Embedding learning opportunities into the development of local food systems and ag-bioscience businesses and business clusters is one of several key strategies for enriching local and regional economies.  Any local food system or ag-bioenergy development effort will require significant collaborative skill and effective use of a range of face-to-face and electronic communication tools.    Assuming such a topic to be of general interest, this post introduces the concept of "Stealth Curriculum" to all site users.

INTRODUCTION

Over the last 24 months -- through the localfoodsystems.org website -- individuals and individual businesses are becoming aware of, communicating with, and identifying collaborative opportunities among other individuals and businesses. For many, the LFS website design, a help menu (including how, why and "heads up" components), and on-going modeling of the uses of tools have generated or expanded their knowledge about simple electronic based communications among entrepreneurs and interested others. The first step in sustainable, collaborative, local food systems development is to help people communicate and develop trust.

GOAL

The next step, therefore, is to help emerging groups with collaborative communication by developing and sharing a set of appropriately timed learning opportunities, structured as a flexible framework.  In an economic development project in Northeast Ohio, we will pilot this process by delivering learning to each of several target groups, each focused on a particular commodity cluster in a particular region.  The educational goal is to seamlessly provide opportunities for entrepreneurs across the local food system value chain to move from inappropriate and ultimately self-defeating competitive models through levels of cooperation to strong collaborations.

FRAMEWORK: A "STEALTH CURRICULUM"

The educational strategies are to (a) work on a group-by-group basis so as to serve each group's needs as they perceive and describe them, and (b) then to embed learning opportunities in group activities, including beneficial social networking tools as needed and appropriate.  Embedding learning opportunities into the flow of group process creates an implicit -- or "Stealth Curriculum."  Stealth Curriculum is designed to be a flexible, highly adaptable, guiding framework, a template into which group specific content can be placed and appropriately sequenced.

RATIONALE AND OUTCOMES

It is not about being sneaky or conniving, it is about being immediately relevant.  Creating integrated, group specific processes and tools helps emerging businesses and business clusters learn by supporting what they are already working on.  To shove learning at people is counter-productive; to create the opportunity for people to reach for self-designated needed tools and processes is quite productive. The intended outcomes are that local businesses and business clusters see the value of -- and can engage in -- collaborative efforts to develop, sustain and expand profitable and community-enriching enterprises related to local food systems and green energy technologies. 

CONTENT

The actual content within the framework will be made immediately relevant on a group by group basis by using as examples the real-life activities, issues, and possibilities of the respective individual business groupings. This will require predicting key moments in group development so as to help groups solve problems and pursue opportunities immediately in front of them. The learning will be embedded in the process of the groups advancing themselves.  In the ideal, learning will be seamless.  

GUIDING VALUES

Therefore to accomplish the learning objectives, curriculum development and delivery will embody four values:

1. Learner centered. By putting the learners and their needs and opportunities in the middle of our thinking, we intend to create an internal pull, a "reaching for" knowledge, not an external push, a "forcing in" of teaching.

2. Adapted to group. The transfer of knowledge will incorporate the ways people in any given group describe and organize their needs so that instruction is embedded in practical problem solving.

3. Timed for maximum receptivity and benefit. By attending to particular stages in group development, we will be increasingly able to predict critical moments for new tools and new learning.

4. Capture and incorporate examples and success stories. Real life stories, testimonials and examples heighten learning and illustrate specific actions. They also demonstrate what is possible and so build momentum.

NEXT POST

A follow up to this post will cover specific details of the curriculum by addressing three practical questions:

1. What does a Stealth Curriculum look like?

2. How does it work?

3. What are some example topics?