Community Educator Assignment

Beranda commented on: Group 1 (Stephanie) and Group 2 (Emily)

Angela Vanderluit commented on: Group 1 (Whitney) and Group 2 (Emily)

Kathryn Jones commented on:

Beranda created the group blog this week and Angela initiated group conversation.

The Community Educator

Beranda Cantrell

EDAC 648

January 23, 2014

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to determine who is a community educator. It will also look at how one becomes a community educator, as well as the definition of community and community education. This paper will also include an interview conducted with a community educator, so that one can see the duties and responsibilities such a position holds. It will also list some of the qualities that a community educator should have in order to be successful.

            So who is a community educator? In order to determine this one must first define what community is. Van Der Veen (2003) includes this definition of community in his article: “Community is defined by two characteristics: first, a web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relationships that often criss-cross and reinforce one another (rather than merely one-on-one or chainlike individual relationships) and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms and meanings, and a shared history and identity – in short, to a particular culture” (p. 581). Warren (1978) defines communities as “…large or small, as clusters of people living in proximity in an area containing stores and other service facilities for the sustenance of local people and industries whose produce is distributed throughout a much wider area, which is the effective “service area” of that place and whose size varies according to types of “services”” (p. 1). Although these two definitions are different, the meaning of both is clear: a community is where people of a specific area, or people who have specific ties, come together and support one another.

            Now that community has been defined, one can begin to focus on what community education means. Havre Public Schools (2012) defines community education as “Community Education is an opportunity for local citizens, community schools, agencies and institutions to become active partners in addressing education and community concerns.  Community Education embraces these beliefs: education is a lifelong process, everyone in the community shares a responsibility for the mission of educating all members of the community and citizens have a right and responsibility to link the needs of the resources to improve their community”. According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (no date) community education should provide:

       I.            A link between classroom teachers (or other community educators) and community resources that can be used to enhance the learning environment and promote better public understanding.

    II.            Provide an extensive range of educational programs for community members of all ages.

 III.            Increase the quality of and breadth of communication to residents and provide a ready source of information to all citizens about programs and learning opportunities provided by local agencies.

 IV.            Provide an ongoing relationship with community and area agencies to coordinate services and improve the delivery of education programs.

  Zemlo, Clark, Lauff Jr, & Nelson Jr (1990) show that community education has “moved from a time of theoretical and conceptual development”, into a time of involving “substantive efforts to create an identity….as well as to establish logical bases of operation for its advocates” (p. 72). This has moved into more community programs being started.

            Now that community and community education has been defined, one may wonder who the community educators are. A community educator should be someone who connects other members of the community with learning programs that have a positive learning environment. Zemlo, Clark, Lauff Jr, & Nelson Jr (1990) discuss that community educators can be program oriented but must be flexible, adaptable, and innovative. “Third generation community education leaders extend community education beyond school” (Zemlo, Clark, Lauff Jr, & Nelson Jr, 1990). The overall goal of a community educator is to connect members of the community with learning programs that fit their needs.

Case Study: Community Educator

            Now that community, community education, and who is a community educator has been defined, I would like to share the interview I had with a community educator. The interview was done via e-mail over the days of January 14, 2014 to January 18, 2014. I chose to interview the CEO to a not-for-profit organization in my community. For the purposes of this paper I will use the name of “John Smith” as the name of the person whom I interviewed in order to keep the privacy of the interviewee. I e-mailed a list of four questions. Here are the questions and his answers:

1. How do you define community? What about community education?

I define community as the citizens, organizations, churches, educational institutions (community, private, technical, etc.) and community organizations (ie. Rotary, Kiwanis, Lion's Club, etc...).  Depending on the topic, community education involves increasing knowledge and providing necessary tools to empower community members to be active and to improve their communities.

2. Who are community educators? Can you give some examples? What kind of knowledge and skills should a community educator have?

Community educators can come from multiple groups of individuals, and those educators do not have to be directly associated with educational institutions.  For example, I see a County Commissioner, such as Mike Burton, as a community educator with his influence and responsibilities associated with his elected position.  A community educator needs to have a passion for being involved and improving the community in which they live and serve.  Knowledge and skills of a community educator do not necessarily have to be tied to educational degrees, etc.  Community educators do need to have empathy and interest in their communities.

3. Can you tell me what a typical day looks like for you?

My day consists of assuring the mission, values, and overall purpose of the organization are secured in the communities we serve.  That comes in the framework of making day-to-day business decisions impacting finances, risk, personnel, donors, facilities, programming, and potential for partnerships and growth.  My day often involves being available to employees and consumers (including families) within Carey Services, to meeting with key contacts who can help us improve and grow.  My day extends to statewide partnerships and consortiums in which we are involved, so from time to time, I am travelling to Indianapolis to meet with State (and sometimes national) partners who have similar industry interests.

4. Can you share with me your story of how you became a community educator?

When I consider a "community educator," I consider a "servant leader."  I was born and raised by a social worker who was and is a servant leader.  My faith has driven my desire to be where I am today.  I attended a servant leader institution (Anderson University) for a BSW and subsequently, an MBA.  For 20 years, I have been in non-profit, educating on the needs of key populations (primarily, the disabled).

