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Pipeline, Community Development and Networking [Next Chapter] [Previous Chapter] [Contents] |
This chapter introduces the metaphor of a ‘pipeline’ to describe the structural arrangements developed under the EIP project to support the connection of Aboriginal communities, education providers and professional employment. The pipeline connects members of Aboriginal communities with pre-vocational and vocational training, tertiary education and employment in specific professions, such as Law, Engineering, Education and Health.
The community development process employed in the EIP project utilised the overlap between education, professional and community sectors to develop the pipelines. While the immediate focus of activity began in the higher education sector, it facilitated changes in the overlapping sectors. Discussed here is:
3.2 Definition and Establishment of the Pipeline
The structural arrangements linking the Aboriginal community, education institutions and the professions led to the creation of a metaphoric pipeline (see Section 1.2). For the purposes of this project it was viewed as an entity, a real construction as opposed to a construct, so that people would be more able to identify the potential of the project as having direct benefit to themselves.
When more people come to share a common vision, the vision may not change fundamentally. But it becomes more alive, more real in the sense of a mental reality that people can truly imagine achieving (Senge 1992, p. 212).
The pipeline directly addresses the phenomenon in which Aboriginal people are encouraged into post-schooling educational opportunities only to experience disappointment, which can lead to a lowering of self expectation, a lowering of opportunity by educational agencies and furthering of the myth that Aboriginal people can not be educated to attain professional status. Examples of the effect of this phenomenon are where people:
Pipelines allow multiple entry and exit points to a range of professional education and employment positions. Those who completed any section of the pipeline were connected to professional employment in the related employment sector and to further professional education possibilities. An example of a pipeline in the health sector is provided in the Figure 3.1. As can be seen, multiple entry and exit points facilitate on-going educational and professional opportunities.
Figure 3.1: An Example of a Pipeline in Nursing
3.4 Professional Qualifications Accessible Through the Nursing Pipeline
The significant and specific educational outcome facilitated by the pipeline was that existing professional qualifications were made accessible and achievable for Aboriginal people. (See Section 4.6.4 for data on retention rates and graduates.)
The educational qualifications being obtained by people who enter the health pipeline are the Advanced Certificate of Nursing and the Bachelor of Nursing. These qualifications are offered by the Illawarra Institute of Technology
(Advanced Certificate of Nursing) and the University of Wollongong (Bachelor of Nursing). Post graduate degrees in Nursing and Public Health are accessible through the Bachelor of Nursing.
3.5 Communities of Special Interest
In 1992 the AEC developed a Strategic Plan that contained a vision for the future of Aboriginal tertiary education in the Illawarra. This Strategic Plan outlined the usefulness of the concept of communities of special interest (COSI) in bringing together the interests of Aboriginal people, tertiary educators and members of professions to develop shared visions.
Shared visions emerge from personal visions. This is how they derive their energy and how they foster commitment ... people with a strong sense of personal direction can join together to create a powerful synergy (Senge 1992, p. 211).
The community development process (Gluck 1985) was employed to investigate, build and strengthen these COSIs, collections of interest groups for whom the investigation and development of pipelines were the objective. For example, the COSI in Nursing included Aboriginal family groups and Aboriginal organisations who had specific interests in health and education, pre-vocational, vocational and tertiary educators with a direct interest in nurse and Aboriginal education and the Nursing profession.
The following is a list of those who contributed to the COSI concept by facilitating the establishment of the pipeline in Nursing. As can be seen, the COSI includes stakeholders from the Aboriginal community, the education sector, the health and nursing professions.
A COSI is a concept and not an acronym for a constituted meeting group. That is, the COSI never met. Instead its members acted as an informal reference group on whom the Project Director drew. COSIs came to represent the Aboriginal community in the project.
