UQ Post Grad Group
Desired Change and Systems Involved
This project aims to socially connect postgraduate and mature age students at the University of Queensland (UQ) through establishment of the Post Grad Group. It is a result of both my own and my peers feeling of social isolation from other students, especially those who are outside of our discipline or who are undertaking different course loads. The Post Grad Group will be a system connecting people through social events.
Personal Story
The idea for this group can be traced back to my personal experience at the UQ Market Day for semester 1, 2009. Market Day serves as a welcome party to UQ for new students. It involves entertainment, market stalls and clubs and societies looking for new members. Tables representing clubs and societies are set up around the entire circumference of the great court. I arrived at Market Day excited about the possibilities of mingling with other postgraduate students and joining some clubs. I found, however, that very few of the clubs applied to me. Instead, most seemed to be geared toward undergrads. I walked around the oval for hours and only ended up briefly talking to one person at the Social Work Students Association’s table. I left Market Day feeling deflated, frightened, defeated and alone.
Importance of Relationships for Postgraduate and Mature Age Students
This project aims to connect individuals who share an association to the educational system the University of Queensland. We share the status of being either postgraduate students or mature age undergraduate students. At first, this group solely focused on postgraduate students. While discussing this idea with members of the SWSP7123 Community Planning, Governance & Engagement class, I realised that mature age undergraduate students also felt socially isolated. Hence, this group came to include these students as well.
Members of the UQ Post Grad Group will belong to different schools within the university and have varying course loads. All members belong to different systems. One can argue that the individual is a system itself, comprised of biological, emotional, intellectual and other features. Everyone has a distinct family system. We currently live in various neighbourhoods throughout the greater Brisbane area. We come from various states within Australia and countries from around the world. We will probably belong to other communities such as churches, interest groups, and friendship circles. The UQ Post Grad Group will become a system of its own. All diverse members of this group will come together with the goal of becoming more socially connected to other members of the university.
Returning to studies can be quite frightening for mature age and postgraduate students. Many of us have been out of the education for years or decades. Some of us are international students who know no one and are unfamiliar with our new country, city and university. Some international students are further isolated because English is not their first language. Many mature age students are apprehensive about balancing work, family, social and educational aspects of life. I believe that comfort could be found in connecting with other students with similar feelings and experiences.
I scoured the UQ website to find that only 1 out of 135 groups and societies are specifically for postgraduate students (University of Queensland Union, 2010). This group is the Postgraduate Research Engineering Student Society. Most of us wouldn’t fit into their membership criteria. No clubs specifically target mature age students. In fact, a search of the University of Queensland Union (the organization that manages UQ clubs) website returned no results for “mature age student” (UQU, 2010).
Relationships are essential to human life. Wheatley argues that from relationships, life creates systems that offer their members support, stability and opportunity. Wheatley writes, “Everywhere life displays itself as complex, tangled, messy webs of relationships. From these relationships, life creates systems that offer greater stability and support than life lived alone” (Wheatley, 2005, p.25) In an ideal system, information and energy is continuously exchanged between individuals. This sort of system improves capacities of both individuals and the system as a whole.
The University of Queensland Union
The University of Queensland Union (UQU) runs UQ clubs and societies. The UQU is an independent body from UQ. UQU claims to represent students on all university committees, offering unbiased support and representation. The UQU offers services, support, representation and resources to students at UQ (UQU, 2010). UQ, an education system, has hired out a separate system, which gains money through sponsors, to manage student clubs. UQU clubs are governed by UQU policies. Furthermore, if one wishes to access the club information via the Internet, they will be barraged with sponsorship ads on the UQU website. If a club strongly wishes to remain unassociated with consumerism, they would not be able to become an official society of the UQU. Becoming an official society will relinquish some member’s ownership of the club to outsiders. As UQU is the funding body, a power imbalance is inevitable as the society will be somewhat dependent on UQU. If a group would like UQU funding, however, they will have to seriously weigh the consequences against the benefits of becoming an official society.
UQU have official postgraduate officers who are seek to “provide strong advocacy, appropriate services and alluring events for postgraduate students to enhance the quality of their degree and university experience.” (UQU, 2010). I am halfway through my third full-time semester at UQ and I have never heard about any events for postgraduate students. I will contact the officers as soon as possible to gather more information about their services. The UQU website states that it aims to ensure that postgraduate students, despite work and family commitments, leave UQ with a network of friends from various fields. I feel that this aim has not been met. Perhaps, a grassroots group needs to be formed to gain the attention of and meet the desires and needs of postgraduate students. The UQ Post Grad Group could be that group.
