Why “Soft-Skills” Belong in Sustainability Education: A Visit to The Evergreen State College Organic Farm

When I first started on the path toward Sustainability Education and The Good Food Movement, I focused on building tangible skills and knowledge -apprenticing to learn to farm and taking classes in agroecology, soil science, nonprofit management and other academic content. During my second year of undergrad at The Evergreen State College , one of my favorite professors, an ecologist and farmer named Pat Labine, pulled our class together to teach us group dynamics and facilitation skills. She rightly demanded that we improve our communication and collaboration as integral parts of our learning and future work.

Pat later introduced me to several books by Robert Chambers.  Chambers advocated for participatory development back in the days when the “we know what’s best for you” perspective was taken as a given in the international development world. Something he wrote that stuck with me is the notion that sustainable change comes when managers or teachers construct their programs to facilitate leadership and ownership in the learning process, just like Pat had done for us. That may sound obvious, but it actually requires very intentional and creative planning to succeed.

Almost 20 years after Pat introduced me to those ideas, I returned to The Evergreen State College (TESC) to speak with Melissa Barker and Stephen Bramwell about The Evergreen Organic Farm. Melissa is the Farm Manager and Stephen is a visiting faculty member for the Practice of Sustainable Agriculture (PSA) program (Dave Muehleisen is the lead faculty member). The Evergreen Farm is run by a small staff, aided by interns and students. They cover their operating budget by producing for the campus market, community supported agriculture (CSA) clients, and some special events. PSA, Ecological Agriculture, and other environmental research and food science programs utilize the farm labs, classrooms, and fields as part of TESC’s interdisciplinary, experiential learning approach.

Stephen Bramwell and Melissa Barker at The Evergreen State College Farmhouse

The TESC Farm looking up the central path into the forest

The main fields and perennial gardens seen from the wash stations.

After an inspiring tour of the farm and their new learning labs and activity spaces, Melissa and Stephen shared some of the ways they are experimenting to integrate more leadership and facilitation training into their teaching. At the beginning of the program they introduce a simple evaluation system where students learn to provide and receive constructive feedback at the end of most class activities. While providing valuable information for Melissa and Stephen, students also become more aware of the structure and process of the class. They begin to think outside of their own perspective to take more responsibility for the community learning experience. As they become co-creators of the program, students also tend to be more engaged and inspired to contribute.

When teaching farm skills, Melissa pre-trains a small group of students who are then coached to teach a group of their classmates.  The exercise allows Melissa to provide more detail and nuance in her trainings while pushing the students to develop a deeper understanding of the content. Stephen also instituted a weekly “skill share” activity, where a student will train her/his peers in a program-related skill they already possess or researched specifically for the presentation. The rotating teacher-students receive feedback from classmates and professors to help them improve over time. 

The new food and nutrition lab located at the farm.

Some of the ways the public is welcomed and educated at the TESC Farm

I cannot overstate how transformative such experiences can be, especially for people who do not thrive in a typical classroom setting. Students are recognized as contributors, holding value and knowledge. They are pushed to think about their role(s) in the learning process; and because their teachers make their own process more visible, students are better able to learn the hidden “soft” skills behind good teaching.  Role modeling and teaching how to collaborate with others successfully is one of the greatest gifts we can offer our students and program participants.

The complicated part comes in how you build these experiences into your program or curriculum. Soft skills are process heavy. The time required for leadership coaching, facilitation training and evaluation means less time for other activities. TESC farm students already divide their time between classroom, lab, and field work, and their teachers are in constant negotiation for sufficient time with the students.  Professors are expected to cover a large amount of content and Melissa must teach the students a wide array of farm skills while maintaining production and markets on a working farm.

“It comes down to understanding why the farm is here,” Melissa explained.  If the farm is expected to be highly productive and profitable, then student and staff time needs to be devoted to production and markets. If the goal is for students to succeed as farmers, they need time to build skills, resource networks, and business plans. At the same time, each program needs sufficient time out of the fields to devote to the reading, research, labs, and other aspects of any academic program. As a state institution, we must also think about public access to the farm.”

Melissa in front of the farm "action board." She uses this

simple tool to involve interns, farm staff, and students 

in the farm's day-to-day management.

Melissa’s concerns probably sound familiar to those of you who run your own education program. In the end, it comes down to making intentional decisions about your core values, aims, goals, and outcomes. If facilitation, group dynamics, and communication skills are not part of your stated plan, they will always be extra and complicated additions. Worse, you won’t have reason to measure, evaluate, and acknowledge your student’s growth in those skills since they are “side activities” in the program. In addition to creating a stronger narrative for fundraising, giving soft skills official value means your students will see them as integral parts of their “toolbox” when they begin their own work in the world. 

Melissa, Stephen, and their colleagues (including Pat Labine, now retired) have built an engaging and well-respected space for Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainability Education at The Evergreen State College. They are proud of the learning experience and learning community they facilitate. When asked about next steps, both expressed the need for a Master Plan that provides clearer goals for the farm and its place at TESC.  They hope to include facilitation and communication skills as an integral part of that plan.

As is the case with many successful and evolving programs (see my previous blog about GRuB), the TESC Organic Farm staff and teachers have reached a point where they are ready to re-examine their roots and focus their energy on making the biggest impact possible. If you find yourself in a similar place and would like help developing your plan, contact us at info@RootForward.net or check out our RootForward.net website for more information.