The Scholarship of Florida Extension
In 2007, the University of Florida/ Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/ IFAS) Dean for
Extension, Larry Arrington, charged this committee to present historical and current perspectives on the
Scholarship of Extension that will result in applications of this knowledge. The committee prepared a white
paper (Schaefer et al. 2009) and made presentations to Extension Faculty at the Extension Professional
Associations of Florida (2010), the Extension Director’s Advisory Committee (2011) and the Extension
Leadership Team (2013). After examining all of this information, Extension Administration offers the
following conclusion.
UF/IFAS, together with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), administers the Florida
Extension. Approximately 220 state faculty (134 FTEs) have some Extension responsibilities and about 350
county faculty (at least one in each Florida county) have 100% Extension appointments.
Extension is a partnership between state, federal, and county governments that disseminate science-based
information to the public through non-formal educational programs. The intent is that people use this
information to increase their knowledge and awareness, to adopt practices and/or change behaviors that
ultimately provide enhancements to their economic, environmental, or social conditions.
Not all Research, Instruction, and Extension activities qualify as scholarly. However, there is a need to
distinguish scholarly work from other faculty efforts. Scholarship is broader than results of research
published in a peer refereed journal. Both UF/ IFAS and FAMU place high value on scholarly achievements
that result from research, but extend the concept of scholarship beyond research to include the other types of
creative intellectual work and achievement. The rigorous, intellectual approach used for issue identification,
needs assessment, clarification, plan of action development, plan implementation, and appropriate evaluation
of the resulting outcomes and impacts of the work in Extension can also be evaluated as scholarly endeavors.
The Extension model uses criteria that focus on outputs to validate the scholarship. Specifically, these criteria
are used in assessing the extent to which a scholarly achievement is original, significant, and useful to others.
The indicators of scholarship of Extension at UF/IFAS are:
creative intellectual work;
reviewed by the scholar's peers who affirm its value;
added to our intellectual history through its communication to peers;
adopted by peers: and
valued by clientele for whom it was intended.
The scholarship of integration gives value to work done that makes connections and draws insights from
discrete facts and findings produced by original research, which brings a multi-disciplinarity to the pursuit of
learning. The scholarship of application is the application of knowledge within one's professional expertise
in a way that is characterized by rigor and accountability.
Scholarship does not only imply individual work. Collaborative work is highly valued and encouraged. When
reporting on scholarly collaborative work, faculty should clearly document their own contributions and how
that contribution enhanced the overall collaborative effort. It should be noted that not all scholarly work need
be "successful" in the sense that the desired outcomes are always achieved, nor is all of the work of an
Extension faculty member necessarily scholarly.
Changes resulting from Extension programming that positively impact peoples’ lives are highly valued by the
organization, stakeholders and funders. However, all academicians, including Extension faculty need to also
attain and account for the scholarly nature of Extension work.