The promises and pitfalls of peer learning

Abstract

In this short paper I would like to reflect on a number of peer learning events that I have been involved in over the past decade as a facilitator, and sometimes as a participant. These experiences have involved leading groups of policy makers and/or policy implementers from developing countries to observe ‘best’ practice either in more industrially advanced countries, or in countries at a similar stage of development as their own. In the latter case, despite sharing similar constraints, the host country showcased initiatives which were deemed by the organisers of the peer learning exercise to have been sufficiently successful as to deserve wider attention and possibly emulation. I have also led or participated in peer learning teams made up of policy staff from a number of different EU Member States where, despite somewhat different dynamics, the process and intended outcomes were similar: policy learning. My aim in this paper is not to describe these experiences with peer learning events in any great detail, but rather to examine some of the promises and pitfalls associated with them and to question some of their underpinning assumptions. Several of the issues raised in this chapter reinforce points made in Chapter 4 in Section 1 of this volume, where some aspects of peer learning are mapped out in more detail. My main argument here is that while much learning may take place during such events, the outcomes should not be taken for granted. There are pitfalls that should be avoided. Examples from my involvement in peer learning events will be used to illustrate such pitfalls, as well as other general points I would like to make. Peer learning has many forms – some of them may be different to those described her