The program development process described in this handbook is based on the philosophy that Extension works first with people, then develops programs to meet identified needs. Our program development process incorporates the belief that local people have both desire and ability to plan and carry out educational programs to enrich their lives. How well this is accomplished depends on people having opportunities to work with Extension faculty in opportunities to learn and apply knowledge, imagination and experience toward solving mutual problems. Throughout this handbook, principles for providing such opportunities are presented to help faculty and supporting committees/coalitions build effective educational programming.
Extension's mission is to extend research-generated information to people and encourage appropriate application of it by individuals, families and community leaders. Our mission is to educate people for effective decisionmaking that will enhance personal and community quality of life.
The Extension educator should be knowledgeable of and committed to Extension's mission, philosophy and objectives, which are the framework within which the system works.
The Texas Agricultural Extension Service has involved local people in the program development process for nearly 50 years. Experience has proven that successful county educational programs can be achieved most effectively with the involvement of local citizens and the formal support provided by the organization of Extension Program Councils in the counties. This approach to educational programming has several benefits:
County offices are staffed with Extension agents who are professional educators with broad expertise in agriculture, home economics and related fields. They are challenged to give all citizens access to the educational resources available through The Texas A&M University System and the Cooperative Extension System (United States Department of Agriculture).
The state is organized administratively into 12 Extension districts. Some Extension faculty are located at district headquarters to support local and regional Extension programs. Certain specialists serve on a statewide basis and are housed with academic and subject matter departments throughout the eight Texas A&M University System campuses.
All faculty are in a position to draw on various resources of the System's universities, thus providing a knowledge and research base for Extension programs. The combination of Extension educators in counties, district centers and on the campuses provides this state with a highly successful outreach educational system.
Scope of Extension Programs. Because counties differ in many respects throughout the state, the scope of concerns also will differ. Metropolitan communities are highly organized for developing business and industry, with complex social and cultural patterns. Many rural counties need to explore new ways toward economic progress and community enhancement. Both rural and urban counties will benefit from networking among agencies and organizations to stretch limited resources. Counties may need to cooperate in planning for solutions to problems affecting both rural and urban environments. Where problems affect several counties or a region, Extension Councils and professional faculty should seek ways of jointly addressing identified issues and problems.
The Extension program should be concerned with developing all useful opportunities to achieve potentials of human and physical resources. This type of program will encompass more than traditional agriculture and home economics in dealing with critical issues of wide human concern.
It is not possible, however, for the Extension Service and local Extension Councils to address every problem. Areas of major program emphasis will be determined through long-range and strategic planning processes to determine the most significant problems. Extension's resources can then be brought to bear on these concerns.
The program development model represents the full cycle of decisions and activity related to a total educational program - planning, implementing, evaluating and interpreting the Extension educational program, with people involved at the center and every phase. The local situation is the base.
Although specific phases are identified, these do not necessarily occur in a direct sequence. Each element interacts with other elements in the process. In the model, the phases are flexible to allow for local and situational application. As both the central element of this model and connecting link between situation and program processes, a county's Extension Program Council has the responsibility of adapting the phases as they are put into effect in the local situation.
The program development process is to be used in rural and urban settings for both base/traditional programming and working on a critical issue without prior Extension program experience in the situation. The differences in these approaches depend on 1) the starting point - people or a program, 2) the complexity of the problem and how it interacts with other problems, and 3) the interdisciplinarity [1] of information and action to be applied.
Using the Model. Understanding the logic of the model may increase with a sense of its dynamic and developmental nature. Starting at the situation, the grass-roots base for programming and people involvement, people are drawn from the local setting into the phases of program development through the formal Council organization. Program committees and a coordinating executive board are created and sustained to enable Council members to take leadership in long-range and annual planning, program implementation, evaluation and interpretation. Programs are developed in a general clockwise order, but the phases are interactive throughout the process, as Extension faculty and Councils use evaluation of progress and results to build educational opportunities. Each phase is dependent upon the successful handling of other phases.
Planning-Long-range and annual. Both long-range and annual planning help agents and the Council's committees to stay up-to-date with the progress of program development.
Long-range planning will identify and describe the direction of the broad Extension program for a 4-5 year period. Annual planning is the step that determines program segments to emphasize in a given year to achieve the long-range goals. Annual planning will sharpen the focus, redirect resources, and determine the specific immediate steps to be taken in areas of local concern. See pages 18-21, 22-27.
