For farmer agroecological education: Farmer-to-Farmer Methodology on IALA Iximulew’s pedagogical bet in Nicaragua

Abstract

This research focuses on the Instituto Agroecológico Latinoamericano (IALA) Iximulew’s experience and their pedagogical strategies for an agroecology farmer education. IALA Iximulew is an international institute which answers to agroecological development needs from the Central America region, founding their headquarters in Santo Tomás, Chontales, Nicaragua, under the coordination of the Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC-Nicaragua). The IALA Iximulew nourishes the pedagogical bet with the alternation methology, consisting of alternating the educational process in two moments: time school and time community, transversally integrating the Methodology of Farmer-to-Farmer (MCaC, Metodología de Campesino a Campesino). Therefore, we aim to explore the MCaC’s elements on the IALA Iximulew’s pedagogical bet during the community time for the growth of community agroecological facilitators. We start by describing AILA Iximulew’s educational practice experience to amplify the overview of their development bet and identify MCaC’s methodological components that nurture the process for knowledge development, technical and dialogical capacities during community time. Among the results, we find that to achieve a community agroecological education, it is necessary to revisit critical pedagogy methodologies that encourage horizontal knowledge transmission and places dialogue in the center of teaching-learning. Alternance methodology and MCaC endow elements which favor youth development starting from prior knowledge juxtaposed with theory, to be once again taken to practice, going through the collective dialogue and create new knowledge to answer to organizational and community needs from a farmer and indigenous identity load. Methodologically, it has a qualitative approach, grounded in the ethnographic method with its participative observation technique and documentary research method.