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Over two years ago, the National
Network for Youth (NNY) created a vision of Community Youth Development as a unifying
image calling forth a comprehensive and integrative approach to the essence of youth
work: working in partnership with young people to strengthen or regain their ties
to community - whether it be family, neighborhood, school or friends - and working
with communities to value and support youth.
During the years, a Guide Team has been working to develop an ongoing theory-in-use
for the CYD FIELD. Broad outlines for formal processes for learning CYD were created,
funding developed, and the formal processes implemented through experimental Regional
Learning Teams. These teams take the learning out of a "training context"
into the performance fields (organizations and communities) in which they work. A
process of appreciative inquiry tracks "the performance/products" of learning
team members.
In the spiral of learning, the Guide Team assesses the ongoing work, advances the
theory-in-use, and develops the next constructs for designed learning. Guide Team
Faculty and a Participant Design Team refine the formal processes of learning for
the next Regional Learning Team. The Guide team re-initiates the cycle. A review
of the developing process revealed that the pattern prefigures an emerging design
of a CYD practice field.
The necessity for practice fields has long been known in the field of sports. We
all hear of winter practice fields in baseball, and actually see the side-field practice
areas on major league fields where pitchers and catchers "warm up"; in
other words, practice for the real performance on the field. The Corporate world
(the world of the second sector) is increasingly aware of the need to design practice
fields in order to secure company survival, increase the ability to detect and relate
to critical changes in the market, technology, knowledge, and global environments
in which all companies now perform.
Confirming that the NNY led CYD Initiative had been guiding the process of development
in a way that patterned after the practice field concept, formal action was taken
to identify opportunities for practice field investment and work.
It became clear that essential to success is the capability to understand the difference
between learning and training and the essential and practical importance of theory.
A warning from Daniel H. Kim in the corporate field sets out the issues well.
Kim points out that,
"Creating Learning infrastructures such as practice fields or learning laboratories
is an important part of becoming a learning organization, but alone it is inadequate.
It is too easy for such structures to become 'training infra-structures.' There is
nothing wrong with training per se, but training involves teaching a new twist on
an established body of knowledge or disseminating that body of knowledge itself.
Learning, on the other hand, requires a shift in the base of understanding of the
base of knowledge itself.
One is acquiring new information that fits into a current theory and the other involves
developing a new theory altogether. Learning infrastructures should help organizations
build their own ongoing theories about how they work as a system.
The word theory is too often viewed as an esoteric word that has no practical meaning.
In fact, theory is of utmost practical importance because theories are distillations
of our knowledge and understanding of the world. Theories represent the general principles
drawn from a body of facts and observations. Without them, we could not learn because
we would have no means to provide a coherent structure to our observations. (1995).
Karen Pittman, in her seminal article in the Winter l996 issue of New Designs,
identified the CYD Field as "Three goals in search of connection: Community,
Youth, and Development." A way of responding to this reality is to acknowledge
that the emerging field needs a theory-in-use, and this is indeed what the Guide
Team acknowledged. As a result of taking time away from the work with youth, organizations,
and communities, a group of knowledgeable and committed individuals were able to
create a team and meet in safe and calm settings outside of the activity-driven culture
of the performance field in which most work occurs. Reflection and shared intelligence,
based on several hundred years of practice and knowledge, led to developing theories-in-use
emerging from profound social thought. The experience led to the desire to create
the conditions necessary for a learning infrastructure. Conditions for successful
learning include:
A Safe Learning Space:
The learning setting would be one in which there would be understanding of the excitement
and risk of entering the space of our not knowing, in order to experiment on the
edges of our personal and professional knowing; a place in which mistakes could be
made as new thoughts and actions are tried. Certain ground rules help create the
culture of these spaces:
- Respect for each person and the
varied viewpoints that are brought into the space, and commitment to the challenge
of acknowledging different views.
- The holding of assumptions in
mind (our own and others') without judging one to be right and another wrong-practice
in both/and thinking vs. the either/or thinking of the outside culture.
- Communication patterns of dialogue
that search for shared meaning in the spirit of inquiry vs. the advocacy style of
the outside culture.
Rigorous Examination of Basic
Assumptions Through the Surfacing Mental Models:
All of us operate out of mental models of the world that we have learned by personal
experience, formal and professional education, and involvement in the shared meanings
of the cultures of which we are a part. The processes by which we directly observe
data, share the meanings of our families and cultures, make judgments and leap to
conclusions, draw inferences, and build our beliefs and assumptions seem to be taken
for granted. It is important that we become conscious of these processes in order
to begin to be clear about what is really happening and operate out of facts and
identified theories. There are tools that exist to help us do this work.