Implementation. Program events and activities are uppermost in the programming processes, offering educational information and experiences to individuals and targeted groups through a variety of ways. See pages 28-33.
Evaluation. When programs are set into motion, informal and systematic evaluations will enable the Council to gauge real progress. Evaluations are intended to be part of every phase of the program development process (denoted with arrows surrounding the model), but it is especially important to evaluate the effectiveness of educational activity and apply this information toward program interpretation and improvement. Benchmarks, set from evaluating previous programs or current progress, are documented in the long-range program plans and impact reports. See pages 34-40.
Situational Bases. The program development process is based on identifying and using the local situation and available resources - the needs and problems related to conditions of health and well-being, economic viability, leadership and life skills, and the physical environment - to determine specific programming. See pages 14-17.
County situations shape the educational program that is developed and conducted through the Council and short-term collaborating groups; programs are directed toward addressing local issues and problems, as well as taking advantage of opportunities existing in the local area. State, national and international conditions, however, also have a bearing on county situations and must be considered as programs are developed.
Extension faculty have a responsibility to investigate local situations and compare these with state, national and other conditions. Together with their Extension Program Council, professionals develop a program that best fits local interests and problems.
Extension Program Councils as program decisionmakers. In the county, the Extension Council is the organization providing lay leadership and coordination to Extension's educational program. Through its executive board or board of advisors and various program committees, the Council formally brings citizen representation and involvement into directing Extension programs to areas of local interest and need. [See pages 41-50.]
All counties are not expected to have the same kinds of educational programs or the same kind of Council organizational structure, even if situations are somewhat similar. Once local situations are studied and goals are set, resources from various Extension levels and other sources can be applied in educational activities.
As Extension takes a serious look at programming for the new century, we must deal with serious problems of the physical environment, human health and well-being, community leadership and economic viability, and life skills of adults and youth. We must continue to provide objective research information to our publics, but emerging concerns are changing the way we examine our programming - what is offered, how, and who is involved in the processes.
It is necessary to examine the strategies used to determine Extension programming and to be clear about the most appropriate approach for the kind of programming that is identified. A program opportunity could be identified as one of four types:
Some problems are localized and can be solved with application of information and action generated from a single source or discipline. Other problems, particularly the critical issues of our society, have roots beyond a single subject matter discipline - therefore, a team approach is required to understand and act on change. Priority or issues-based programming uses a different paradigm from that used by base/traditional programming.
Relationship Between Base Programs and Issue-based Initiatives. Base programs are the major educational efforts central to Extension's mission and common to most Extension units. They are the ongoing priority programs involving discipline-based and multidisciplinary education. Initiatives are Extension's commitment to respond to important issues and problems of broad societal concern with significant resources and interdisciplinary effort to achieve a major impact.
There is a defined relationship between components of the base program and the initiatives. Initiatives are "in the spotlight" until a significant impact is achieved, the need has subsided, or the allocation of effort results in the program becoming part of the ongoing base program or being discontinued.
Base programs, usually those with foundations in the disciplinary knowledge of university sources, represent the program delivery or knowledge transfer model. Core knowledge is provided to Extension customers[2] or clientele from the resources of universities and research institutions. "Over time, the discipline identifies itself with a portion of the public, gradually aligns itself with the specialized concerns of that audience, and generally confines itself to a certain method of program delivery." [3] Examples include variety selection in production agriculture, nutrition information, and leadership dynamics in organizations. "The result of disciplinary programming is to establish, by prior assumption, whom Extension will serve, what problems Extension will address, and even what form Extension programs will take." [4]
Program decisionmaking, in this approach, means identifying users and potential users of the information, involving them in legitimizing the program offerings, and then marketing and implementing the education to identified target audiences. Evaluation is based on achievement of the stated/implied goal - providing information to as many people as possible in the targeted audience.
Issue-based programs (initiatives) are Extension's planned response to a critical issue. Because issues are defined as "matters of wide public concern arising out of complex human problems,"[5] the issues tend to be complex and difficult to solve, having interrelated problems that need to be worked on simultaneously in some systematic way to improve the situation.
A program initiative is characterized by identifying human problems in their own context (outside the Extension organization), without prior regard to a certain subject matter, audience or method of program delivery. Program development for an initiative requires simultaneous attention to interrelated problems, multiple audiences, interdisciplinary subject matter and team activity, and usually, involvement of other organizations. Evaluation addresses progress or long-term impact in some aspect of the area - what difference was made.
