ANH Academy Webinar Series: Curriculum Enrichment Teaching Materials Pilot Seminars

Background

Since 2016, ANH Academy has organised annual conferences and other activities for researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of agriculture, nutrition and health. Formal and informal feedback had consistently articulated a demand for more structured support for lecturers and students interested in these areas, outside of Academy Week Learning Labs.

An electronic needs assessment was conducted in 2017 among members based at academic institutions around the world. Over a third of respondents (37%) felt they did not have the required knowledge or skills and 31% did not have access to relevant materials to teach multi-disciplinary topics to students. Training in how to teach ag-nutrition-health linkages would motivate 42% of respondents to incorporate these topics into their teaching, with open access to readily adaptable materials being another key motivating factor among 37%.

Along with the consistent anecdotal feedback, this indicated a large appetite for multi-sectoral, interdisciplinary teaching support and suggested that there was an unmet need for the types of training offered through ANH Academy Week Learning Labs.

Following the expansion of IMMANA into a second phase in 2019, the Curriculum Enrichment Working Group was constituted to shape and guide the ANH Academy’s work in this area. This included a detailed mapping exercise of existing teaching materials (now online and accepting community submissions), as well as a more robust and in-depth needs assessment, which included not only a structured online survey, but focus group discussions (the results of which are under peer review at a journal).

Five topics emerged through the updated needs assessment that educators in the sample would like to teach :

Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Linkages, an Introduction
Climate Change, Environment and Sustainability
One Health
Gender, Equity and Empowerment
Migration and Fragile Contexts

The webinar series

This webinar series has been designed to pilot test the teaching materials that have been developed in response to the latest needs assessment. The seminars will provide an opportunity for our potential end users; educators and students, to learn about the topics and to provide valuable feedback which can help us to ensure that the materials are fit for purpose before they are launched online for the ANH community's adaptation and use in different contexts.

Come along and help us to refine these materials!

Because we are piloting materials that are envisioned to be used by educators around existing curriculums - I.e. during lunchtime seminars or standalone workshops - we are limiting participation for each session to appropriate classroom-sizes. This is because the sessions have been developed with pedagogies that are specifically interactive and conducive to learning. As such, if you are interested - please sign up as soon as possible and please ensure you are able to set aside the full time in your diary!

Recordings of these webinars will not be shared online after the event. However, we will be refining and sharing all teaching resources for each of the five topics in early 2023. This will include guidance on how to adapt them for different settings, as well as lesson plans, handouts, external links etc. We’ll of course share updates on our newsletter so make sure you’re registered as an ANH member to receive these. If you’re not already a member you can sign up here.

(1) Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Linkages, an Introduction