Facilitating Conflict-Laden Issues: An Important Extension Faculty Role

Increasingly, Extension educators across the country are being asked to facilitate conflict-laden public issues. Many Extension educators, however, feel there is minimal encouragement and incentive for this educational activity. The author argues that facilitation of this type is not viewed from the proper educational paradigm and this is what creates difficulty in providing recognition for this important work. An argument is made for establishing performance evaluation guidelines that encourage and reward more than the traditional land grant university research and teaching paradigms.