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2. Comparison of extension personnel and supervisor perceptions of communications activities
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bowman, Brittany (author), Settle, Quisto (author), North, Elizabeth Gregory (author), Lewis, Kerri Collins (author), and Oklahoma State University Mississippi State University
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- United States: New Prairie Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 152 Document Number: D10159
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Applied Communications
- Journal Title Details:
- 102(4)
- Notes:
- 18 pages, via online journal, Extension is often called the “best-kept secret” having low awareness with the public but high satisfaction with clientele. Extension services nationwide have faced budget cuts, creating a need for the organization to re-evaluate its activities, including how it communicates with its stakeholders. While Extension personnel are the ones who will do most of the communicating, their supervisors impact the personnel’s actions, which means it is important to assess both groups. A survey was conducted with Extension personnel and their supervisors in Mississippi assessing engagement in communications activities and perceptions of those activities, as well as personnel’s preference of professional development activities. Personnel reported higher use, comfort, and importance of more traditional (e.g. making a speech) and written activities (e.g. writing a promotional handout) than media-relations activities (e.g. being interviewed for TV), social media-related activities (e.g. managing a Twitter account), and visual communication activities (e.g. graphic design). Supervisors perceived individual communications activities as less important overall than personnel did, and although supervisor and communication scores for use and comfort/capability were similar for most communication activities, there were noticeable exceptions. Additionally, personnel preferred professional development activities that were hands-on or showing the activities first-hand (e.g. demonstrations and field days). Future research should be expanded to other states, conducted in a case study format to study specific relationships, and involve qualitative components. Extension should ensure clear supervisor-communication dialogue on prioritizing communication activities, provide training on communication activities with low use and comfort, and utilize early innovators who are comfortable using newer communication activities.
3. Department of agricultural journalism University of Wisconsin-Madison: Faculty and graduate student research, 1990
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Format:
- Research report
- Publication Date:
- 1990
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 199 Document Number: D09924
- Notes:
- NCR-90 Collection, Prepared for the NCR-90 meeting. Iowa State University, Oct. 24-26, 1990. 13 pages.
4. Evaluation and impact of a reflective training process for rural extension agents
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Landini, Fernando (author), Brites, Walter (author), and University of La Cuenca del Plata
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-07-18
- Published:
- Argentina: Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 106 Document Number: D10931
- Journal Title:
- The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 25(5) : 457-472
- Notes:
- 15 pages, via online journal, Purpose: This article assesses a non-traditional training methodology for extension agents, focused on the exchange of experiences among peers and the reflection on practice, with the aim of exploring its potential as a training strategy. Design/Methodology/approach: A quali-quantitative investigation was conducted, which included interviews with extension agents, the use of different questionnaires, and recordings of the evaluation sessions carried out during each workshop. Findings: This research allowed us to understand the importance of effective group coordination, a participatory climate, working in small groups, and the feedback loop between theory and practice for processes of experience sharing and reflection on practice. Some of the positive effects of the training observed were that extension agents acquired new knowledge and methodologies, reflected critically upon their practice, and put into question their own extension approach. Practical Implications: Given its potentialities, implementing training processes focused on experience sharing and reflection on practice for rural extension workers, seems advisable. Theoretical Implications: This article contributes to the understanding of how experience sharing and reflection on practice can generate transformations in rural extension agents’ approaches and positioning. Originality/Value: This study systematically assesses the impacts that training has on extension workers, as well as the underlying processes that made it possible to generate them.
5. How to be a good rural extensionist. Reflections and contributions of Argentine practitioners
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Landini, Fernando (author) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnicas (National Council of Scientific and Technological Research), Argentina University of La Cuenca del Plata, Argentina University of Moron, Argentina
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2015-04-15
- Published:
- Argentina: Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D10882
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Rural Studies
- Journal Title Details:
- 43 : 193-202
- Notes:
- 9 pages, online journal article, Quality rural extension is of utmost importance for generating food security and sustainable rural development. In this paper, Argentine rural extensionists' point of view on how to be a good practitioner is described, as well as compared to good practices proposed by scholars and international development organizations. Forty rural extensionists from the Northeastern Argentine provinces were interviewed (29men, 11 women). Interviews were recorded and transcribed, texts were categorized and contents analyzed. Scholars and extensionists, despite agreeing to most of the same principles, frame their recommendations for good extension practices in different ways. The former's recommendations tend to be supported by multiple case studies and focused on best practices on the level of extension projects or policies, while the latter's tend to draw upon their own experience and develop proposals more concerned with interpersonal interactions and with overcoming practical problems in real (and not ideal)settings. Best extension practices depend on environmental, institutional, political and cultural contexts, this implying there is no best extension practice in general. Training extensionists in interpersonal skills and in social sciences is key for reaching good extension results. Horizontal communication between farmers and extensionists, negotiation over best technologies, and helping farmers reflect on their production practices are extension strategies with great potential.
6. Unfolding the knowledge and power dynamics of the ‘farmers–rural extensionists’ interface in North-Eastern Argentina
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Landini, Fernando (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2016-09-26
- Published:
- Argentina: Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 108 Document Number: D10943
- Journal Title:
- The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 22(5) : 399-415
- Notes:
- 16 pages, via online journal article, Purpose: In this paper, the knowledge dynamics of the farmer–rural extensionist’ interface were explored from extensionists’ perspective with the aim of understanding the matchmaking processes between supply and demand of extension services at the micro-level. Design/methodology/approach: Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with extensionists whom work in the North-Eastern, Argentine provinces. Findings: Two different, general types of knowledge dynamics were identified: one moderately diffusionist, based on a hierarchical relationship and the prioritisation of experts’ knowledge, and the other constructivist, based on horizontal processes of co-construction. Interestingly, some extensionists support beliefs pertaining to both approaches. They also highlight the importance of unceremonious trainings, interpersonal trust and making recommendations that take into account farmers’ rationale. Practical implications: Results show the persistence of diffusionist rural extension and that extensionists have different, even contradictory, extension approaches, which renders inappropriate any attempt to generalise their perspectives. Theoretical implications: This study suggests that farmers’ demand is the result of a constructive, interactive process, and thus is not prior to the interaction between the demand side (farmers) and the supply side (extensionists). Consequently, the knowledge and power dynamics that take place within the farmer–extensionist interface should be considered the nucleus of demand construction and the matchmaking process. Originality/value: This paper addresses the dynamic matchmaking process between supply and demand of extension services at the micro-level, suggesting it is a constructive process and showing the core role played by power dynamics.
7. Use and utility of information sources used by farmers in southern Brazil to deal with their major farming problems
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Holz, Celivio (author)
- Format:
- Research report
- Publication Date:
- 1990
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 199 Document Number: D09926
- Notes:
- NCR-90 Collection, From Document D09924, "Department of agricultural journalism University of Wisconsin-Madison: Faculty and graduate student research, 1990". Page 5.