Exploring competencies and learning for sustainable agriculture: Towards a competence-based sustainability approach for agricultural education in Burundi

Burundi faces a context of high population pressure and high land degradation with unsustainable agriculture practices, leading to the failure of agriculture to serve as a source of livelihoods for the population which is primarily agriculture dependent. In a such context, education could play a central role to achieve sustainable agriculture, particularly when the agriculture educational curriculum is oriented to fostering competencies for change-agents who can effectively work to address current agricultural challenges. This research intends to explore a sustainability learning approach as well as assessing its impact on competencies development for students in secondary vocational agriculture education. To achieve this objective, this research combines qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches for assessing the effectiveness of a sustainability education program in vocational agricultural education. Findings of this research will contribute to evidence gaps needed to be addressed for the agriculture education curriculum to be competence-based towards sustainable agriculture in Burundi.