The Data Party: Involving Stakeholders in Meaningful Data Analysis

A hallmark of Extension includes the involvement of stakeholders in research and program needs assessment, design, implementation, evaluation, and reporting. A data party can be used to enhance this stakeholder involvement specifically in data analysis. This type of event can not only increase client participation in Extension programming and research but also enhance community buy-in, reinforce human and community development, and provide more authentic data interpretation

The Extension Storyteller: Using Stories to Enhance Meaning and Catalyze Change

Many cultures share and pass on norms through storytelling. Extension as a culture also creates and shares stories to pass on history, provide information about Extension work and experiences, and develop the organization. However, Extension as a culture less frequently uses storytelling to enhance meaning and catalyze related change. This article provides a brief review of relevant literature on types of stories, purposes of storytelling, and effective storytelling techniques and describes qualities of successful stories. This information provides a basis for best practices that Extension professionals can apply when using storytelling to enhance meaning and catalyze change

Programming for the Public Good: Ensuring Public Value Through the Cooperative Extension Program Development Model

Effective Cooperative Extension programs produce important private and public value for individuals, families, businesses, and communities. However, the public value of Extension programming often goes unmeasured and unarticulated. Extension needs to reclaim its role as a key provider of public value for LandGrant Universities through strong educational programs driven by infusing public value into all elements of the Extension Program Development Model. This article describes Extension’s public value movement including organizational, professional, program, and scholarship development efforts to enhance public good effectiveness articulation. Lessons learned, implications, and next steps for Extension’s public value success through a strong program development model are also shared

Consistency and Change in Participatory Action Research: Reflections on a Focus Group Study about How Farmers Learn

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on our efforts to balance consistency in our multi-year participatory action research study with the need to adapt our research protocol to what we are learning along the way. While both are important, we share several examples of how our flexibility and openness to adapt our protocol to our research findings has lead to methodological refinements and serendipitous learnings. We discuss implications for both agricultural education and research

Tips for Constructing a Promotion and Tenure Dossier that Documents Engaged Scholarship Endeavors

The growth of the community engagement movement in higher education over the past 2 decades has resulted in more faculty member interest and practice in engaged scholarship. As more institutions value this work, faculty members are looking for ways to enhance the effectiveness of their engaged scholarship dossiers for promotion and tenure. This article summarizes content from a workshop on strengthening the engaged scholarship dossier offered by the author in a variety of venues. The author provides an overview of the engaged scholarship dossier context, explains why a focus on documenting engaged scholarship is important, outlines four steps for documenting engaged scholarship in the academic dossier, and lists best practices for faculty members building their engaged scholarship dossiers

Family Camp Impacts on Family Functioning

Families are a foundational structure of society that play a critical role in the health and well-being of communities. Every aspect of the American family is experiencing change, including the number of adults who marry, the number of households that are formed by married people, the number of children that are conceived, and the number of non-family households (Nock, 2005). Considering these trends, programming to strengthen family relationships is particularly relevant and urgent. Research suggests that family camps — typically a residential multi-day camp experience designed for children and family members — can play a role in enhancing family functioning (Agate & Covey, 2007)

Evaluate Naturally and Quickly with Just-in-Time Program Evaluation

A just-in-time evaluation approach can help Extension professionals expand their program evaluation readiness, interest, and competence. A pilot test of this efficient approach helped organizers of a forest farming conference determine important information about the event\u27s processes and content to be better positioned for future work. The conference evaluation team and conference participants enjoyed this approach that integrated evaluation methods and evaluative thinking into all the conference activities. This approach to evaluation is especially appropriate for gathering real-time data for determining the value of educational processes taking place while making evaluation more visible and easier to accomplish