EVOLVING PRACTICE: Inquiry, Reflection, Research

Lena Townsend, RBF executive director, 2000-2015

For the Robert Bowne Foundation inquiry was both a stance and a process. As part of the efforts of the RBF Board to define the Foundation’s focus, Dianne Kangisser, first Foundation Executive Director, conducted an “inquiry process,” resulting in the focus on Out-of-School Time (OST) youth literacy education. Subsequently, the Foundation made the practices of reflection and inquiry integral components of its own practice, its relationships with grantees, and its efforts to develop and enrich the OST field.

Dianne Kangisser, first Executive Director, conducted an “inquiry process” to define the Foundation’s focus. With results in hand, she suggested focusing on Out-of-School Time (OST) youth literacy education, and the Foundation began to fund neighborhood-based afterschool programs that engaged children and youth in reading and writing activities that differed widely from classroom approaches.

Since that time, the RBF made the practices of reflection and inquiry integral components of its own practice as a Foundation, its relationships with grantees, and its efforts to develop and enrich the field of OST practice.