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Pedagogy
of Practice:
Projects:
Pedagogy
Network
In
the 2006-2007 school year, classes on organizing
were being taught by former PAL 177 teaching
fellows at four area colleges: Wellesley, Holy
Cross, UMass-Amherst, and Providence College.
The course at UMass-Amherst, taught by Mary
Hannah Henderson, is the capstone of their Citizen
Scholar program. Wellesley, Holy Cross, and
Providence College all offered the course for the
first time last year. At Holy Cross, it is
embedded in Catholic social teaching, taught by a
new assistant professor of sociology, Sue Crawford
Sullivan. At
Wellesley, it is taught in the political science
department by an Assistant Professor of Political
Science, Hahrie Han. Margaret Post is teaching the
course at Providence College and has taught the
course at Stonehill College in the past. All of
the courses are for undergraduates and taught by
women. This group, as well as other interested
academics, have regular meetings to reflect on
their teaching collaboratively.
Practicing
Democracy Project
Every
project and every class needs to be viewed as an
opportunity for capacity building – developing
skills, new ideas, new relationships.
Our goal is to contribute to a
revitalization of democratic practice by equipping
individuals and organizations with the tools they
need to translate their values in relationship
with others into action.
We are currently working to create a
network of leaders (people skilled in the
teaching, the methods and the content) and to
connect them with projects and organizations with
an interest in democratic action. We are trying to
build this community of trainers around our
strengths – the relationships are real, the
interdependence is real, and the common interests
are real. We
are building a leadership ladder by asking
participants in projects or students in classes to
become facilitators or teaching fellows, and
facilitators to become presenters, and presenters
to help design curriculum and manage projects.
Environmental
Projects:
The
Sierra Club Leadership Development Project (LDP)
Based on findings of our National Purpose, Local Action (NPLA) research
project that identified leadership
development as key to enhanced local
effectiveness, the Sierra Club initiated a follow-up project to learn how to do it. The
Sierra Club Leadership Development Project was
developed by Marshall,
along with Ruth Wageman, Director
of Research at the McClelland Center for Research
and Innovation,
in collaboration with the Sierra Club leadership
development advisory committee.
In
this project, we asked how best to enhance the
individual and collective leadership capacity of
locally elected Executive Committees. This pilot
project involved working with over 150 elected
leaders of four chapters (Loma Prieta, Rio Grande,
Cascade, and Florida) and 20 local Groups to learn
how to improve their practice of relational,
motivational, strategic, and implementation
skills. Because
our goal was to develop team-level
as well as individual leadership capabilities,
Sierra Club Excoms participated in the project as
a full team. Teams
learned how to develop leadership in support of
their ongoing purposes both during and between the
LDP workshops.
Over
the course of the year, we conducted 4 workshops
with each Chapter and its local groups, each of
which focused on a set of skills to be introduced
into daily practice prior to the next workshop. During each workshop, the teams set goals based on their learning and
reflected on their accomplishments in relation to
these goals during the following workshop.
The
research team gathered longitudinal data on
conditions under which some pedagogies are more
effective than others (e.g., case method, skills
practice, self-awareness). Finally, we developed a
team of 20 Sierra Club trainers who coached
participants as they put their new skills to work
and are prepared to diffuse lessons we learned
throughout their national organization.
The
Green Group
Marshall
and his collaborators have an on-going
relationship with the Green Group, a council of
the leaders of the 33 national environmental
organizations (Sierra Club, Greenpeace, NRDC,
American Rivers, Audobon, etc.).
Marshall, Rebecca Henderson, MIT Sloan
School, and a team of facilitators including
former teaching fellows Lisa Boes, Joy Cushman,
and Erin Sweeney lead a two day seminar on Public
Narrative in Chicago, June 11 - 12, 2007, during
the annual Green Group CEO Retreat.
From January 23rd to 25th, 2007,
Marshall and a team of facilitators including
former teaching fellow Lisa Boes ran a public
narrative workshop for 50 communications staff
drawn from the Green Group in Washington, DC.
Participants worked on developing narratives to
mobilize the public and strengthen the
environmental movement, especially in light of the
global warming challenge.
Projects are currently under development
with Earth Justice and the Trust for Public Lands
as an extension of this work.
Faith
Based
Projects:
Episcopal
Public Narrative Project
The
Episcopal Public Narrative Project is a
collaboration between Marshall Ganz and Bonnie
Anderson, the President
of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church. Bonnie
and Marshall met with Presiding Bishop Kathryn
Jeffries on September 10, 2007 to plan the
project. It will kick off next summer at
General Synod meetings for the selection of
deputies to the national convention. During the
fall of 2008/9, they will conduct a retreat for
facilitators to prepare them for leadership roles
they will play at the convention – and after. At
the convention, four workshops will be held over
the course of the 9 day session: one’s own
calling, shared calling, call to action, and
putting it all together. The breakout groups in
which much of the learning will be done can be
organized by diocese and synod, so that deputies
are working with the same people with whom they
came and with whom they will return. If organized
in this way, the workshop could be a way to
establish norms, commitments, and practices that
they can take back with them. Deputy teams will
return to their Diocese with the mission of
teaching how to do what they have learned to do at
the convention.
Minnesota
Episcopal Diocese
Devon
Anderson, former teaching fellow of PAL177, and
now an Episcopal priest, is working with Marshall,
Joy and Rachel on organizing the Minnesota
Episcopal Diocese in support of the millennial
development goals (.7% contribution to economic
development in the developing world) that the
Episcopal Church committed to 7 years ago.
Devon wants to develop a diocesan model of
engaging people to contribute their time, money,
etc. to doing this work as prototype for the
Church nationally, as well as a way to engage in
international parish partnerships.
The project will start with 3 parishes, and
then expand to 12, and then to the full 25 in the
Minnesota Diocese.
The project is coupled with a national
Episcopal Public Narrative Project
Boston
Faith and Justice Network
Marshall
advises Rachel Anderson, former teaching fellow,
on the development of the Boston Faith and Justice
Network (BFJN), Boston-based Christian group
dedicated to engaging social and community issues
along with personal faith. In the summer of 2006,
the Boston Faith and Justice Network hosted an
event at Tremont Temple to launch BFJN action teams.
Civic
Projects:
Shatil
The
third round of an organizer training program in Israel, a collaboration between Marshall and Shatil, an
Israeli community advocacy organization, Tel
Aviv
College, and Hebrew
University
has just begun its new year.
On
September 7th, 2006
, Marshall
held an evaluation of the second round; the core
teaching team met via video conference to reflect
on the year's program of reflective practice for
full time community advocates that combines
theoretical work, skill development, and
individual coaching.
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