Preparing to Cocreate: Using Learning Circles to Ready Extension Professionals for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement

Authors

• Bob Bertsch, North Dakota State University
• Jill Heemstra, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Doug Golick, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Volume

58

Issue

3

Abstract

Extension professionals are being asked to address complex public issues. Doing so requires cocreative approaches that engage, in a significant way, the people affected by these issues. Successful engagement, however, requires specific skills and a cocreative mind-set. Extension professionals in two states participated in learning circles to improve their engagement skills. Using a survey and interviews, we studied the impact of the learning circle experience on participants. We found that learning circles helped participants practice colearning, build relationships, and change their mind-sets in ways that could move their work toward more cocreative efforts.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Bertsch, B., Heemstra, J., & Golick, D. (2020). Preparing to Cocreate: Using Learning Circles to Ready Extension Professionals for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement. Journal of Extension, 58(3), Article 30. https://doi.org/10.34068/joe.58.03.30