Project Action
The idea for the group started with my personal feeling of isolation. Through dialogue with peers, I found that others also felt socially excluded. This led to the idea of the Post Grad Group.
My aim is to facilitate community development amongst a group of postgraduate and mature age students. The participatory paradigm was used to plan the group. This paradigm involves the belief that knowledge is collaboratively created. It is pluralist, acknowledging that we all have valid perspectives. Methods include action research and dialogue (Ife, 2002; Chambers, 2002). The group will be governed by the people. Connection and inclusion are main goals of the group. I will work alongside members to create the goals and agenda for the group. This group could evolve into multiple groups whose members unite over similarities, be they interests, availability, or location. The UQ Post Group will be flexible and creative with no fixed end point. The group aims to have many one-off events, as it can be quite difficult for some postgraduate and mature age students to commit to structured, weekly meetings.
Beginning Phase
I will raise awareness of this group by distributing posters and flyers and through word of mouth. I will display posters throughout the university campus. I will make sure to display posters where postgraduate students are likely to see them, for example in postgraduate lounges or near assignment inboxes. It will be harder to target the mature age undergraduate students. I hope that if I sufficiently plaster the campus, mature age undergraduate students will hear about the group. Furthermore, I will ask UQ staff and fellow students for suggestions on how to advertise.
In addition, I hope for news of the group to spread through word-of-mouth. I will tell many people about this group and hopefully they will tell their friends. I will put an email address on the posters so that people can contact me with any questions.
I will set up a Facebook group, as it is the most popular social networking sight at the moment (Facebook.com). Furthermore, I’ll establish a group on Meetup.com (Meetup.com). Meetup.com is a site where anyone can set up a group for free. People can contribute to discussion boards, suggest activities and add photos. I intend to direct people from the Facebook group to Meetup.com and communicate with people primarily on Meetup.com.
If interest is expressed in having a face-to-face organizing session, I will organize one, taking into account everyone’s availability. The session will likely be held in a public place on campus.
Citizen Power and Participation
The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) developed the IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum showing the increasing level of public impact of participation methods (International Association for Public Participation Austrlasia, 2010). The UQ Post Grad Group aims to reach empowerment, the maximum level of public impact. In empowerment, final decisions are made by the public.
The Meetup and Facebook sites will be identified as a non-judgemental spaces in which differing interests and viewpoints are respected. I intend for initial discussion to involve members’ feelings about what is missing at UQ and what we would like to gain from the UQ Post Grad Group. I hope to achieve a group consensus about the purpose of the group. This purpose will be clearly displayed on the websites. It is very important to keep the purpose of the group clear (Cornwall, 2008). This is not to say that the purpose of the group will not change. The purpose should be renegotiated as the community changes. Regardless, it should be clearly stated as to avoid confusion, frustration or indifference from members.
Via the Facebook and Meetup groups, discussion will begin surrounding suggestions for social gatherings. I will initiate an online brainstorming session of potential activities. I hope for many people to join the group, ensuring that everyone will find people with similar interests, physical proximity and availability. Anyone will be free to post news, suggest new groups or activities, or invite others to join existent groups or events. When sufficient interest is gained in any one event, a participant will organize an event. Through group gatherings, individual friendships can be formed. Numbers will be exchanged and relationships will hopefully bloom.
Participation is essential to the Post Grad Group. Participatory Research Action (PRA) is a key method of community development used in the UQ Post Grad Group. This is a cumulative learning method, enabling people to make their own appraisals, analyses, plans, actions and evaluations (Chambers, 2002). PRA seeks multiple perspectives and group inquiry, leading to sustained action (IIED, 1994).
Community Education will be used in the Post Grad Group. Community Education highlights the importance of people recognising that they are part of a society and connected to others within it. Community Education can lead to sustainability as community members have ownership over change processes and engage in knowledge and capacity-building dialogue and activities. Community education is holistic, recognising the interconnectedness of varying aspects of participants’ lives (Freire, 1996). In holistic practice, we must recognise barriers in people’s lives and engage in dialogue to determine how to gain the best results. Needs can be interconnected. In the case of the UQ Post Grad Group, barriers include competing demands in life and the feelings of social isolation from the rest of the university.