Open Inquiry Into Understanding Systems and Interconnections:
Systems learning leading to the systemic view is essential. Major changes involve
all levels, changing more or less together. There are systems within systems: Global
System - Organizations - Individuals - Collective Beliefs. Tools are essential for
mapping out systems in such a way that shared inquiry clarifies the picture and participants
can enter the learning cycle of Observe-Assess-Design-Implement.
Dedication of Time:
Participant time must be invested in the practice field. Leadership and participants
must be given both safe space and adequate time for individual and organizational
learning. In the corporate world, investments are made in the design, experimentation,
and testing needed to ensure continuous product development; CYD requires the same
quality of investment in the important work of the field.
The purpose of creating and maintaining practice fields is twofold. Within the Practice
Field, participants are working on the system, and are asking the question that leads
to improved theories of why process works. In the Performance Field where
work is occurring, participants are working on the system by improving work and understanding
how the process works. The Learning Cycle moves between the practice field
where assessment and design occurs, and the performance field where implementation
and observation occurs. The parallel process between fields provides a safe learning
environment where reflection, assessment, and design can occur, enhancing the capability
of individuals and organizations to create new initiatives. It is important to remember
that goals, even those created by participants, come from supra-systems, and capabilities
from subsystems.
The National Network for Youth (NNY), having created a vision of Community Youth
Development as a unifying image, now places all work within the Community Youth Development
Institute of the NNY. The practice field that has been emerging in parallel with
the NNY is beginning to be identified and defined. Necessary conditions for successful
practice fields are set out above and summarized below:
- clear definitions differentiating
learning and training
- commitment to the practical importance
of theory
- safe learning space, where the
surfacing of mental models and understanding of systems and their interconnections
take place
- dedication of time
- commitment to the purpose and
maintenance of the practice field.
In addition to the usual transportation
and operational costs, such commitment requires basic investments in the development
of persons knowledgeable about design, learning facilitation, appreciative inquiry,
forms of recording, information systems, dissemination vehicles and in the use of
educational equipment. CYD member organizations, or collaborations of organizations,
have access to these resources within their existing assets, and have an eagerness
to join in the hope that the CYD movement holds.
A safe
learning space
(is) a place in which mistakes can be made...
...Practice
fields are one
way of committing ourselves to lifelong learning.
San Diego Youth and Community Services, (SDYCS) one of the Network's member organizations,
has already reviewed and reconfigured assets and made a commitment to the development
of a practice field. Actions they have taken are as follows:
- Revamped meeting structure to
fit and advance the learning organization.
- Incorporated the concepts of
practice field/performance field into all meetings, familiarizing agency participants
with the ideas.
- Defined "theory-in-use"
as: outcome of a true meeting is the sharing of ideas, and the creation of a mental
model for a new or innovative community learning to produce new knowledge that is
to be enacted in the performance field.
- Analyzed their Vision Day (Planning
Day) as more time spent in activity planning vs. learning about the system.
The participants in this process
have read an article on Managerial Practice Fields and begun to translate the concepts
in their own language. Their enthusiasm is high and the executive director is a participant
(For an illustration of how they structure this special time and space, see box below).
It is clear to the NNY and SDYCS that one of the goals of such learning infrastructures
will be to allow the CYD field to assess complex issues and experiment with alternative
policies in a safe environment. At this time, the Federal Government is initiating
deep societal changes that affect the communities in which CYD work occurs, making
essential such individual, organizational, community, and societal learning.
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The vision of the CYD Field is
to create a just and compassionate society in which people: youth, adults and elders,
can experience positive connections to family, community, the earth, and the sacred
that provide a sense of belonging and gratitude for the wonder of life. Great practice
is needed as we work to realize this vision: practice fields are one way of committing
ourselves to our work and the processes of lifelong learning.
Ann W. Dosher, Ph.D. is a nationally recognized and active consultant in the
area of community development. She is presently involved in a major community development
program in San Diego County, California. Dr. Dosher is a member of the national guide
team working to develop an ongoing theory-in-use for the community youth development
field.
References
Daniel H. Kim. "Managerial
Practice Fields: Infrastructures of a Learning Organization", Learning Organizations:
Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's Workplace. Edited by Sarita Chawla and John
Renesch. (1995) Portland, OR: Productivity Press.
Karen J. Pittman. "Community, Youth, Development: Three Goals in Search of Connection",
New Designs for Youth Development, Winter l996.
Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, and Bryan Smith. (1994)
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization.
Doubleday.
Internal documents of the National Network for Youth, Guide Team. Internal documents
of San Diego Youth and Community Services.
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