CONCLUSION FOUR CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPMENT
STUDIES
Amongst the intervention strategies open to clinical practitioner is that of confrontive
inquiry (Schein 1987a: 1987b:58). This involves the clinician confronting the client with
data which might be seen as challenging, and lead to a change in self perceptions. Clinically, it is ultimately for the client to make sense of this data, and translate it into an
articulation of the challenges being faced. This conclusion is in the confrontive spirit, but
moves into prescriptive mode, specifying four challenges for development studies posed by
this discussion of the clinicalprocess approach. All four arise from the clinical perspective's
position that practitioners do not just emerge; they have to undergo thorough training first.
The first challenge is for development to create its own “theories of practice” to be used in
training. The clinical practitioner is trained in “theories that focus on models of pathology
and health, effectiveness, coping, dynamics, and intervention” (Schein, 1987b:56). These
are typically drawn from psychiatry, clinical psychology, applied psychology, sociology,
anthropology, OD and social work. These must all be added to, and then subsumed within
development’s own existing, and it has to recognised, valuable, knowledge of practice. The
managerial classics provide a starting point in terms of the provision of ideas, and in the
methodologies they use to construct theoretical models. Argyris (1970) synthesized from a
range of behaviouralscience theories. Lippitt and Lippitt (1978), like Schein, merged
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existing theory with reflection from their own practice. Lippitt, Watson and Westley
(1958) conducted an extensive literature based review of the work of change agents at
individual, group, organisational and societal levels to construct a general approach to
planned change and change agent practice. This is but a sample of the standard, some
would say modernist, fare; but the literature is extensive, and continues to reflect broader
theoretical debates, as our coverage of Bailey et al (1992) has shown.
The second challenge for development studies is for it to incorporate existing and new
theories of practice into its training activities. McAuley’s (1983) discussion of
hermeneutics as a practical research methodology for students of OD at Masters level
brings out three points. First, that the clinical practitioner does just not learn about theories
in the abstract, but how to apply and adapt them. Second that that learning has to start
with the acquisition and maintenance of a reflexive self awareness; and third that this must,
and can be done within the rigour of a formal academic award programme. Clinical
training for Schein should be at Masters or PhD level, and should incorporate “internships”,
some form of residency, or supervised practice. There should be some form of
credentialing process by the institution and the wider community which leads to a “license”
to practice (1987b:58). There is therefore a requirement to change development studies
curricula not just in terms of content, so that the learning of development practice is more
than the teaching of “skills”, but also in terms of programme design, approaches to learning,
and assessment methodologies.
This bring us to the third challenge, which is for the departments in which development
studies is taught to be prepared to undergo the institutional change that these changes in
programme content and design require. First there is the need for faculty who are able and
willing to bring about these changes. Second, there is the need for institutional
commitment to the research required to develop theories of development practice. Third,
there is need to set up the new approaches to training that will allow supervised and
reflective practice to be incorporated into formal award programmes without loss of rigour. Mann (1995, 1996a, 1996b) provides an example of how this has been achieved in an
graduate OD programme with South African NGOs, but argues universities have problems
in adapting away from traditional methods of teaching and assessment. At the same time,
however, many universities, including those where development studies departments are
19
located, have longstanding programmes that have addressed the creation of reflexive
practitioners while maintaining academic rigour, in medicine, social work, clinical
psychology, education and of course in change management and OD. The problem belongs
to development studies, not to universities as a whole.
This brings us to the fourth challenge. We have seen that, outside development studies,
there are longstanding, institutionally established, academically rigorous practitioner
development programmes. But these are sometimes being conducted within yards of
development studies departments, sharing the same libraries, with academic staffsharing
the same common rooms. We have seen that there is an extensive literature of general
theories of intervention. Schein himself is not an obscure academic. More, what Edwards
talks about as a new paradigm of reflective practice is not new; in fact it is at least as old as
development itself (see Cooke 1996). From 1945 onwards clients in the north have
increasingly had the clinical benefits of these institutions, this training, this literature. It
appears that these benefits have failed to be shared with the rest of the world. The final
challenge, then, is for development studies to reflect upon what this failure tells it about
itself, and about the costs its own disciplinary biases have imposed upon those it would
claim to help.