Wheatley sees the need for a change in our social history. She argues that the ‘old history’ was mechanistic, encouraging conformity, compliance, homogeneity and prediction over creativity exploration, individuality and humanness (Wheatley, 2005). She argues that the ‘new story’ should consist of a “world where creative self-expression and embracing relationships are the organizing energies, where there is no such thing as an independent individual and no need for a leader to take on as much responsibility for us as we’ve demanded in the past”(Wheatley, 2005, p.22)
In Pretty’s typology of participation, the most active participation is described as self-mobilization (Cornwall, 2008). Self-mobilization involves participants taking initiative independently from outside organizations. The change in this type of participation is from the inside out. Self-mobilizing groups develop contacts with other organizations, but maintain power over their group (Cornwall). The UQ Post Grad Group will have contact with UQ and other institutions, but will likely remain an independent group.
Some aspects of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) will be used. In ABCD, local assets are the primary components of community development. Knowledge, skills and material assets are shared to build community capacity (Ife, 2002). Hopefully, members of the UQ Post Grad Group will share knowledge and skills. In terms of material assets, perhaps carpooling to events could be arranged or discounts could be established at places where members work. For instance, I work at a microbrewery. If some members wanted to brew their own beer, I could organise the event and get them a discount.
The Post Grad Group is intended to be a self-organizing system. In other words, it will be a system that is organized from the inside-out. Self-organising systems do not rely on leaders, but instead organize their own structures, pathways and networks with input from each member’s unique life story (Wheatley, 2005). Individuals create meaning for the group together. They share ownership.
Progress of the group should be monitored. Throughout, discussions of members’ feelings about the group should continue. We should ask what is good about the group and what needs improvement. We should continuously ask what the group is missing. We have to make sure that the group does not become stagnant and continues to function consistently with the goals we’ve established.
Facilitator Role
This group reflects values associated with Community Education Theory. Community Education aims to build community knowledge and strengths though engaging the community in mutual learning. Freire, an advocate of Community Education Theory, believes that levelling of the teacher-student imbalance will result in a society of critically-conscious active participants with joint responsibility for their reality (Freire, 1996).
PRA often involves a facilitator who does exactly that, facilitates, but does not teach or set his own agenda for the group. Chambers argues that a good facilitator uses his best judgement, respects people, asks questions, empowers, supports and believes in participants (Chambers, 2002). An effective facilitator establishes rapport, shares, learns, abandons preconceptions and is self-aware and self-critical. He is honest, flexible, innovative and relaxed. A facilitator who models these behaviours will encourage participation in a group (Chambers, 2002).
I intend to facilitate using strength-based approaches. This involves building intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, eliciting knowledge rather than teaching it. It recognises members as experts, rather than passive learners (McMaster, 2009).
Chambers argues the importance of “handing over the stick” (Chambers, 2002). Handing over the stick means letting other people do the work. One person cannot organize everything. It is important for the UQ grad group to be run by its members. I will serve as the facilitator initially, but I will not act as a leader or teacher in the group. I hope the group will eventually continue and evolve without a facilitator. Perhaps different groups will form according to the interests revealed in the initial group. Potential is limitless.
Chambers also argues that a facilitator of a participatory group should be “optimally unprepared” and expect “predictably unpredictable” processes (Chambers, 2002, p xiv). It is important to do some planning before beginning the group, but it is very important that the facilitator is flexible. He writes, “Good workshops are more like a sea voyage than putting up a building. There is less syllabus to tick off, and more a direction to travel in and a process to experience” (Chambers, pxiv). I see the planning stages of the UQ Grad Group to be a bit of an online workshop where people can exchange goals, gripes, feelings and desires.
Risk Identification
Embrace Change
A facilitator should not only be open to, but also embrace changes of course. It could be easy for a facilitator to be discouraged if a group does not follow the course that he or she had in mind at the group’s establishment. It is important however, for the facilitator to recognize the dynamic nature of the group and its natural tendency to evolve. It is possible that members of the Post Grad Group will find shared passions or concerns, leading the group to change its course, perhaps advocating for a change to another system. I will need to resist the urge to fight against this change. I should view it as growth rather than a hurdle. Wheatley argues that change should be viewed as an organizing force rather than a problematic intrusion (Wheatley, 2005).
Time Limit
I must acknowledge the limited time I have for this group as I am graduating at the end of the year. If properly established, the group should be sustainable and not need me to continue. Hopefully, I will eventually find someone else to mind the website. Regardless, as all members are owners and leaders of the group, I believe that the group will continue.
