Kim Niewolny

What Happened to the Promise? A Critical (Re)Orientation of Two Sociocultural Learning Traditions.

Cleary it is no longer possible to think about learning without context. Although context cannot be ignored anymore, educators often struggle to explain how people learn in and with various contexts. Situated cognition and cultural—historical activity theory (CHAT) hold promise for understanding how adult learners are cultural and historical agents embedded within and constituted by socially structured relationships and tool-mediated activity. This promise, however, is not yet realized as the politicized nature of learning in practice that is foundational to both situated cognition and CHAT remains overlooked in adult learning literature. To move toward fulfilling the promise, this literature review emphasizes the neglected dimensions of recursivity and power within situated cognition and CHAT frameworks.

Immigrant farmer programs and social capital: evaluating community and economic outcomes through social capital theory

African immigrants in the USA experience high levels of poverty and underemployment. Many African immigrants are turning to farming to supplement their income and increase their access to healthy, culturally relevant food. Key to the success of many immigrant farmers is participation in new entry farmer programs which operate as social networks connecting participants to technical training, farming resources, and influential individuals in the community. Drawing upon social capital theory, this mixed methods study measures the economic and social outcomes of immigrant farmer programs as perceived by agricultural educators. Data were collected through a national survey and case studies of programs in Ohio and Virginia. Analyses found economic outcomes were associated with social network development and agency, while social outcomes were associated with trust and reciprocity. Recommendations are provided for community development practitioners interested in enhancing outcomes of immigrant programs.

Learning through Story as Political Praxis: The Role of Narratives in Community Food Work

As Melissa Orlie (Theory & Event, 12(2), none, 2009) has noted, the “madness” of the industrial food system is increasingly difficult to deny. The manner in which this dominant system operates has resulted in socioeconomic and ecological excesses that cannot be sustained. For over three decades, there has been a groundswell of academic, policy, and community-based concern and activism around this social, economic, and ecological unsustainability. The academic literature, for instance, is replete with works theorizing and advocating approaches for building alternative food systems that stem from a range of disciplinary perspectives and methodological orientations (e.g., Allen, Food for the future: Conditions and contradictions of sustainability. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993; Together at the table: Sustainability and sustenance in the American agrifood system. University Park: Pennsylvania University Press, 2004; Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 3, 295–308, 2010; Alkon and Agyeman, Cultivating food justice: Race, class and sustainability. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011; Constance et al., Alternative agrifood movements: Patterns of convergence and divergence. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2014; Feenstra, Agriculture and Human Values, 19, 99–106, 2002; Goodman et al., Alternative food networks: Knowledge, practice, and politics. Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2014; Hendrickson and Heffernan, Sociologia Ruralis, 42(4), 347–369, 2002; Hinrichs, Journal of Rural Studies, 19, 33–45, 2003; Lang, Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 4(3), 315–335, 2009; Kirschenmann and Falk, Cultivating an ecological conscience: Essays from a farmer philosopher. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010).

Evaluating Community Gardens in a Health Disparate Region: A Qualitative Case Study Approach

Though community gardens (CGs) have emerged as a potential strategy to improve access to and consumption of fruit and vegetables, few published studies inform program planning, implementation, or maintenance of CG initiatives. Grounded in the community-based participatory research approach and guided by the RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework, this qualitative case study explored perceptions of CG among 6 CG leaders and 21 CG participants in the health disparate Dan River region. Findings highlight key opportunities to promote the successful reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of CGs in similar vulnerable communities.