The gift of Extension: Time, teaching and learning, and mentoring as components of Extension practice.

摘要

This study examined 45 Extension practitioners in the Pacific Northwest in the context of their work. The three-fold purpose: (1) Examined the process of teaching and learning with selected land grant university Extension practitioners in the Pacific Northwest. (2) Investigated how these processes were delivered. (3) Employed peer-mentoring strategies in relationship to practitioner program delivery. Collectively the study helped participating practitioners develop a better understanding of their professional teaching and learning styles and preferences. Practitioners are Extension workers, faculty, paraprofessionals, or support staff who deliver service, information, or education at the grass roots level in counties, communities, and regions across the United States. The study employed ethnographic, grounded theory, and action research techniques. The multi-case study was conducted with six selected Pacific Northwest Cooperative Extension Units in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington State during the 1999. The study identified and described phenomena within the context of the teaching, learning, and mentoring experience. The population included 10 support staff, 10 paraprofessionals, and 25 faculty. The researcher functioned as participant observer. Data were generated through practitioner interviews, observations, journaling, field notes, artifacts, and comparative analysis with site-based focus groups. Common themes, central issues and topics, and generalized propositions of the phenomena studied were drawn from six ethnographies and as outcomes of the action research.; Major findings included: (1) Time and the exchange of it was a central issue in program delivery. Exchange theory and six generalized propositions (Homans, 1974) were used to analyze central topics related to time. (2) Balancing work and family is an ongoing issue for CES practitioners. (3) Ten individual and/or aggregate attitudes were found as opportunities or barriers to providing information, service, or teaching with minority and low-income audiences. (4) Mentoring processes tested resulted in increased practitioner awareness of teaching and learning styles and promoted clientele and unit learning. (5) Knowledge about Extension practice in context enabled practitioner self-reflection and suggested use of norms assessments, new in-service process skill training frameworks, and a mentoring model (personal, professional, and academic) designed to strengthen LGU Extension delivery for the twenty-first century.