Gaining Awareness
It could be difficult gaining awareness of the group on campus. As mentioned earlier, I will try to gain awareness through poster and flyer distribution and word-of-mouth. I must be mindful of advertising the group at various times, as we want to continuously build and diversify.
Facilitator, Not Leader
In undertaking this work, I will need to be mindful of remaining a ‘member’ rather than a ‘leader’. As mentioned earlier, in partipative action, it is important that the facilitator not take on a strong role as a leader or “boss”. The intention of the group is to be run by the people with the facilitator as a guide when needed. I will have to actively reflect on my intentions regularly.
Private to public?
The group at some point may need to contemplate becoming an official UQ society. This may be because the group decides they would benefit from funding. Furthermore, by being an official society, the group may become more visible, as they will have a stall at Market Day and be searchable on the UQ website. I would prefer to avoid becoming official, but, as this is a group run by its members, decisions will be made by us all. The society’s status in relation to the university could become a contentious debate. If, however, the group runs collaboratively and respectfully, we should be able to decide through a democratic process.
New Members:
It would be easy to just remain satisfied with the initial crop of people, but in order to evolve and remain inclusive, I believe it is important to gain new members. The group is, after all, established to socially include isolated students. Denying new membership would contradict the aim of the group. We must continue to advertise the group.
Engagement:
It may also be difficult to get people actively engaged in the group in the first place. People may not be accustomed to groups where there are no set rules and success depends on their collaboration. It may take a little while for people to get used to this new process. As a facilitator, I will guide the members when needed. I will encourage them to contribute and avoid judgement.
Technical Issues
One major dilemma of this group could be the use of Internet to communicate. Postgraduate and mature age undergraduate student may not be fluent on the Internet. They may feel uncomfortable communicating via the web. This could discourage people from joining the group. I know that many members of our class (SWSP7123) were very frightened over the component of creating a blog. This “high tech” component of the course overwhelmed us. Once we started creating the blogs, however, many of us realised that it wasn’t such a big deal. It was the idea of it that was the hardest. I’m worried that the idea of communicating over Facebook and Meetup may discourage some people. If this is the case, I will organise some face-to-face meetings to teach people how to use the sites as well as discuss the group’s goals and brainstorm about directions for it to take.
Balancing Commitments
As mentioned earlier, it can be hard for postgraduate and mature age students to commit to societies as they have competing family, work and education commitments. As a result, this group is focused more on one-off meetings rather than weekly commitments. We must consider everyone’s commitments and availabilities when organising events.
Timing
I feel as though this group is not being established at the ideal time. I wish I had started it at the beginning of the semester while people were just finding their footing at the university and before academic requirements became too overwhelming. Hopefully, however, some people will still be interested in joining now. Also, the start of semester two may be an ideal time for people to join.
The UQ Post Grad Group will socially include postgraduate and mature age undergraduate students through participatory approaches. This will ideally lead to new relationships, capacities and increased life satisfaction for the participants.
Sources
Chambers, R. (2002). Participatory workshops: A sourcebook of 21 sets of ideas and activities. London: Earthscan.
Cornwall, A. (2008). Unpacking Participation: models, meanings and practices. Community Development Journal, 43(3), 269-283.
Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin.
Ife, J. (2002). Community Development: community-based alternatives in an age of globalization. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education Australia.
International Association for Public Participation Australasia (IAP2) (2010). IAP2 Public Participitation Spectrum. Retrieved from: http://www.iap2.org.au/sitebuilder/resources/knowledge/asset/files/36/iap2spectrum.pdf.
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). (1994). Whose Eden: an overview of community approaches to wildlife management. London: IIED.
Lane, M. (1999). Community development and a postmodernism of resistance. In Pease, B. & Fook, J. (Eds.) Transforming Social Work Practice: Postmodern critical perspectives (pp.135-149). St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin.
McMaster, K. (2009). Facilitating Change through Groupwork. In Maidment, J., & Egan, R. (Eds.), Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare: More than Just Common Sense (pp.219-238). Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
Pawar, M.S. (2010). Community Development in Asia and the Pacific. New York: Routledge.
University of Queensland Union (UQU) (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.uqu.uq.edu.au.
Westoby, P. & Owen, J. (2009). The sociality and geometry of community development practice. Community Development Journal, Advance Access published on February 12, 2009, 1-17.
Wheatley, M.J. (2005). Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
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