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Developing T-shaped water professionals: Reflections on a framework for building capacity in collaboration, learning and leadership. Dr. Brian S. McIntosh, Senior Lecturer and Education Program Manager Dr. André Taylor, Leadership Specialist. Climate and water availability change.
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Developing T-shaped water professionals: Reflections on a framework for building capacity in collaboration, learning and leadership Dr. Brian S. McIntosh, Senior Lecturer and Education Program Manager Dr. André Taylor, Leadership Specialist
Climate and water availability change IPCC (2007) Synthesis Report Developing T-shaped water professionals
Global demographics to 2050 2050 – 6.3bn UN (2010), World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision Population Database Developing T-shaped water professionals
Access to adequate water & sanitation WHO & UNICEF (2010), Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water Developing T-shaped water professionals
Urbanisation and ecological degradation Walsh et al. (2005), J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 24(3):706 Developing T-shaped water professionals
Global food production challenges FAO (2010), Where do the hungry live? Developing T-shaped water professionals
Change Developing T-shaped water professionals
Professional skills profiles From Uhlenbrook and de Jong (2012) Developing T-shaped water professionals
Investing in education to invest in adaptivity Formal education can provide a process for building the capacity of water sector professionals to: • recognize the need for innovation; • develop innovative ways of changing which avoid creating problems elsewhere, and to; • stimulate and drive processes of change. But what should formal education programs for building such capacities look like? What skills and knowledge should they focus on and how should they be delivered? Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Innovation management Knowledge about managing innovation Innovation Continuum Incremental Radical Simple Management of innovation Complex Routine Nature of innovation process Unstructured Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Learning Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Collaboration Innovation processes are becoming more ‘open’, as a consequence of collaboration across organizational boundaries Promoting and enabling collaboration between personnel within organisations and between organisations is a key part of developing new opportunities and solving problems Effective collaboration, characterized by the creation of shared understandings of purpose, values and activity which yields benefits to the group as well as to individuals, is essential to group effectiveness Effective, as opposed to functional, collaboration tends to lead to more radical, status quo challenging action Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Leadership At the heart of many successful projects in the water sector Water contexts offer unprecedented levels of (rapid) change, high levels of uncertainty, instability and complexity, problems with long timeframes and multiple stakeholders Major change management processes require skilled leaders Developing T-shaped water professionals
Techne Art or craft Knowledge (know how) Phronesis Knowledge that helps us act wisely in particular situations Guides the use of the other kinds of knowledge – whether they are used well from an ethical point of view The most important form of knowledge for Aristotle Modern science emphasises these We need to emphasise these more if we are to live more sustainably Episteme Systems of knowledge (know why) Praxis Practical, thoughtful doing From Aristotle Ingredient: Ethics, values & context Developing T-shaped water professionals
T-Shaped Water Professionals Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped concept Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped concept Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped concept Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped concept Developing T-shaped water professionals
Reflections on implementation Challenges in broadening education – ensuring that: • Each discipline or functional area of knowledge can be learned to Masters level from essentially no, or only high school level knowledge beforehand, and; • Opportunities are provided to participants to take part control of the learning agenda so that they are able to focus on content of most relevance to their own professional goals and context, and are also more motivated to learn Developing T-shaped water professionals
Reflections on implementation Learning philosophy: • Standard classroom didactic teaching is at best only ever partially successful as an approach to catalyzing learning • Alternative approaches to learning emphasise: • Peer-to-peer interactions, dialogue, problem orientation, real-life or immersive education, and critical pedagogy • Application of the 70:20:10 rule - 70% of learning and development occurs as a consequence of doing, 20% as a consequence of receiving feedback and 10% from formal instruction Developing T-shaped water professionals
Reflections on implementation Strategies for responding to the challenges: • High quality printed and online resources enables ‘flipping’ • Emphasis is given to conceptualization, skills and problem-solving rather than the acquisition of factual knowledge • Use of real-world, problem-based learning as a device to promote active, integrative learning across disciplines • Immersive, problem-focused field trips • Developing praxis (conscious, reflective action to transform the world) – head, heart and hands • Ability to command significant 1-to-1 time from academics Developing T-shaped water professionals
www.watercentre.org +61 (0)7 3014 0225 b.mcintosh@watercentre.org Developing T-shaped water professionals