Packaging Yourself As An Extension Professional Reginal M. Harrell, Roger G. Adams, Deborah J. Maddy, and Daniel J. Weigel

Balancing Service and Education  Dealing with the perception of Extension  Relevance  Service-Centered or Learner-Centered  Partner-Linked  Engaged

Defining the Role of An Extension Professional How are we appointed? Public Service faculty Tenure-track faculty

Public Service Faculty …public service is principally involved in the identification, development, and rendering of service to individuals, communities, organizations, and public service agencies in support of their own purposes and functions. Public service activities deal basically with the public-policy needs of society. Problem oriented, they rely heavily upon the integration of knowledge from many disciplines as well as the application of an experience-based understanding of real-world relationships and phenomena (University of Georgia 2000).

Tenure Track Faculty “Academic Extension Agent” Is not an oxymoron!

Defining the Role of An Extension Professional  Who are our peers?  Relevance to whom? –Peers? –Clientele? –Institution? –Agency?  Accountability, Impacts

Guiding Principles of Extension Scholarship  Supports the Land-Grant, Sea-Grant Mission  Adds distinction to the profession and/or discipline  Exists in several forms including outreach, research, and teaching

Guiding Principles of Extension Scholarship  Expects scholarship to be consistent with position descriptions  Identifies standards for evaluating scholarship  Conforms to the ethical principles of the profession.

Definition Scholarship of Extension is the creation, integration and application of research- based knowledge whose significance is validated by peers and communicated for the adoption and benefit of communities and citizens.

Boyer, 1990 Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate “To make complex ideas understandable to a large audience can be a difficult, demanding task, one that requires not only a deep and thorough knowledge of one’s field, but keen literary skills, as well.”

Portfolio of Scholarly Products  Newsletters or newspaper articles  Fact sheets, bulletins, magazine articles  New curricula and courses  Educational manuals and teaching guides  Books, published abstracts, proceedings  Peer-review journal articles  Computer programs, web courses, videos  CD-ROMs, Video Streaming

Summary  Extension agents are challenged to stay current and objectively determine the truth of new information.

Summary  Develop and provide scholarly materials  Adopt appropriate learning style techniques.  Become Learner-Centered

Summary  Become Engaged, Partner- linked  Assess impacts and outcomes

Summary  Change in attitudes between academic and Extension communities alike.  Adopt national standards defining scholarship