The Cooperative Extension System is being challenged to adapt to a changing world - a complex world in which yesterday's answers and tools don't seem to solve today's problems. Issues programming is the approach proposed for moving Extension into the 21st century. It involves a refocusing on the broad societal concerns of people.1 Much time and attention is being given to identifying issues, setting up interdisciplinary teams, and organizing educational resources to program around issues.
Expectations are great.
Undertaken as a mid-term assessment of progress in this programming approach, the findings indicate types of changes Extension staff are experiencing in the move to issues programming. Identifying Issues During the early 1980s, the Texas Agricultural Extension Service faced a rapid downswing in the agricultural and oil-based economy and a declining population growth rate. To ensure that programs were relevant under these conditions, Texas Extension initiated a new long-range program planning process in 1986. The objective was to reach outside the Extension structure to involve a wide populace in identifying priority issues as the basis for program delivery into the 1990s. The key would be effectively implementing issues-based programming to have an impact on the identified issues.