational strategy an effective entry into participatory research and farmers usually find it valuable to learn with teams of motivated students with diverse background. Similar team studies of community food systems in the Nordic Region have been equally successful, as communities invest their own resources in logistical costs of student teams who help them visualize future changes in local food systems, and provide potential routes to reach their goals. Student evaluation comments validate these as useful tools and experiences gained in an open-ended learning environment, and indicate that many methods are applicable in their subsequent thesis research.