Findings

            From my interview with “John” I have realized that there is somewhat of a general understanding of community. For example, “John” defined community as “the citizens, organizations, churches, educational institutions (community, private, technical, etc.) and community organizations”. This is similar to how Warren defined it. Both have the relative idea that community involves organizations that members of the society frequent together. I was also surprised at his answer to what a community educator should be. “John” answered that “A community educator needs to have a passion for being involved and improving the community in which they live and serve.  Knowledge and skills of a community educator do not necessarily have to be tied to educational degrees, etc.  Community educators do need to have empathy and interest in their communities.” The thing that surprised me was that he included that the knowledge and skills of a community educator do not have to be tied to an educational degree. I really like this thought because there are community educators out there who can teach skills to their communities that those people couldn’t learn from college (i.e. how to be empathetic).

Implications

            I believe that a person becomes a community educator based on the influences they had in their own lives, good or bad. For example, “John” was raised by a social worker. He grew up surrounded by someone always looking out for people in his community. A person’s faith can also drive them to want to serve their community as a community educator. “John” also answered that his faith led him to become a ‘servant leader’, along with the social worker who raised him. Even though one chooses to become a community educator, it does not mean that they have it “easy”. Many times they are busy all day long with questions, calls, paperwork, etc. “John” explained that his day was full of decision making, possible travel, being involved with clients and employees, and meeting with key contacts – all while keeping the mission and values of the organization.

            In doing this review I have realized that becoming a community educator is not easy. The days can be full of chaos and stress levels can be high. Those who become community educators must look past these downfalls in order to better their communities. While getting to the reward may be stressful, it is worth the effort.

References

Havre Public Schools. (2012, 12 14). Definition and purpose. Retrieved from http://www.havre.k12.mt.us/Page/330

Kretzmann, S. (n.d.). Community education defined/philosophy. Retrieved from http://fscp.dpi.wi.gov/fscp_cephilo

Van Der Veen, R. (2003). Community development as citizen education. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 22(6), 580-596. Retrieved from https://blackboard.bsu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2994143-dt-content-rid-11246509_1/courses/2014Spr_EDAC648s800/2 Community development as citizen p 18.pdf?target=blank

Warren, R. L. (1978). A community model. (3 ed.). New York: University Press of America. 
Zemlo, J.S., Clark, P. A., Lauff Jr, S., & Nelson Jr, E.G. (1990). A new generation of community education. Education Digest, 56(1), 72-75.

Items	Main Ideas of interview	Application of the main ideas
Community Educators – Who are they	Those who influence the community in some way.	Influence can be through organization, or through one individual.
Duties/Responsibilities	Keep community involvement while ensuring that organization mission is still being followed and employees are satisfied	Organization is key in keeping the balance of a good community program.
Working environments	Busy most of the time. Can be gone for travel.	This could be a stressful environment, but a rewarding one.

The Community Educator

Angie Vanderluit

Ball State University

This paper will explore the idea of community education and who community educators are.  This exploration will connect the ideas in literature with one real life person who is considered a community educator.  This will be done by first briefly reviewing the literature on community and community education.  After that a case study of a community educator will be given by describing an interview that took place and the results of said interview.  Following this, the findings and implications of the interview will be discussed and related back to the topic of community education. 

Introduction:  Literature Review

            This section will explore the literature on community and community educators.  Warren (1978) lays the foundation for our discussion of the literature.  The chapter we read for class describes the conflict between the implications of the word community and the current (at the time of publication) manifestation of community.  The author describes the functions of community.  The author also explores what it means to be a community in spite of the challenges involved in defining the community in the modern age.  Warren says that “the traditional way of thinking about communities is no longer adequate, if it ever was, to describe American community life” and that a new model should be used for studying the modern community as it is (Warren, 1978, p.2). 

            Where Warren describes the problems involved with defining community, Van Der Veen (2009) discusses community education for good citizenship.  In an article, the author acknowledges the problematic nature of the word community while connecting it to citizen education efforts.  An example of the citizenship education that Van Der Veen discusses is conveying information about the importance of being involved in community efforts and voting.  This article shows how adult education programs can actually strengthen communities (Van Der Veen, 2009).  Where Warren views the loose definition of community as somewhat of a problem, Van Der Veen shows ways that the new version of community can be strengthened in the modern world.  This is a more positive view than Warren offers. 

            Holland and Robinson discuss the benefits of community-based adult learning (2008).  The adult learning programs they discuss include aspects of service learning.  The benefits of this community-based learning extend to multiple recipients.  Those who receive benefits from such efforts are the adult learners themselves, the organizations which receive service learning help.  But what is perhaps most important is the benefit to the community, as these programs bring people closer together and strengthen the community (Holland and Robinson, 2008).

            In my opinion, one of the most important venues for community education is the community college.  In our society with communities living in apparent disconnect, community colleges educate many adults in ways that change their lives.   Community colleges give access to education to a wider audience than regular colleges because of their low cost and career-focused programs.  Largent and Hornick discuss the implementation and evaluation of a community college’s service learning endeavors (2008). 

