Rethinking Agricultural Higher Education through Technoscience and Curricular Restructuring

Abstract

This document offers an in-depth reflection on the role of agricultural higher education in a globalized context marked by profound technological, economic, and social transformations. It starts with the idea that higher education institutions must respond to the current and new challenges of a complex and constantly changing world by integrating science, technology, and society. Throughout the document, it is argued that technoscience is driving an epoch-making change that brings with it the need to rethink traditional curricular models, overcoming disciplinary fragmentation to move towards transdisciplinary, technological, and humanistic education. The authors propose a restructuring that links the university with the productive and rural sectors, based on social relevance, innovation, and sustainability. They also highlight the need to strengthen complex skills in future professionals and researchers, promoting problembased learning and linking teaching with management and outreach. The text shows structural variables such as globalization, regional integration, the education market, competitiveness, and participatory
planning, which determine possible scenarios for Latin American higher education: from the neoliberal market to a sustainable or even anti-development one. Finally, it is concluded that the desirable scenario must combine economic development with social justice, strengthening university autonomy, equity, and environmental sustainability, so that institutions that train professionals for agriculture (agronomy, agribusiness, agriculture, veterinary medicine, animal husbandry, among other areas) become engines
of glocal transformation oriented toward human well-being and the sustainability of the planet.