Whither Goes Soil Science in the US and Canada?

@unpublished{citeulike:568503, abstract = {Institutional and student surveys carried out in 1992 and 2004 suggest that soil science education is experiencing a significant decline in the US and Canada. The present article reports on the data obtained in these surveys, in particular the fact that the enrollment in M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs in soil science in U.S. and Canadian universities was about 40\% less in 2004 than in 1992. Some of the possible causes of this drop are analyzed in detail, such as the tendency of soil science education programs to keep emphasizing the agricultural side of soil science, i.e., its connection to crop production, in spite of the open intention of a majority of students to pursue careers dealing predominantly, or at least in part, with environmental issues. It is argued that measures could still be taken by soil science educators and soil scientists to reverse the downward trend in enrollments. Among these are licensing soil scientists, being vigilant about oversimplifications and misrepresentations of soil processes by researchers in other disciplines, expanding the scope of soil science and actively promoting its achievements, and making sure that the public at large is aware of the intrinsic, challenging complexity of soils and of the fact that it mandates a unique pluridisciplinary approach. We believe that if some of these measures were adopted, soil science could relatively rapidly regain its place in the Pantheon of science.}, author = {Baveye, Philippe and Jacobson, Astrid R. and Allaire, Suzanne E. and Tandarich, John P. and Bryant, Ray B.}, citeulike-article-id = {568503}, comment = {This article was conveyed to me by the author. It is in the final form submittted to Soil Science in January 2006 and is expected to be published soon. It is freely available for distribution.}, keywords = {education, soil\_science, survey}, posted-at = {2006-03-29 20:32:31}, priority = {0}, title = {Whither Goes Soil Science in the US and Canada?}, url = {http://www.nscss.org/pdf/whither_goes_soil_science.pdf} }

TY - UNPB ID - citeulike:568503 L3 - citeulike-article-id:568503 N2 - Institutional and student surveys carried out in 1992 and 2004 suggest that soil science education is experiencing a significant decline in the US and Canada. The present article reports on the data obtained in these surveys, in particular the fact that the enrollment in M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs in soil science in U.S. and Canadian universities was about 40% less in 2004 than in 1992. Some of the possible causes of this drop are analyzed in detail, such as the tendency of soil science education programs to keep emphasizing the agricultural side of soil science, i.e., its connection to crop production, in spite of the open intention of a majority of students to pursue careers dealing predominantly, or at least in part, with environmental issues. It is argued that measures could still be taken by soil science educators and soil scientists to reverse the downward trend in enrollments. Among these are licensing soil scientists, being vigilant about oversimplifications and misrepresentations of soil processes by researchers in other disciplines, expanding the scope of soil science and actively promoting its achievements, and making sure that the public at large is aware of the intrinsic, challenging complexity of soils and of the fact that it mandates a unique pluridisciplinary approach. We believe that if some of these measures were adopted, soil science could relatively rapidly regain its place in the Pantheon of science. TI - Whither Goes Soil Science in the US and Canada? KW - education KW - soil_science KW - survey N1 - This article was conveyed to me by the author. It is in the final form submittted to Soil Science in January 2006 and is expected to be published soon. It is freely available for distribution. AU - Baveye, Philippe AU - Jacobson, Astrid AU - Allaire, Suzanne AU - Tandarich, John AU - Bryant, Ray UR - http://www.nscss.org/pdf/whither_goes_soil_science.pdf ER -