What are the opportunities for the extension profession?
Do extension organisations and practitioners themselves need to change in order to achieve change more effectively? An opportunity exists for those who are required to achieve change for their organisations, through the actions of others, to network and design a system of professional development. The challenge is to develop context-free skills in achieving change that can be adapted to any situation (individuals will bring their own particular technical knowledge and skills). As well as developing new skills, extension practitioners require a clear understanding of the environment they are working within, for example, "Who has the mandate and the ability (power?) to bring about change?" and "How are these required changes likely to impact the goals of individuals?" An international consulting firm established the 4% productivity target for the NZ dairy industry. This figure initially indicated what the industry requires to retain (or improve) its competitive performance. It has now become the extension challenge whereby the industry needs to collectively achieve this level of performance to remain viable in future.
Using a productivity target for a sector raises some interesting extension issues. Do we assume that what is rational for each individual farmer is the same as that for the industry as a whole? Are we adequately representing what is required in terms of change in the industry when we refer to a 4% productivity target? Experience to date indicates that the term productivity has been confusing to farmers (referring to a financial ratio) and tends to reinforce extension as a transfer of technology orientation at a time when participatory approaches are required to effectively facilitate change. Is extension the profession that is used to communicate to farmers the need for this target and to hold their hands as they strive to achieve it? An alternative approach would view extension as the profession that is a participant with others involved in industry strategy because of its unique position to facilitate change at every level of the industry, from farm management to industry planning. For example, Engel and Salomon (1997) refer to the role that extension performs in facilitating innovation for development. They used the concept Theatres of Innovation (in our example the New Zealand Dairy Industry) to design a comprehensive toolkit of methods and processes that enable the support of change for all participants in the theatre.
If extension is to play a more strategic role in rural industries and rural communities and thereby enhance their ability to manage change do we need any research for extension? Many extension practitioners say there is no need for research – just get on with the job. Yet, like most people, these same practitioners do their own research, though rarely document their findings. Learning independently can limit the possible rate of progress, and while there may be continuous incremental learning, the rate of change demands that there is transformational or generative learning (i.e. develop new paradigms) in order to make significant progress forward. The questions posed above will not be resolved by isolated, incremental and indiscriminate research endeavours of practitioners.
Extension is in dire need of a professional credibility among its peer professions like agricultural science and rural sociology. We contend that research on and with extension practitioners will be fundamental to developing this credibility. This research work needs to advance both theoretical and methodological understanding of extension. Most extension practitioners are critical of the Transfer of Technology model along with its counterpart the Adoption-Diffusion paradigm of innovation (Rogers and Shoemaker 1971). While we agree with many of the criticisms of the model we are concerned that there is little substantive work that enables organisations to use a more relevant and effective model for managing innovation and change. Considerable effort has been expended on participatory approaches but this has often stemmed from anti-science sentiments that does little to achieve a harmony among those working in Engel’s Theatre of Innovation (Paine 1997). We believe the time is right to undertake a comprehensive research program that is grounded in the rural environments of Australian and New Zealand to advance understanding of innovation and change. This work would set out to develop a pragmatic and theoretical framework that would assist in the analysis of needs, strategic planning, design and evaluation of innovation and change projects. Practitioners have often called for models other than the Transfer of Technology conception of these activities but are powerless to do more than voice their concerns. Their use of the term process to describe much of what they do when analysing, designing or evaluating their work provides some direction for this research.
Latour (1996) has begun this exploration of process by testing the power of process philosophy to explain the science and innovation surrounding the development and uses of lactic acid by industry. Latour was pursuing a social study of science. Extension research needs to develop a framework that is capable of spawning innovations in extension methodologies that in turn will support innovative practices in rural industries and communities. We believe this need is so broad that practitioners (e.g. Extension and Consultancy) and researchers (eg. University and Research Institute) in both Australia and New Zealand could work together on a variety of projects that collectively contribute towards an improved understanding of process in relation to innovation and change.