Divya Pandey
A major focus of my work is to understand how plant and soil systems interact with the biophysical environment, and how this intersects with socioeconomic and policy mechanisms around the food system. Specifically, I have focused on co-existing environmental and climatic stresses, including pollution, heat, drought, soil erosion, and nutrient stresses and their implications on biogeochemical cycles, greenhouse-gas fluxes, carbon dynamics across plant-soil-atmosphere, and nutrient acquisition efficiencies of plants. I have used a range of approaches that include controlled experiments, crop and pollution impact models, and conceptual models (for policy and economic impacts).
I am also interested in exploring how to engage wider actors and people in addressing urgent challenges, specifically around food systems, agriculture, and soil. A central aspect of my current work is dedicated to shaping a framework for reorienting soil health education within the broader perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Sessions
Divya Pandey, Valentina Tassone, Camilla Ramezzano
Social Sciences Group (Chair group: Education and Learning Sciences), Wageningen University & Research
The EU project LOESS aims to identify strategies to reorient education in Europe to strengthen soil health awareness. Here, we present findings from research conducted within LOESS, investigating the current ‘state’ of soil health education and the ‘wishes’ for its transformation across 15 LOESS partner countries. In each country, a triangulated approach combining desk-research, one focus group, and ten interviews was conducted to explore educational design at various levels (primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational and general public) investigating six dimensions: purpose (for what), collaborations (with whom), learning space (where), learning process (how), learning activities, and paradigm (from what assumption/worldview). The analyses followed an integration of knowledge from academic and practical expertise, and included a thematic analysis of focus groups and interviews.
A key finding was the general absence of the term 'soil health' within educational offerings. Here, the term soil (health) encompasses both explicit and broader content relevant for soil health. Current soil (health) education emphasizes knowledge acquisition (knowing) and, to a lesser extent, skills development (doing). Fostering personal connections to soil (being) is largely missing. The wishes are to strengthen experiential, doing-based activities (e.g., soil monitoring) and cultivating values and attitudes (being) (e.g., caring for soil) rather than relying on predominantly instructive activities (e.g., lectures). Additionally, there is a strong wish to shift from indoor (e.g., classrooms) to outdoor settings (e.g., gardens, forests) for immersive and sensory-rich learning. This further aligns with the wish to move beyond the dominant mechanistic paradigm—focusing on individual soil components towards an ecological paradigm that acknowledges the soil’s complexity and interconnections with ecosystems and humans.
To bridge these gaps changes are needed at the classroom (micro-level) and at system, policy and structural level (macro-level). A key micro-level need if to improve educator’s training specifically focusing on soil (health) related content and pedagogical skills for outdoor, doing-based, emancipatory and more systems-oriented approaches. At the macro-level, revising curricula to explicitly include soil (health) topics and highlight their connections to sustainability goals emerged as crucial. Additionally, structural support is needed to enhance collaborations and facilitate outdoor learning opportunities.
https://loess-project.eu/