Growing herbs at Concordia: learning through tradition

There are many opportunities for informal learning in and around universities. At Concordia University, the Greenhouse and the Loyola Farm are the settings where students and community member grow many vegetables and herbs as volunteers or participants in the Internship program for the medicinal usage of herbs. Two main theoretical lenses are used in this thesis: Kolb’s Experiential Learning and Mezirow’s Transformative Learning. Three data sets are examined: First, the results of semi-structured interviews of seven Concordia students; second, the documentary analysis of traditions and projects at Concordia, from its inception, found in the archives and related to herbs and sustainability; third, the researcher’s personal experience gained working in the Loyola herb garden during the Internship program. Eight themes were extracted from the data collected: (1) Experience of being around one’s own garden; (2) Slowly learning to speak the language of herbs; (3) Capture and regeneration of traditional knowledge from personal and multi-generational networks; (4)Interest in alternative and traditional healing; (5) Critique of the capitalist, invasive ways of healing (the political); (6) Learning together - brings people together; (7) Traditional healing practices are regaining importance; (8) Volunteers see their involvement as adding something greater than themselves – what the Jesuit fathers described as “To be a man for others”. These specific learning opportunities are embedded in the synergy of traditions of Concordia. I therefore hope that others will pick up some of these leads and continue the praxis launched by the exploratory research on which this thesis is based