Transformative food systems education in a land-grant college of agriculture: the importance of learner-centered inquiries

In this paper we use a critically reflexive research approach to analyze our efforts to implement transformative learning in food systems education in a land grant university by applying scholarly tools to the teaching processes and its learning outcomes. As a team of learners across the educational hierarchy, we evaluate our efforts of creating transformational learning outcomes through facilitating students’ inquiries in Food Systems,!an interdisciplinary, lower division undergraduate!course at the University of California, Davis, and part of a new!undergraduate!major in!Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. !We provide an overview of the course’s core elements — labs, exams, assignments, and lectures — as they relate to social constructivist learning theory and student-centered inquiries. Then, through qualitative analysis of students’ reflective essays about their learning experiences in the course, we demonstrate important transformative outcomes of student-centered inquiries: (1) most students confronted the commodity fetish and tried to reconcile tensions between what the food system!is!and!ought!to be, and (2) students repositioned themselves, their thinking, and social deliberation in relation to the food system. Students’ reflections point to the power of learning that emerges through their inquiry process, including in the field, and from critical self-reflection. We also highlight the importance of!reflective essays in!both reinforcing experiential learning and!in helping us better understand students’ learning vis-àvis our teaching.