Nancy Franz Assoc. Dean for Extension and Outreach for Families and 4-H Youth ISU College of Human Sciences

 Introduction  Four approaches to 4-H work  What is transformative learning  Conditions to enhance transformation  Implications for 4-H work

 Midlife crisis – a PhD  Cornell focus on adult education  Personal experience with 4-H  The push for 4-H scholarship  A great match of personal interests and organizational need  Enjoyable

Approaches to 4-H’s Educational Mission CONTENT LOWHIGH FACILITATIONTRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION SERVICECONTENT TRANSMISSION PROCESSPROCESS HIGH LOW D. M. Ewert, 2001

 A prominent adult education theory  Individuals, groups, and organizations arrive at a new perspective and action that greatly differs from past views and behaviors  Deep  Pervasive  Sustained

 Experiencing a disorienting dilemma  Undergoing self-examination  Conducting a critical assessment of internalized role assumptions and felling a sense of alienation from traditional social expectations  Relating one’s discontent to similar experiences of others or to public issues – recognizing that one’s problem is shared and not just private  Exploring options for new ways of acting

 Building competence and self-confidence in new roles  Planning a course of action  Acquiring knowledge and skills for implementing one’s plans  Making provisional efforts to try new roles and to assess feedback  Reintegrating into society on the basis of conditions dictated by the new perspective

 Strong partner facilitation  Critical reflection  Critical events  Fundamental difference between partners wrapped in similar purpose  Independence with interdependence  context

 Actions taken by both partners through a variety of methods (talking, stretching, pushing each other)  Supportive social and supervisory relationships  Mentoring and support from “the other”

 Reflective events/moments  Facilitated group processes  Examining beliefs and assumptions

 Pushed outside a comfort zone (or two)  Trigger events  Disorienting dilemma/disorientation

 Common group goals within a diverse group  Common goal  Diverse perspectives/way of being

 Practice independence in a safe environment  Build trust with partners  Well being of learner and teacher

 Traditions and rituals  Simple lifestyle  Individual readiness for change  Freedom from constraints  Alternative way of being is possible

 Educational environments should integrate people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences  We need training and practice in facilitation skills to be effective learning partners  We should promote critical reflection activities such as action learning, scenario building, and use of metaphors  We should include positive change messages in faculty, staff, and client recruitment and development

 We should recognize the importance of the learning context and specialist work groups in facilitating transformative learning  Specialists should examine whether or not they provide and promote transformative learning conditions and how they might improve those conditions to better promote personal, group, and organizational change  Administrators (like me) should try to align organizational transformation that parallels and/or enhances transformative learning for faculty and staff

 Teen court  Camp counseling  Program exchanges  Public speaking  4-H state conference  4-H leader as mentor/catalyst

 We need to help 4-H’ers think and act differently and be open to the same happening to ourselves in the process  We are no longer just the adult expert, we are the architect of 4-H learning environments where context and expertise in taylored create deep and lasting change