120
I. Jaisli et al.
However, this was again more based on a ‘learning by doing’ approach, and no
specific setup was given to seize the full opportunities provided by this diversity.
Teamwork in cross-cultural settings
A large portion of the summer school was dedicated to teamwork. During team
composition, a special emphasis was placed on creating multinational teams.
This allowed for hands-on experience when working in cross-cultural teams. This
opportunity was highly appreciated by the students.
Overall, the evaluation and assessment of the Geography of Food education
programme showed that all criteria for international sustainability education as
defined by Wiek et al. (2013) were addressed. The set-up of the programme with a
combination of e-learning, individual case studies and a joint study period therefore
proved to be very suitable. However, room for improvement could still be identified. Opportunities may arise from (i) a better integration of students’ backgrounds
into the programme to benefit more from their interdisciplinarity, (ii) more directly
addressing cultural differences to improve cross-cultural education and (iii) a more
structured problem-solving approach to find more creative and elaborated solutions.
4 Conclusion and Outlook
The Geography of Food education programme was developed and realized to provide
students with the skills and the ability to design sustainable FVCs as an approach
to fostering sustainable development. Three years of experience have provided the
participating institutions with deeper insights into the value and success of such
programmes.
The programme was successful in providing students with learning objectives
for heads (knowing), hands (acting) and hearts (being) (Caniglia et al. 2018; Sipos
et al. 2008): knowledge was provided on sustainability, food systems and value
chains focussing on the interdependencies of the topics. To provide the necessary
skills, students were trained for working interculturally and in an interdisciplinary
manner to develop new solutions. Last but not least, students were provided with
new perspectives of, and experiences in, different realities. These experiences support
students in developing a mind-set and the attitude needed to become ‘changemakers’
for sustainability and to face sustainability challenges (Svanström et al. 2008). In
addition, the overall programme also successfully supported the internationalisation
of the universities and established networks between the universities and participants,
including both staff and students.
Based on the knowledge acquired, the participating institutions have decided to
continue with the programme but in an adapted format. In the future, the summer
school will take place at different locations in Europe. As most students are participating from European universities, this decision has been taken in order to reduce
emissions from long-haul flights. Students from overseas, especially from developing countries, are nonetheless still invited to participate in the programme to
I. Jaisli et al.
However, this was again more based on a ‘learning by doing’ approach, and no
specific setup was given to seize the full opportunities provided by this diversity.
Teamwork in cross-cultural settings
A large portion of the summer school was dedicated to teamwork. During team
composition, a special emphasis was placed on creating multinational teams.
This allowed for hands-on experience when working in cross-cultural teams. This
opportunity was highly appreciated by the students.
Overall, the evaluation and assessment of the Geography of Food education
programme showed that all criteria for international sustainability education as
defined by Wiek et al. (2013) were addressed. The set-up of the programme with a
combination of e-learning, individual case studies and a joint study period therefore
proved to be very suitable. However, room for improvement could still be identified. Opportunities may arise from (i) a better integration of students’ backgrounds
into the programme to benefit more from their interdisciplinarity, (ii) more directly
addressing cultural differences to improve cross-cultural education and (iii) a more
structured problem-solving approach to find more creative and elaborated solutions.
4 Conclusion and Outlook
The Geography of Food education programme was developed and realized to provide
students with the skills and the ability to design sustainable FVCs as an approach
to fostering sustainable development. Three years of experience have provided the
participating institutions with deeper insights into the value and success of such
programmes.
The programme was successful in providing students with learning objectives
for heads (knowing), hands (acting) and hearts (being) (Caniglia et al. 2018; Sipos
et al. 2008): knowledge was provided on sustainability, food systems and value
chains focussing on the interdependencies of the topics. To provide the necessary
skills, students were trained for working interculturally and in an interdisciplinary
manner to develop new solutions. Last but not least, students were provided with
new perspectives of, and experiences in, different realities. These experiences support
students in developing a mind-set and the attitude needed to become ‘changemakers’
for sustainability and to face sustainability challenges (Svanström et al. 2008). In
addition, the overall programme also successfully supported the internationalisation
of the universities and established networks between the universities and participants,
including both staff and students.
Based on the knowledge acquired, the participating institutions have decided to
continue with the programme but in an adapted format. In the future, the summer
school will take place at different locations in Europe. As most students are participating from European universities, this decision has been taken in order to reduce
emissions from long-haul flights. Students from overseas, especially from developing countries, are nonetheless still invited to participate in the programme to