Une diversité de configurations d'apprentissage en situation de travail pour réduire l’usage des engrais et pesticides agricoles

The need to develop a more ecological agriculture is a strong injunction in current territorial policies, which raises questions about farmers’ learning conditions in their work. Our methodology, at the interface between professional didactics and agronomy, is based on interviews with twenty French field crop farmers who have reduced their use of pesticides and fertilizers. To analyze the configuration of learning conditions under which each change in production methods was made, we have developed an analytical framework that distinguishes three stages (warning sign, experiencing, and evaluating), drawing inspiration from Dewey’s theory of inquiry (1993). Each stage of the learning process has been characterized by a set of variables, themselves characterized by a set of modalities. Hierarchical clustering serves to identify ten types of configuration of learning conditions. Throughout their careers, farmers mobilize several types of configuration involving various forms of experience and resource persons. Even though farmers have tended to change their practices when in contact with others, some types of configuration have become completely autonomous (20% of cases). This reveals both the isolation of some farmers and the ability of others to combine group learning and autonomous learning. Our identification of configurations of learning conditions is an original approach to addressing learning in working situations and provides tools to help farming consultants support shifts towards innovative cropping systems