Issues have life cycles. They may be current, emerging or changing/declining, depending on public perception and stage in the life cycle.
Current issues are ones identified by a majority of the public as topics of wide concern that need attention and resolution. Current issues are defined by local representatives within the Long-Range Extension Program for priority attention in the overall Extension educational effort. Some current issues may be high priority for several years, while others may decline or change substantially in a shorter time.
Emerging issues are opportunities which present themselves suddenly and may have severe consequences if not handled quickly. They arise out of other concerns, either as unforeseen circumstances or as alternative ways of dealing with critical problems. Emerging issues may be less widely identified but are clearly perceived by lay and professional leaders as increasingly problematic for a substantial portion of society. Within a relatively short time, a relevant emerging issue should move to either issue-based or base program status.
Earmark programs [such as federally funded Expanded Nutrition (EFNEP), Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Farm and Ranch Safety, Urban Gardening and other programs] have a narrower scope of planning and reporting at the local level. Often a program is initiated at state and/or federal levels and offered as a "package" to regions where the need is identified. Resources are built into the program and the decision to use it (ornot) is the critical program development step. Once the program is accepted, resources and guidelines are provided to agents for implementing program goals.
In the issues-based programming approach, it is important to clarify the full scope of the issue. An issue statement will have three elements: 1) people who are involved or affected, 2) risk factors associated with the problem situation, and 3) likely consequences of the situation. By clarifying the issue, educators and planning groups will usually identify a broader scope of concerns than can be adequately treated with single discipline information or previous experience.
Selecting Issues. The number of issues a program unit addresses should be limited. At least five criteria should be considered when selecting issues:
Where disciplinary programming often has the function of knowledge transfer, issues programming is solving problems through education. Thus, we have a program development model in the full sense of the word, versus a program delivery or transfer model.[6]
Since 1986, Texas Extension has taken a proactive issue-based programming approach. Large numbers of Texans are involved in identifying and clarifying the major critical issues that will be addressed statewide. Issues are identified first in the counties. In turn, these serve as the foundation for developing the initiatives that characterize Extension's major statewide programs. Each county planning unit develops specific program actions to address these issues and other local concerns that may be non-issue educational needs of citizens.
To develop resources for addressing the critical issues, statewide issue task forces and initiative teams are formed. Led by issue coordinators, the task forces draw upon the expertise of a cross-section of specialist program units, economic development groups, other institutions and individuals who can play a role in the desired change.
Networking[7] - Coalitions and Collaborations. In issues programming, collaborative program development is vitally important. This means, for programming related to critical issues, individuals and groups outside the formal Extension Program Council will need to be brought into the action.
Networking is a process of acquiring resources or building power by using or creating linkages between two or more individuals, groups or organizations, particularly those beyond the formal structure of the Extension Council. Networking provides a valuable way to get things done in relation to new issues where a formal structure would delay action or restrict effort. It also provides a world view that lets us better understand the complexity and interdependence of everyday life and work.
A knowledge of networks and the networking process is an essential skill for the Extension worker. Often, the Extension faculty member plays a critical role as network facilitator or boundary spanner. This means assuming responsibility for others' levels of participation, actively soliciting contributions from others, providing support and reinforcement, and creating openings for others to become involved.[8]
Networks can provide three types of resources: information, legitimacy and group members.
Information may be Extension's most valued resource. Access to current research-based knowledge distinguishes Extension from its competitors, but Extension professionals do more than disseminate research - they are information brokers who facilitate the two-way flow of information.
Legitimacy is sanction or support. Through personal networks and inter-organizational networks, community power actors can mobilize support (and opposition) for programming.
Group members are a resource for working the network from the outside in. When Extension needs access to resources, networking personalizes requests for help, recognizing the group or individual's motivation in helping.
Types of Networks. Networkers must understand networks. Systematic analysis can reveal informal but powerful groups of people who can help or hinder us. Extension professionals must attend to both formal and informal networks.
In formal networks, information and other resources tend to flow vertically - usually from the top down - as in an organizational chart or in "community power structure." In contrast, within informal networks resources are more likely to flow laterally. Informal networks exist in both organizations and communities, and since there are more contacts, power is more diffuse but informal networks are rich sources of information. Networks have the powerful bonds of shared purpose and resource exchange.
Four principles are useful in guiding networking, for deliberately building relationships to support Extension programming:
In the following chapters, concepts related to each phase in the program development process are clarified.