The community development process was particularly relevant to the establishment of COSIs and pipelines because it implied a commitment to action. Community development leads to actions that shape relationships and determine practices used to assist communities in their survival and growth (Gluck 1985). This focus provided a basis for operationalising the EIP grant while shaping relationships and determining practices that could yield operational pipelines.
The community development direction provided a framework for orienting people to the production and consumption activities that exist in their communities, institutions and organisations (Gluck 1985). For example, stakeholders in the health field were engaged in reflecting on their role in the planning, resourcing and delivery of health and health education services. Conflicts arose when values related to these activities were challenged but the community development process provided a strategy for translating these conflicts into goals related to the establishment of the pipeline. For example, at the time of the establishment of the project, industrial issues were of concern to some TAFE personnel, who saw the establishment of a pre-vocational course (leading to the Advanced Certificate in Nursing—for ENs) as the de facto establishment of a fourth level of the Nursing profession (which consisted of Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses and Nursing Assistants). The resolution involved the pre-vocational course being construed as a means of preparing Aborigines to undertake the Advanced Certificate, rather than as a qualification in its own right.
The establishment of the pipeline involved processes that may be thematically linked under the headings of ‘networking’. Three kinds of networking were utilised in this project: as a means for establishing and utilising social capital; as a means of initiating social action; and as a schematic representation of cultural groups or organisations involved in the pipeline.
Working within a social action framework, Dethlefs and Kelly (1984) described networking as:
... purposefully mobilising and linking people together about their concerns, their work, their struggles ... an alternative to impersonal organisations. It is an attempt to substitute SPACE for organisation and to link NEED with RESOURCE in as direct a manner as possible, with as little spatial separation as possible between need and resource (pp. 1–10). [Original emphasis retained.]
The COSI was too large to formally network but it was comprised of smaller networks both within organisations or cultures (for example, the Illawarra Area Health Service, the University of Wollongong or the Aboriginal community) and between organisations and cultures. The COSI consisted of multiple interests, related concerns and directions within a field (such as health or education) and the pipeline was made up of relationships that were developed in a network that focused joint concern. Networking provided a means of developing shared visions and relationships across cultures and organisations that was necessary to create the energy and resources required to construct and pilot a pipeline.
3.6.1 Triadic Relationships Within the Network
Through triads people can direct and shape action. A triad is the basic building block of a network and the point from which action is instigated. Because three people (or organisations) relate to one another for the purpose of action, strength of purpose is created. ‘The strength of the ‘threefold cord’ is as strong as trust given and received’ (Dethlefs and Kelly 1984, p. 18). The bringing of three people into relationship for a common objective creates a ‘space’. This space provides a focus and a basis for generating the time energy and resources necessary to pursue the objective. For example, the bringing of students, lecturers and the AEC into relationship provided a precursor for co-operative and collaborative space to address the learning needs of Aboriginal students.
The following diagram shows the smaller triadic networks of cultural and organisational groups involved in the establishment of the pipeline. These smaller networks frequently overlapped because of the multi-dimensional relationships of the individuals concerned.
Figure 3.2: Example of Triadic Relationships Within the Pipeline
3.6.2 Anchorage in the Pipeline
Standard network diagrams (as in Figure 3.2 above) were particularly useful in determining switch points/gate keepers or controllers of access to groups that were important to the development of an aspect of the pipelines. As well as this, the Boissevain network diagram (see Figure 3.3 below) was particularly useful as a tool for identifying, directing and networking cultural groups and individuals within those groups, essential to the formation of a pipeline.
Boissevain (1974, p. 3) suggested the value of an ‘anchor’ in a network in facilitating identification of key controllers/power brokers in relation to information and resources, many of which exist within the context of different ‘cultures’. An anchor in a network is an individual who relates, in some way, to all cultural groups and all other individuals in the network. Because of this pivotal position in the network, the anchor is able to locate power brokers within each cultural group to secure resources to establish and operate the pipeline. Figure 3.3 below shows the cultural networks within the Nursing pipeline and identifies the Project Director as the anchor.
