A curriculum framework for informal urban agriculture

D.Phil.The purpose of this research is to develop a curriculum framework for a distance education course in sustainable urban agriculture, whereby it is envisaged to train the trainers of urban farmers. The factors which motivated this study are mainly socioeconomic and ecological in nature and include the food crisis of the urban poor, unsustainable agricultural practices, malnutrition, starvation, health risks and high population growth in cities. Sustainability in urban agriculture implicates a need for environmental education and ecological agriculture. An exploratory and descriptive research design was used in the empirical study to determine the feasibility of an urban agriculture course through distance education. The need for Environmental Education in this course as well as the best media to use for the course were determined. Secondly, the policies and assistance by local governments to establish an infrastructure for practising sustainable urban agriculture, aimed at improving socio-economic and environmental sustainability, were determined. In both these cases a quantitative research study was undertaken, using a questionnaire as the data collecting instrument and a research survey as the method of enquiry. The sampling population was purposively selected. The questionnaires were coded and the data from the closed-ended questions was computer-analysed while data from the open-ended questions was content analysed, using Kerlinger's method of content analysis. Thirdly, a literature study was done on the educational philosophies and the philosophical base undergirding this curriculum as well as curriculum design models and sources of change, influencing this curriculum. A curriculum design model was chosen to serve as a theoretical foundation for designing an urban agriculture curriculum. Finally an empirical study with a discriptive and exploratory research design was undertaken in a qualitative research study to set the curriculum framework for a distance education course in urban agriculture