Case study approach to region-wide curriculum and teaching materials development in agroforestry education in Southeast Asia

Since 2005, the Southeast Asian Network for Agroforestry Education (SEANAFE) has developed region-wide curriculum frameworks and teaching materials on two important subject matters identified by its member universities, namely: 'marketing of agroforestry tree products (MAFTP)' and 'agroforestry landscape analysis (AFLA).' This paper shares the processes adopted and lessons learned by SEANAFE from both projects, which used a case study approach to bring practical experience into use for teaching and learning. Both projects were aimed to enhance the content of agroforestry education programs and courses, including the teaching capacity of lecturers and the quality of graduates, among SEANAFE's 87 member institutions in Indonesia, Laos PDR, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. For each of the two projects, multi-disciplinary teams of lecturers carried out the following activities within 18 months: (a) regional training to enhance the current state of knowledge on the two topics; (b) national case studies; (c) a workshop to formulate a curriculum framework and teaching material based on the results of the case studies; (d) translation of project
outputs into local languages; (e) in-country training for 100 lecturers on using the curriculum framework and case studies material; and (e) supporting the mainstreaming of the project outputs into curricula. About 20 percent of SEANAFE member institutions have conducted curriculum reviews of existing agroforestry courses and/or programs to mainstream the outputs of the projects using the MAFTP and AFLA Teacher's Guides.

SEANAFE's project experiences have proven that building capacity to develop region-wide urriculum frameworks and teaching materials using the case study approach is feasible. The approach has also helped promote participatory curriculum development, maximize experiential and peer-based learning among teachers in the region, and enhance collaboration among SEANAFE member institutions.