Figure 3.3: Boissevain Network Showing the Nursing Pipeline
3.6.3 Network Catalysts
Two types of catalyst are present in a functional network: external and internal catalysts. The role of the external catalyst is to start with identified concerns, to introduce new ideas at the level of the stakeholders and to link interest groups with others involved in the change process. An important role of the external catalyst is to phase out his/her involvement when stakeholders are networked and the pipeline is operational. In this way a hierarchical structure is denied within the network as all members are equally important to its functioning. In the Nursing pilot project, the Project Director operated as the external catalyst as well as anchor to the network in order to bring about brokerage.
Internal catalysts operate within stakeholder groups, which may themselves be hierarchical, to organise and to mobilise resources. Within the Nursing pilot project, internal catalysts were drawn from the Illawarra Area Health Service, the University of Wollongong Department of Nursing and Aboriginal Education Centre, the Illawarra Institute of Technology School of Nursing and Aboriginal Development Division. Effective external and internal catalysts recognise that shared visions:
take time to emerge. They grow as a by-product of interactions of individual visions... visions that are genuinely shared require ongoing conversations ... (Senge 1992, p. 217).
In developing the relationship networks that constitute pipelines, both internal and external catalysts in this project sought people to adopt and operationalise the vision.
The processes of networking and brokering enabled social capital to occur. Brokerage ‘addresses the recurring problems of service delivery and the wider problems of resource development and distribution’ (Kelly & Sewell 1988, p. 90). It goes well beyond representation or campaigning to expose injustices. Brokerage involves development of relationship networks and social arrangements that drive structural and systems change; structural change that will provide a permanent access route for the disadvantaged to the resources they need is the goal. This leads to permanent access for ‘the most disadvantage people to the social systems that have been set up to serve them’ (Kelly & Sewell 1988, p. 90). In this way the social arrangement underpins the structural arrangement.
The broker works best with the problems that decision makers in service development can’t predict and often don’t see. The real talent is to go beyond the one off-grant (which may be the immediate need) to devise a mechanism whereby the problem is unlikely to occur again because its solution has been incorporated into the system of procedures (Kelly & Sewell 1988, p. 91).
Brokerage works between two parties; with advocacy on behalf of one party to exert influence on the other.
When people work between groups, or between groups and systems, they need to have a thorough knowledge of both. They need to be acceptable to both and have a workable relationship with both. They need to have entrance to the networks of both, as well as be able to work across the gap between them, as in conflict resolution and mediation. Brokers build pressure, and then take off the pressure when a redefined service or structural change is in place. They do this by giving information, resources time and energy, and by devising ways to exert influence on the target system. The work will be that much more effective if the broker does it in concert with others. Working alone as a broker can mean little more than running messages (Kelly & Sewell 1988, p. 91).
3.8 Social Capital and Human Capital
Broadening the base of Aboriginal people’s social capital was a key strategy in this EIP project. Coleman draws the distinction between human capital and social capital in the following way:
Just as physical capital is created by changes in materials to form tools that facilitate production, human capital is created by changes in persons that bring about skills and capabilities that make them able to act in new ways.
Social capital, however, comes about through changes in the relations among persons that facilitate action. If physical capital is wholly tangible, being embodied in observable material form, and human capital is less tangible, being embodied in the skills and knowledge acquired by an individual, social capital is less tangible yet, for it exists in the relations among persons. Just as physical capital and human capital facilitate productive activity, social capital does as well. For example, a group within which there is extensive trustworthiness and extensive trust is able to accomplish much more than a comparable group without that trustworthiness and trust (Coleman 1988, p. S101).
Aboriginal people have strongly developed social capital within their community relationships, but frequently lack connection to educational and employer organisations. This limits the extent of the social capital available to them within these organisations, which in turn limits the extent of the human capital they are able to develop throughout a life time. Intergenerationally, this lack of social and human capital leads to ‘... a declining quantity of human capital embodied in each successive generation’ (Coleman 1994, p. S118).
