Knowledge Bank

Outreach is all about taking the university to the public. But especially in recent years, universities across the United States have come under criticism for being "biased" or presenting materials on topics that are not appropriate for students. Outreach educators must be aware of this problem, because we engage the public in general, not just students enrolled at the university. This means we interact with a much more diverse audience in terms of educational level and ideological background. Given the main program areas involved in outreach education and the expectations of the public and public officials in these areas, it is inevitable that we are going to wind up doing education on topics that are controversial. These topics include family life and related issues (teen pregnancy, divorce), global climate change, uses of pesticides, youth at-risk, opioid addiction, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (fracking) and many more. In fact, an outreach professional often has no idea as to what topics members of the community may wish them to address even a year or so in advance, since public interest in various topics often waxes and wanes. This presentation helps the outreach professional to address programming on controversial topics by providing a conceptual framework for public issues based on three criteria: the clarity of the problem, the nature of possible solutions, and potential roles for the general public, public officials and outreach educators. Initially the audience will learn how to identify how clear a problem is and how evident or inevident potential solutions are. The taxonomy provided divides public issues into three types, based on work by Heifetz and Sinder (1988). The presentation includes examples of each that pertain to a variety of program areas addressed by outreach educators. Next, the presentation turns to potential roles for officials, the public and outreach educators in addressing each type of issue. The linkage between the three entities addresses the challenge and conference theme of improving partnerships. The potential role of outreach educators is explored in more detail and is divided into two types: content expertise and process expertise. For each of the three types of public issues and for each type of role identified for the outreach educator, the presentation includes a range of appropriate activities. These activities range from facilitation to conducting and disseminating scholarly research. Most importantly, the framework presented is very precise in helping the outreach professional identify the appropriate activity based on the specific criteria surrounding the public issue and the professional's area of specialization. This replaces guesswork with a very firm foundation on which the professional can base engagement with the public on controversial public issues that inevitably relate to the dual outreach mission of building stronger communities and improving people's lives.

AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Thomas Blaine, associate professor, OSU Extension, blaine.17@osu.edu (Corresponding Author)