Challenges to Institutionalizing Participatory Extension: The Case of Farmer Livestock Schools in Vietnam

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this article is to analyze the introduction of participatory extension approaches (PEA) in the predominantly supply-driven, hierarchical Vietnamese extension system. Drawing on the case of the so-called Farmer Livestock School (FLS) concept, the authors investigate the potential and challenges of scaling up and out the FLS/PEA principles of participatory training methods, encompassing intensive and interactive training sessions, group-based sharing of experience, practical learning, and learning-by-doing processes.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The article is based on data collected and synthesized from 36 pilot communes from 2000 to 2007 and draws on the extensive insider experience of two of its authors during their work for a DANIDA-funded livestock project.

Findings: At the micro-scale and with external support, FLS has been a successful experiment of using participatory extension approaches in farmer training and extension in the livestock sector. Yet, possibilities of scaling up and institutionalizing FLS remain a challenge given the capacity and resource limitations and the resistance at various levels within the Vietnamese extension system.

Practical Implications: The starting point for successfully institutionalizing participatory extension approaches should be to assess the existing system's root problems and capacities and then gradually and systematically introduce institutional innovations rather than aiming at a complete overhaul of a system that may result in the creation of a parallel universe.

Originality/Value: The FLS project provided a unique opportunity to study the enabling and constraining factors of institutionalizing participatory extension approaches in a traditionally top-down oriented extension system beyond the immediate duration of an externally orchestrated project.     

Teacher Preparation for Community/Junior Colleges

Abstract

A questionnaire was sent to the presidents of 24 Texas community/junior colleges, 22 of whom responded (91.66%). The five parts of the instrument dealt with specific teacher preparation topics, internships and salaries for the interns, and the number of graduate hours of preparation one should have completed in a discipline in order to teach it.

The respondents endorsed several specific topics for preparation programs, and the majority also supported an internship program. Evidently, the subject matter and activities listed in the questionnaire constitute a workable part of a program to prepare community/junior college teachers. A minimum salary of $450 per month is recommended for an intern required to teach three sections of a specific discipline, and a higher salary is very desirable where possible.     

MARKETING THE PERCEPTIONS OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE'S POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENT OPTIONS PROGRAM

A vast majority of colleges and universities have provisions for admitting high school students to special college programs (Robinson & Noble, 1992). These postsecondary enrollment options programs are vital because they link local higher education to the community by actively involving high school personnel, students, and parents in planning for college. Establishing and maintaining this link presents unique challenges to educators because it must meet the needs of a diverse population. The purpose of this study was to assess how students and parents perceived a suburban community colleges’ postsecondary enrollment options program. Basing marketing strategies on these perceptions provides colleges and universities an effective means to maintain the established community link.     

Centrality of enactive experiences,framing, and motivation to student teachers’ emerging professional identity

Professional identity has emerged as a common theme in teacher development research, and the student-teaching practicum is often identified as foundational to identity development. In the context of the student-teaching practicum, interactions with cooperating teachers and pupils are believed to comprise the press for professional identity development, though theory-based explanations are often neglected in the literature, and findings are not always consistent. To address this issue, we used grounded theory to articulate a model explaining the relations among three constructs important to the process of identity development of student teachers (n = 14). Our findings are organized around a model that highlights the phenomenon of “negotiating who I am as a teacher,” which helps us describe differences between student teachers who changed identity vs. those that did not, and psychological and contextual reasons for renegotiation of identity. Discussion focuses on comparisons with previous models and possible implications for teacher education.     

The Position of the Fine Art Student in the Context of Public Accountability of Higher Education,with Specific Reference to the Quality Assurance Agency Experience

This paper investigates the Quality Assurance Agency and the potential problems in applying its criteria to a Fine Art undergraduate degree programme. Starting with a suspicion that such a generic criteria cannot account for some of the attributes valued in Fine Art, the paper suggests that the QAA strategy needs to be addressed at the level of discourse. In the light of a general discourse of public accountability in Higher Education, I argue that the QAA experience naturalises certain forms of knowledge and marginalises others, some of which pertain in particular to Fine Arts education. In raising questions about what counts as knowledge and which 'skills' count as 'key', I argue that, contrary to appearances, the QAA structure is far from neutral as a measuring strategy.     

Social class, birth order, and newborn experience

Early home experiences of a group of 32 2-week old infants, equally divided according to social class, birth order, and sex, were studied. Naturalistic observations were taken on 2 consecutive days for a total of 6 hours. Compared with later-borns, firstborns received significantly more caretaker interaction on all variables studied. Compared with lower-SES infants, those from higher-SES homes received significantly more direct verbal interaction although the 2 groups did not differ on total periods of other types of caretaking interaction. The findings are consistent with birth order and social class differences reported in home environments of older infants and children.     

The Rise of the Citizen Author: Writing Within Social Media

The concept of the citizen author is defined and explored within the publishing industry. In order to understand what positions the citizen author currently, and potentially could, hold it begins with a historical view of their rise, including concepts of their eighteenth century antecedents. But the focus of this research is on their growth alongside that of social media platforms. This allows for drawing out relationships between genre fiction, publishers, and the citizen author, which provides a more full understanding of the power dynamics involved when publishers, social media, and the citizen authors mix in the current industry climate.