Summer 1993 // Volume 31 // Number 2
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Editor's Page
Abstract
Exactly 10 years ago, I escaped social constructivism and all those other "isms" of an academic in a liberal arts field, to join the refreshingly pragmatic world of Extension education. If you'd told me then that by 1993 Extension professionals would be talking about "next-age leadership" "continuous process improvement," "new paradigms," and "symbolic frames," my response probably would have been, "You've got to be kidding." But to the extent that the Journal reflects what's going on in Extension nationwide, theory has evidently caught up with (or crept up on) practice. The articles selected for this issue are about both theory and practice.
From Practice to Theory and Back Again
Exactly 10 years ago, I escaped social constructivism and all those other "isms" of an academic in a liberal arts field, to join the refreshingly pragmatic world of Extension education. If you'd told me then that by 1993 Extension professionals would be talking about "next-age leadership," "continuous process improvement," "new paradigms," and "symbolic frames," my response probably would have been, "You've got to be kidding." But to the extent that the Journal reflects what's going on in Extension nationwide, theory has evidently caught up with (or crept up on) practice.
The articles selected for this issue are about both theory and practice. On the one hand, the issue leans heavily toward current applications of organizational theory to Extension. The To the Point section, for example, contains a dialogue about the virtues and concerns related to next-age leadership and new ways of thinking about organizations in a post-modern society. Elsewhere in the Journal are feature articles applying total quality management principles to Extension and new models for program planning and for collaboration. In the Forum section are articles discussing the clash of organizational values in Extension and advocating use of conceptional frames to organize for change.
On the other hand, the issue also leads with four case studies of programs developed to address problems and issues. These articles include descriptions of promotional efforts to help Extension communicate with the public on hunger issues, an Extension training program directed toward city government, a test of using public libraries to reach rural audiences, and a district program to train rural day care providers that expanded to meet statewide needs. And, as always, the Journal carries an entire section-Ideas at Work-devoted to innovative Extension programs.
Some among us like to dismiss theory as just so much organizational navel-gazing. Others are inclined to think that the practitioner's focus keeps Extension professionals from seeing "the forest from the trees." Each position may be true to a certain extent. But, as we richochet back and forth from practice to theory, we have the opportunity to grow, learn, and move Extension work to new levels of accomplishment.
EMR