TITLE:
Learning by Doing, an Innovative Approach to Sharing Knowledge with Indigenous Farmers and Elderly Adults
AUTHORS:
Mariano Morales-Guerra, Karla Yuliana Cadena-Pérez, Pedro Cadena-Iñiguez, José Gabriel Berdugo-Rejón, Filemón Rafael Rodríguez-Hernández, Venancio Cuevas-Reyes
KEYWORDS:
Field Schools, Training, Extension, Technology Transfer, Andragogy
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.15 No.3,
March
29,
2024
ABSTRACT: In the Mexican southeast, subsistence agriculture is
practiced, with elderly producers, speakers of indigenous languages, with no or
little schooling, who have been subject to the attention of various
agricultural extension programs, which have not had the expected results,
derived mainly administrative and methodological problems. The aim of the work
is to describe the stages to carry out technology transfer work with peasant
and indigenous producers using the field school model, as well as an analysis
of the results obtained in various studies with this method in order to
contribute alternative schemes for technology transfer in rural areas of the
country. The results identified that administrative problems in linear methods
have frequently been that programs started late, fee payments were inopportune,
and for the most part the technicians were dedicated to covering administrative
tasks. As for the methodological aspect, it refers to the fact that field
technicians do not have the capacity or preparation to work with elderly
producers, speakers of indigenous languages, who understand little or no
Spanish, little or no schooling, which requires an appropriate work method.
However, the attention of the extension service has been conventional, with
practices aimed at covering operational goals. The results, measured in the adoption
rates of the technological components, indicate an average of 60% adoption of
the technological components, in basic crops, lemon and tomato in the
greenhouse. It is concluded that the andragogical method, mainly learning by
doing, has demonstrated its efficiency in the training of adult producers.