            This section has reviewed the literature on community education.  The literature hints at the many different types of community educators.  It also shows that community educators can be in hired positions or more informal conveyors of knowledge. 

Case Study:  Interview Process

            This section will describe the interview process of a community educator.  For this interview, I selected Graham Watson because he has multiple informal experiences in community education.  These experiences include teaching web development in a prison, participating in education programs about self defense and sexual assault prevention, and talking with psychology students about polyamorous relationships.  I interviewed him via email on January 22, 2014 and received his answers 3 hours and 24 minutes after I sent him the questions. 

            The questions I asked were as follows: 

·         Please describe your typical day. 

·         Why were you drawn to being a community educator?

·         What type of community education do you participate in?  What kinds of community education have you done in the past?

·         Describe your responsibilities as a community educator.  What activities do you perform as a community educator?

·         In your opinion, what is community? 

·         What do you think makes someone qualified to be a community educator?

Findings

            This section will discuss the results of the interview.  The first question asked for some background information about the community educator.  In response to this question, Mr. Watson described his paid work activities.   The job that he is paid for “ is a mix of web development, maintenance of websites, network and server support, mentoring web design and development students, and interfacing with community members about event promotion” (G. Watson, personal communication, January 22, 2014).

            Mr. Watson describes being drawn to community education because of the good feelings it gives him to share his knowledge with interested people.  In the interview, he described the many different types of community education he has done, which are referred to in the previous section. 

            The interview participant’s description of his responsibilities as a community educator was interesting. He had the following to say about the situation:

 I don’t have a formal (or even very well-defined) role as an educator, so the only responsibilities that I can speak of are the ones I impose on myself that I think anyone representing himself or herself as an educator must adhere to. I make it clear exactly what my qualifications are and aren’t, I either only speak about what I’m certain of and qualified to speak about or I avoid misrepresentation by peppering my speech with “as I understand it”, “I think”, “in my experience”, et cetera. I also acknowledge where I got my knowledge from and always defer to those who know more than me, often connecting people with my teachers if they want to continue learning past the point that I feel qualified to teach (G. Watson, personal communication, January 22, 2014).

I found it interesting that the interview participant spent a lot of time discussing the measures he takes to give accurate information and point students to better information sources.  This shows the humility required to be a good community educator.

                When asked about the subject of community, Mr. Watson had something to say that connects with the literature about community:  “A mere population isn’t sufficient without a connection that results in the members sharing some aspects of their lives and feeling like they’re, to some degree, stakeholders in the welfare of their environment” (Personal communication, January 22, 2014).

            As we have seen in the literature, community educators do not have to be formally trained or hired.  Mr. Watson says he thinks the following is required for a person to be considered a community educator:  “Accurate, desired knowledge and a means of clearly communicating it. Ideally, community educators are also aware of the effects that they’ll have on the community, and a sense of mindfulness and compassion guide what and how they teach” (Personal communication, January 22, 2014).

Implications

            This entire process from literature review to interview has given valuable information about the role and importance of community educators.  The implications of the interview are important for those seeking out community educators for specific topics and organizations.  These implications are also important for potential community educators who might not have thought of themselves as capable of teaching others.  The implication of who community educators are is that anyone with knowledge and the willingness to share it can be a community educator.  The duties and responsibilities of community educators imply that Community educators are better when they strive for accuracy and are humble about sharing the information.  The diverse working environments of community educators imply that community education can take place in many different venues and situations.  The diverse career paths of community educators imply that community educators do not always have a career path in the topic that they educate others about.  The many different aspects of community education that were explored in the interview process are important for all aspects of community education.  Knowing this information can help community organizers as well as individuals to strengthen the togetherness and knowledge base of the community.

Table 1.  Summary of the Community Educator

Items	The main Ideas of the interview	Application of the main ideas in practice
Community educators – who are they?	Hired teachers, politicians, people with specialized skills and extensive knowledge that they want to share, volunteers, community members.	Anyone with knowledge and the willingness to share it can be a community educator.
Duties / responsibilities	Give accurate information and access to information sources.  Provide examples and answer questions.	Community educators are better when they strive for accuracy and are humble about sharing the information.
Working environments	Offices, classrooms, workout rooms, prison	Community education can take place in many different venues and situations.
Career path	Sometimes related to education topic (web development).  Sometimes unrelated to education topic (martial arts).	Community educators do not always have a career path in the topic that they educate others about.

References

Holland, B., & Robinson, G. (2008). Community based learning with adults:  Bridging efforts in multiple sectors. ­New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 118, 17-30.

Largent, L., & Horinek, J. B. (2008). Community colleges and adult service learners:  Evaluating a first-year program to improve implementation. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 118, 37-47.

Van Der Veen, R. (2009). Community development as citizen education.  International Journal of Lifelong Education, 22(6), 580-596.

Warren, R. L. (1978). The community model.  In The community educator. New York:  University Press of America.