693Scenario06

Helping each other prepare for the post-CCT future in which each of you attempt to create supportive community for your professional and personal development
A long-expressed need of CCT graduates is for community (like they felt when they were students) to support their CCT-related steps in professional and personal development after they graduate. I cannot assume or insist that the 2006 CCT693 class will form that community for each other after you all graduate. For the next three weeks, however, I ask you to help each other prepare for the future in which each of you attempt to create your own supportive community for your CCT-related efforts. You might have a good idea of what that support and/or community would look like for yourself, but you might also need to do research to get models of how to go about creating that support. Or you may have little idea of what that support or community would look like so you’d be interested in accounts from CCT and other areas of study about how people have addressed the challenge of supporting professional and personal development after students graduate—what has worked well and what not so well? (Arranging such support matches the emerging emphasis in education programs on mentoring and support of recent graduates.) Or you might have other ideas about how to contribute to your own and each other’s preparation for the future after you graduate. Perhaps you (individually or collectively) will come up with proposals and start to build constituencies to produce some lasting effects beyond this three-week period—but I do not assume you will get that far. I simply look forward to being informed, inspired, and surprised by what you come up with in the three weeks ahead. As the person asking you to help each other prepare for the future, I have two hats. I am your instructor for CCT693 and will guide and coach you as you explore what it means to approach this issue through Action Research. But I also offer myself as a resource person—a source of information, knowledge, experience, and leads—and as a possible member of a constituency you might form around some proposal(s). I'll try to keep the two hats distinct.

Peter Taylor (pjt)