Agricultural education in Brunei Darussalam is torn between apparently conflicting patterns. There seems to be an economic agenda where policy makers attempt to make educational outcomes match national priorities. Worldwide, agriculture is being confronted by a globalised economy and market reforms. However, agriculture as a subject in schools is also confronting the issues of quality education. Quality education is the number one goal of Brunei’s national education system; but how do we address quality in learning, in a prescribed curriculum? In pursuit of that quality, this study explores what concepts in agriculture learning lead to higher levels of understanding, is there progression, and how do students arrive at their understanding? This multicase study draws on data from secondary education students studying agriculture during 2009 – 2010. It uses the threshold concepts framework as an analytical tool for understanding students’ learning and for exploring their personal experiences (and insights into their phenomenological reflections) based on interview data (n=7) and questionnaires (N=19), corroborated/triangulated by teachers’ data (questionnaires n=14, interviews n=2) and other documents to inform future curriculum innovation. The methodological approach is phenomenological, interpretive, descriptive and qualitative, using four stages of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) supplemented with some quantitative analysis. The threshold concept constituents that were discovered are very diverse, ranging from skills, science, business, research and management; but planting is the key. Eleven super-ordinate themes illuminated two stages of threshold understanding: planting and plant science at the crop production level; and research, business and management at the commercial level. The findings showed the importance of phenomenological experiences: feelings associated with sweat, yields and money generation, emanated from a sense of agency and affective labour, paving the way to power of purpose towards self and socio-economy. Understanding the importance and merits of their learning activities made students reflected their meaning and positive feelings about themselves and self-worth. This motivated them to achieve further learning goals. iii Agricultural learning transformation seems to come through a combination of knowledge-based understanding in plants, and how they grow, alongside the experience of planting and growing crops successfully. Importantly, it is not just the knowledge about planting that the students get from the experience, but it is the feelings (emotion) that seemed to emerge from their words of sweating under the sun that helps to consolidate that knowledge into something which becomes part of their identity. This study’s findings about lower level agriculture learning seem to leverage on experiences to create bigger learning outcomes prior to mastery in the discipline. Transformative learning occurred when learners studied through situated contextual experiential activities, providing affective embodiment and thinking like agriculturists. Thus agricultural understanding and transformation was triggered by experiential threshold concepts whose foundations arise from integration of personal, emotional affective feelings and everyday experiences with ideas from discipline. Emotional feelings (associated with phenomenal experiences) provide an added dimension to the ‘basic threshold concept’ work by Davies and Mangan (2008:39), ‘where newly met concepts some of which transform understanding of everyday experience through integration of personal experience with ideas from discipline’. These results reveal a new perspective on threshold concepts work, particularly relevant to disciplines involving process skills and experiences, especially for agriculture. The findings serve as key indicators to progression and quality learning outcomes. They also offer useful implications for a quality curriculum in agriculture which fosters personal identity transformation, so more students become future agriculturists and thereby will help the economy. Of foremost importance is to include, in the curriculum, the key threshold concepts capable of transforming understanding and how to teach these concepts through meaningful/engaging experiences (via practicality and doing project-evidence/outcome-based learning), and provision of connections and relationships. The key to quality in the agriculture curriculum is therefore, how to translate and teach these concepts into meaningful affective learning experiences.

The land-based sector has a unique history of specialised establishments providing education and training suitable for school children through to postgraduate students. The dominant provider has been and remains the specialist agricultural college of further education. Since the 1990s, this provision has changed substantially as a result of changes in the industry, to college governance, to educational policy, and the development of national skills policies. This study explored the ways in which the specialist colleges have responded to change and identifies the impact this has had on students, the curriculum, and the teaching staff. The thesis begins with a history of agricultural education in the UK and a critical review of the literature on changes to the industry. A mixed-method approach was used to gather data on the ways in which colleges have evolved. Interviews were conducted with key informants from the relevant national organisations involved in land-based education and training, and a desk survey was conducted with the 32 specialist colleges. Two colleges were selected for further research. A detailed case study of each college was developed from data collected through semi-structured interviews with key personnel, observations within the colleges, and analysis of key documents. The findings showed there were two main drivers of change in the colleges: a) change within the agricultural industry; and b) b) the incorporation of colleges in 1993 This study makes an original contribution to the literature on further education in the UK in general and on agricultural education in particular. Both areas are under researched and, to date, there has been no research on the way the specialist colleges have adapted and evolved. The thesis recommends that a professional body should be established to devise industry standards in order to enhance the professional status of the land-based industries, and improve their image and appeal to new entrants.

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This study relates to the reforms by the Education Ministry in Botswana of decentralising the coordination of teachers’ In-service Professional Development (IPD) to the Regional Offices with the overall aim of improving students’ academic performance (Republic of Botswana, 2006). In the absence of other research data, the study aims to understand how secondary school teachers of agriculture in Botswana perceive their IPD. The study endeavours to identify gaps in current IPD provision and make recommendations to guide IPD policy reforms at regional level. Based on a review of the literature and the overarching research purpose, a set of research questions was devised. Considering the research questions, a Realist perspective to the research that endorses a flexible pragmatic stance was adopted. The research employed a mixed methods design. A questionnaire was developed and administered to all the Agriculture teachers in the Central Region (n=247). A purposive sample of teachers (n=36) and every Agriculture Education Officer (n=8) were interviewed. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS software, with descriptive and inferential statistics reported. A coding guide was developed to analyse the interview transcripts which was done with the assistance of NVivo software (Bazeley, 2007). The findings show that the main source of motivation for teachers to attend IPD is to update their knowledge and skills in the subject. The study revealed workshops and meetings to be the most popular IPD opportunities of all IPD opportunities found to be relevant by teachers. The study also identified satisfactory and unsatisfactory characteristics of IPD; the contextual factors that adversely influence IPD in the region; and a wide range of IPD needs. The findings have implications for future IPD policy reforms; most important of these include the need to:  adequately resource IPD and create time for it as an integral part of the education programme;  remove restrictions associated with funding teachers’ enrolment in part time courses;  revise teachers’ workload policy to help them find time for IPD; and  have IPD emphasise acquisition of agriculture skills by teachers. Beyond policy, the findings also suggest improvement of the design and organisation of IPD, which include strategies for making IPD interesting, meaningful, sustainable and accessible to all teachers in the region.

