Promote dialogue between peasant knowledge and expert knowledge in an agroecological process of ‘solution co-active search’ for co-learning on Mayotte Island

The article focuses on an agroecology training conducted in Mayotte, France, based on a method called “solution co-active search.” Based on the exchange of knowledge and practices between peers, this method is part of a transformative approach to agroecology that values farmers’ expertise. The main purpose of the article is to analyze how knowledge co-produced during horizontal learning can become sufficiently reproducible to be applicable, yet adaptable, to a range of comparable agroecological situations. To this end, we draw on Jean Piaget’s theory of schemas. The initial results are encouraging. A group of ten producers was trained, and the interim assessment of the training reveals that a majority of them have begun to implement the co-produced knowledge on their farms and to transfer it to other farmers. Thus, the analyses highlight that peer learning opens up new ways of learning. They show how the conceptual pair “schema-situation” can provide an operational model for reasoning about the organization of training in agroecology, thinking about the links between theoretical knowledge and experiential knowledge, and developing modes of action that combine invariant organization of an activity and adaptation of the conduct of this activity to the contexts of application.