Pedagogies for just futures: reconnection, restoration, and reparations in agroecological education in California

Across higher education, there is a growing demand for curricula that are responsive to contemporary land challenges while reflective of student histories and lived experience. At the University of California, Davis, students called for agricultural education that recognizes the contributions of under-resourced communities in California’s food systems. In response, we developed a course advancing a Black agrarian, biocultural, and reparative pedagogical framework for agroecology. We present a community case study of the design and implementation of a pilot course on agriculture, race, and justice in California, centering the lifeways, histories, and futures of Black communities. The course was organized around three interrelated pillars: (1) Reconnection—engaging Black agrarian histories, diasporic knowledge systems, and culturally rooted foodways; (2) Restoration—rebuilding soils, agroecosystems, and human-environment relationships through biocultural relationality; and (3) Reparations—addressing historic harms, land access inequalities, policy contexts, and pathways toward reparative land futures. Pedagogy was grounded in liberatory, land-based, and experiential learning. Through internships and visits to Black-owned farms, students engaged directly with diverse agribusinesses and community-rooted food systems. Developed by graduate students in collaboration with faculty in African American & African Studies as well as the university’s Student Farm, the course functioned as a learning ecosystem that recognized farmers and community leaders as co-educators. We argue that this pedagogical model enriches Black student experiences, builds cross-cultural solidarity, and strengthens networks of mutual aid, redefining the Land-Grant University’s relationship with local urban and small-scale farming communities and inspiring a new generation of community-centered farmers.