Using the CAMEL Model to Build a Community of Practice
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'Uruguayan meetings were 'calzon quitao' - 'with underpants removed''
Strange as it may seem CAMEL has its origins in a self-help group formed many years ago by a number of small farmers in Uruguay. The credit for the idea of applying a Uruguayan farming model to the UK education sector goes to Seb Schmoller of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) whose uncle was a member of the self-help group.
Seb visited Uruguay back in 1985 and his uncle showed him a folder of documentation from what he described as a farmers' self-help club. This stuck in Seb's mind and caused him to reflect on the parallels between education and agriculture. The technology and the process may be different but to be successful at either requires an enormous amount of tacit knowledge, and understanding about how to make things work in a co-ordinated way, and the success has a long time frame.
Farmers from 8 small farms used to meet monthly taking turns to visit one another's establishments. Participants were provided with prior information including plans and stock lists. On the day of the visit they toured the farm then had a discussion (led by an expert facilitator) about key issues arising and gave views on topics on which the host sought the group's advice. There was an evaluation session at the end of the day and the outcomes were documented.
Key features of the group that we seek to emulate in the CAMEL model are that the visits were:
- Planned collaboratively
- Documented before and after
- Focused on things which matter
- Expertly facilitated
- Formally evaluated and had a
- Strong emphasis on tacit knowledge and making this explicit
We were fortunate enough to receive some reflections on the workings of the group via an email from Seb's uncle in Uruguay and this mentioned another critical feature: the meetings had to be 'calzon quitao' which translates as 'with underpants removed'.
He describes this as meaning you have to put all your cards on the table and hide nothing and he goes on to say 'sometimes there emerged some truths or criticisms which were very painful, and this is what I think helped many to come to terms with reality.'