Face à l’explosion démographique des pays à faible revenu en Afrique sub-saharienne, l’agriculture joue un rôle primordial pour garantir la sécurité alimentaire. Le secteur agricole est de plus la principale source d'emploi dans cette région. Les femmes constituent la principale main-d'œuvre agricole de ces pays. En raison de leur rôle clé dans le secteur agricole, les agricultrices sont prioritaires dans les interventions politiques. Par ailleurs, dans ces pays, le conseil agricole et le partage des connaissances sont nécessaires pour s’adapter à de nouvelles contraintes. Depuis quelques années, les technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) ont permis le développement de nouveaux outils visant à améliorer la portée et l’efficacité du conseil. Les gouvernements de ces pays sont cependant confrontés à des critiques concernant l'impact de ces outils, qui peuvent également contribuer à une fracture numérique touchant plus particulièrement les femmes qui travaillent dans les exploitations agricoles familiales.La thèse de doctorat analyse comment les outils TIC tiennent compte des rapports de genre, et de la situation des femmes qui travaillent sur l’exploitation agricole familiale. La thèse est fondée sur le cas du Kenya. Elle est focalisée sur le développement des plateformes de connaissances, un instrument TIC utilisé par le Gouvernement kenyan pour atteindre les objectifs de politiques publiques. Ce pays est emblématique car il fait l'hypothèse que les plateformes peuvent être inclusives des agricultrices.Pour cette recherche, le travail s'appuie sur trois approches d’économie institutionnelle : l’économie féministe, la théorie de la régulation, et l'économie des services. Il présente un cadre méthodologique et conceptuel, développé pour analyser l'intégration des rapports de genre dans les plateformes aux échelles macro, méso et micro.Les résultats montrent que les rapports de genre sont présentés associés à un objectif d'équité pour le Gouvernement Kenyan. L'analyse confirme que les plateformes sont considérées comme de nouveaux outils d'inclusion du système de vulgarisation du gouvernement. La typologie de plateformes développée dans ce travail montre cependant que ces instruments peuvent être une source d'inégalité. Il s'agit en particulier de l'inégalité d'accès pour les agricultrices et de services standardisés qui ne correspondent pas aux attentes de ces femmes. La conjugaison de différentes approches économiques institutionnelles a permis d'analyser comment les évolutions institutionnelles affectent l'inclusion des objectifs d’égalité des sexes dans l’intervention publique et dans le fonctionnement effectif des plateformes. Les résultats présentent des leviers d’action pouvant être pris en considération par les politiques et les concepteurs des plateformes, pour une tenir compte des rapports de genre dans ce système de vulgarisation agricole et éviter d’engendrer de nouvelles discrimination. L'analyse révèle l'importance de disposer d'un espace d'intervention publique et de coordination dans ce nouveau système de conseil agricole basé sur les TICs. / Low-income sub-Saharan African countries are confronted with demographic explosion since the last 60 years. Consequently, agriculture plays a key role in ensuring food security. The agricultural sector is also the main source of employment in this region. Women are the major contributing labour force in agriculture in these sub-Saharan African countries. Connected to their key role in the agricultural sector, women farmers are prioritised in policy intervention. Moreover, agricultural extension services are necessary to adapt to different constraints in these countries. Transfer of knowledge is also required to guarantee farm yields and consequently improve small-scale farmers’ livelihoods. Lately, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have enabled the development of new tools, aimed at improving the scope and the effectiveness of advisory services. Policy makers in sub-Saharan African countries are nonetheless confronted with critical questions regarding the impact of these tools, which can also contribute to a ‘digital gender gap’. These issues particularly concern women farmers.This PhD research analyses how ICT tools take into account gender relations, and the situation of women farmers. The thesis is based on the case of Kenya. The dissertation particularly focuses on the development of knowledge-based platforms in agriculture, an ICT policy instrument used by the Kenyan Government to achieve public policy objectives. This country is emblematic because it believes in the assumption that platforms can be inclusive of women farmers’. To answer to this research question, the work is based on three different institutional economic research approaches: feminist economics, the French regulation theory, and economics of services. A conceptual and methodological framework is presented to analyse the inclusion of gender equality in knowledge-based platforms at macro-, meso-, and micro- level.The results provide evidence that gender equality objectives is a fundamental guiding principle to the Government of Kenya. The analysis show that platforms are considered as new tools of inclusiveness in farm advisory services innovation. Observations from a developed platform typology framework show however that platforms can be source of gender inequality. It especially concerns women farmers unequal access to these instruments and the standardised services that they offer. This is essentially related to the institutional nature of the platform. Indeed, as it turns out, a high number of these instruments are based upon complex partnerships, and financed by multi-national corporations and/or foundations from the agrifood industry based in the Northern hemisphere. Combining institutional economic approaches allowed to bring out critical points of inclusion to be considered by policy makers and platform developers. Disregarding these specificities may make these platforms into new vectors of exclusion. Recognising and taking into account the conditions for inclusion can bring to light powerful levers for improving the efficiency of platforms.