This project developed human capital in that it enabled Aborigines to obtain mainstream professional qualifications. However, this human capital depended upon the development of social capital which was formed by creating triadic relationships between mentors, lecturers and students. Social capital was also generated in triadic relationships that formed between members of educational communities (the University or TAFE), members of external organisations (IAHS as a service provider or the AECG) and employers. The quality and sustainability of social capital is maximised when the attitudes underlying the relationships of those involved in the network move toward what Senge (1992, p. 219) describes as ‘commitment’, ‘enrolment’ and ‘genuine compliance’.
The social capital developed within this project was established because of the mutual trust that grew between individuals. Trust is what led to its formation and trust is what made the pipeline operate within the broad organisational cultures that it spanned. Social capital is also what enabled the project to move beyond the pilot stage for the long term benefit of all stakeholders. Where the trust was strong, the pipeline continued to operate. Where trust was not strong there was a lack of social capital.
The following diagrams summarise the sequence of social capital formation that occurred in the University Nursing component of the pipeline. In particular they highlight what Coleman (1994) refers to as closure, where social capital is formed in the mutual ‘space’ created between the members cultures. In Sequence 1, (Figure 3.4) the community and its students related to the Department of Nursing through the AEC. They were not directly linked to the Department and social, cooperative, collaborative, structural and operational spaces have not been networked and social capital does not exist between Aboriginal students and the Department of Nursing. Information feed back between the AEC and the Department, in relation to student learning, was negligible.
Figure 3.4: Formation of Social Capital—Sequence 1
In Sequence 2 (Figure 3.5) the students, AEC and the Department of Nursing were brought into direct relationship. Social arrangements developed that enabled cooperative, collaborative, structural and operational space to be generated. The sequential generation of these spaces resulted in a state in which access and equity for Aboriginal students in Nursing had been brokered. Closure occurred and social capital was developed and operated within the University.
Figure 3.5: Formation of Social Capital—Sequence 2
3.9 The Central Importance of People and Communication to Pipelines
The long term commitment of individuals over a number of years enabled the Nursing pipeline to be established and remain operational. The location of internal and external catalysts was critical to its success. These people mobilised the ‘visible’ project team to actively run the project and influenced the ‘invisible’ project coalition upon whose contribution the existence and success of the project depended.
Reflection on the Nursing process underscored the importance of establishing continuing communication with the invisible project coalition because its members projected attitudes that provided an auspice for the development of processes and an environment in which social capital could be continually generated and sustained. The need to communicate up and down and across the hierarchies of groups involved in the project was ever present. This was partially due to the diverse nature of the cross cultural terrain in which the pipeline was conceived, constructed and operated. It was also due to the reality that teams were constantly changing organisms; pipelines are not static entities. The endogenous and exogenous factors that influenced individual team members’ life circumstances, relationships and desire to be members of a team were constantly changing and beyond the collective control of its membership. Teams changed constantly.
Awareness that teams are constantly changing highlights the importance of social capital to the development of pipelines. Creation of social capital enabled the Nursing pipeline to absorb changes in teams and operate well beyond the project life. It created social arrangements that changed the way in which the Aboriginal community, Aboriginal students, the profession, educators and employers related.
This chapter introduced the metaphor of a pipeline to describe the structural arrangements to support the connection of community, education, professional and employment sectors. It presented concepts and tools of analysis which were used to develop relationship networks that resulted in agreements and cross sectoral arrangements to form a Nursing pipeline that is providing Aboriginal professionals.
The discussion of concepts and tools included community development, Community of Special Interest, networking, brokerage, social capital and human capital and the central importance of people to alignment of sectoral needs. The tools and concepts presented in this chapter enabled the educational theory presented in Chapter 2 to be woven into the fabric of the Nursing pipeline. Chapter 4 presents a detailed account of the Nursing pipeline.