ABSTRACT
Students come to the Master of Development Practice (MDP) program for a variety of reasons. Upon arrival many discover that while they share values in relation to the Global Goals, their entry points for development practice are often different. We define and describe these various entry points into sustainable development as “paradigms”. In this chapter, we describe these paradigms and discuss them in relation to development practice as expressed through field placements and full-time work experience. The chapter presents a case study of the University of Waterloo MDP program, examining evidence from more than a decade of placing students in field practicums and following up to see how these experiences express themselves in their post-graduation professional life. Through the case study, the chapter illustrates how the field placement serves to accommodate diverse interests, and to act as a stepping stone to sustainable development-oriented full-time employment. Students’ comfort with moving across social spaces (from communities to companies to government and intergovernmental agencies), while drawing on diverse perspectives (from community-based development focused on social justice to the bioeconomy, value chains, and social justice) and utilizing systems-oriented thinking and practice, facilitates not only innovative approaches to developmental challenges, but to the building of creative coalitions and multi-stakeholder partnerships at various scales – from the local to the national to the global.
