Back to the Future 

Bringing Back Rural Studies  

With the National Curriculum the plethora of centralised testing regimes and quality assurance measures has not only damaged the esteem of teachers and students, but has also turned education into a game where teachers teach the art of passing exams, and students realise the academic dangers of nonconformity.  A truly inspiring, satisfying and rewarding curriculum can only result from moving from a business-education-orientated education system to a child-centred learning experience.

It is important to look forward to what can be achieved in the future rather dwell too much on the current failings of the National Curriculum.  Secondly we must not argue about subject titles.  I trained as a Rural Studies teacher; I taught Rural Studies for a number of years, that is where my roots are, as are those of the National Association for Environmental Education.  In practice environmental education can appear in the school timetable under various headings. Perhaps that is the problem - a subject title may needed and a teacher to take full responsibility for the subject within a school’s curriculum.  That is something to be debated later.  At the moment there is a huge void in the school curriculum and wherever you see the subject title “Rural Studies” in what follows substitute Environmental/Rural Studies/Science or whatever you feel is appropriate.

Rural Studies relates very much to the study of the environment in and around the school with particular reference to animals and plants important to humans and leading to an understanding of their interaction with the countryside.  It can be a subject with its own intellectual discipline, but also has an important role to play as an integrating agent in the curriculum.

In saying that the primary objective of Rural Studies is to promote an understanding of the countryside and our relationship with our natural environment, as well as developing a respect for living things, it follows that a young person will be exposed to situations experiences and thinking that will contribute to his or her spiritual development.  Our relationship to the land and the life it supports is mediated by developing science and technology.  Rural Studies can help the individual to make adequate assessments of the social and political issues involved by causing him or her to become sensitive to the role of science in society and by having some comprehension of the great hope that it offers as well as the dangers of its misuse.  In doing so it will focus attention on ethical issues such as factory farming, conservation of wild life and natural beauty and pollution caused by the use of pesticides and other factors.

This leads us on to the scientific content of Rural Studies.  This does not centre on facts and phenomena, but deals with the role of science in human affairs particularly as it relates to the countryside.  This approach to science encourages an aptitude for first hand observation, investigation and experimentation, The development of a questioning mind and the ability to think scientifically are qualities to which a Rural Studies scheme can contribute which have not always been encouraged by a more traditional science teaching.  Since studies of this kind are closely allied to real life situations they are more likely to be regarded as relevant by children.  For example it is more relevant for a student to learn about genetics using real animals, rather than learning from complicated figures chalked on the blackboard.  In other words putting theory into practice.  Students also learn that “things” don’t always work out according to the book.  This is very important in real life.  Rural Studies has something quite different to offer by way of scientific study.  Examples that occur to me include the opportunities to study animal behaviour on a quite different scales to that usually possible in laboratories and a study of plant and animal physiology and biochemistry by observation and experimentation on the whole organism with a view to maximizing it health well being and profitability, instead of a very academic approach form a cellular or even a molecular level.

Whilst providing opportunities for developing a scientific attitude and encouraging scientific thinking, through its links with the natural sciences, Rural Studies with its humanitarian base line provides many openings for developing social consciousness and offers outlets for creative thinking, aesthetic appreciation, and linguistic effectiveness and sensitivity.  Many of these will occur through the care of living things. These offer an emotional experience that many young people need.  Many also need to work out ambivalent feelings with the guidance of a sensitive adult.  Practical work in the garden or the immediate stimulus of animals especially their young, provide for many young people an emotional experience that is needed to release other energies.

Many important skills are learnt through Rural Studies.  These include the basic practical skills associated with the development and maintenance of gardens, greenhouses, livestock units and outdoor study areas.

The students are also learning the skills of intellectual research and experiment.  From these investigations students are learning from real situations, putting theory into practice and seeing if it works.  From simple investigations more complex ones might develop, to consider humans as food producers, their future requirements for food and how they might be met.  Situations may be developed to suit students of all abilities. This leads to the development of the skills of decision making, having weighed evidence received from often opposing points of view, (e.g. scientific, social, political, economic and ethical).

Conceptual knowledge is developed through Rural Studies.  Primarily the concept of humans’ interaction with the countryside, particularly in respect of the plants and animals that are important to him/her.  Concepts of ecology, particularly as they relate to production ecology are also developed.  Thirdly the concept of scientific methodology involving observation, investigation enquiry and experimentation.  Lastly there is the concept of responsibility as it applies to the social, political, environmental and ethical issues that are a feature of Rural Studies.

Rural Studies can help to foster a number of valuable social attitudes.  It helps to develop a sense of responsibility for the well being of plants and animals, entrusted into the students care and a concern for the quality of both the natural and human made environment.  It also develops a readiness to become personally involved in environmental issues whether this be through some practical involvement or by participating in decision making processes.