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Foundations of Adult and Continuing Education

 

 

Jovita M. Ross-Gordon, Amy D. Rose, Carol E. Kasworm

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FIRST EDITION

PREFACE

Adult and continuing education is an important segment of the education enterprise. It creates and transforms structures, strategies, delivery systems, and policies that focus upon the effective facilitation and impact of adult learning. And it provides leadership and advocacy for those who serve adults within organizations and within our society. Adult learners come from all walks of life; adult and continuing educators reflect this diversity of place, identity, and knowledge of particular contexts, life or work roles, and specialized expertise in adult learning, program designs, and administration of learning settings.

Whether adults are engaged in self‐directed learning, in face‐to‐face learning groups, or through various learning designs offered via audio and video technology, they seek out learning for many reasons. These include the desire for improved skills, for information, and for deeper knowledge about themselves, their families, institutions, and communities. Consider the myriad of contexts for adult learning, whether through formal or nonformal educational programs offered by providers such as educational organizations, government agencies, professional associations, or workplaces; or though informal learning, either in communities or self‐directed with the aid of modern technologies and social networks—adult learning is ubiquitous. Of importance is the growing emphasis on professionalization and specialization and of adults seeking out adult learning resources and expertise to enhance innovative practices, such as participation in continuing medical education, military professional development, or creative exploration of uses of technology for teaching adults in online environments. Adult learners are an important and significant segment of the learning society.

For you as the reader, this text provides an exploration of this world of adult learners, the profession of adult and continuing education, and the broader social contexts of adult learning. Key insights and updated theory and research, as well as the continuing dilemmas faced by adult and continuing educators, are considered. The book will acquaint you with the historic foundations of more than one hundred years ago in the United States, when professional educators gathered together to form the first professional organization committed to serving fellow adult educators and adult learners. It will also introduce you to key resources of the field of adult and continuing education, beginning with the first edited handbook volume, the 1934 Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education (Rowden, 1934) and subsequent handbooks, as well as the first foundations text coauthored by Merriam and Darkenwald (Darkenwald & Merriam, 1982) approximately thirty‐five years ago. And it builds upon the more recent updated Merriam and Brockett introductory editions of The Profession and Practice of Adult Education (Merriam & Brockett, 1997, 2007).

This current text represents a contemporary overview of the adult and continuing education profession. It offers baseline descriptions of key aspects of the knowledge of the field and, we hope, offers encouragement to new entrants into the field to focus upon best practices and future pursuits in professional development. Whether you are committed to serving adults in communities, in the workplace, in educational organizations, or through other formal and nonformal settings, your work can be enhanced and nurtured through a broad understanding of the development and the current status of the field.

Audience

This book is designed to be a foundational text for beginning graduate students, primarily at the master's level, as well as for professionals engaged in practice in the field. Because adult education is a field that does not require any specified credential or license, the majority of beginning professionals and graduate students have a limited understanding of the breadth of adult and continuing education. They typically are grounded in their own context of practice and specific adult learner group. And they typically possess a limited awareness of the broader field of adult learners as well as of research, theory, and practice in adult and continuing education. Therefore, a foundations text serves a crucial need in the field—of acquainting practitioners and emerging scholars alike with the historical and contemporary context of the field and its place in society. Our aim is to provide an up‐to‐date compendium of current understandings for practitioners and also to provide assistance in understanding for those professionals and practitioners who work with adult learners outside of traditional adult and continuing education contexts. This text may also have potential value for practitioners and students in other countries who desire to understand the current status of American adult and continuing education.

Purpose

This book offers an overview of the field, delineating key features of adult education and adult learning in the contemporary United States. Our aim is to provide an introduction to the guiding understandings of the practices and contexts of adult learning. In addition, we have interwoven contemporary concerns of social justice, cultural diversity, technology, and the aging society within key facets of adult and continuing education.

Overview of the Contents

The Foundations of Adult and Continuing Education provides an introduction to the major areas of theory, research, and practice of the field of adult and continuing education. It offers a descriptive landscape of the field, the history and contemporary practices of adult and continuing education, as well as highlights the increased challenges facing adult learners and the profession. This text is presented in three major sections. The first four chapters of the text define contemporary understandings of the field of adult education. The next four chapters consider the foundations of the field, and the final four chapters focus upon the contexts of adult and continuing education.

Examining the scope of the field, chapter 1 considers how conceptions of adult education have evolved over time, as well as the typologies of purposes, forms, and providers of adult education. It explicates key social forces that have contributed to the expansiveness of adult education in today's world, including technological expansion, demographic shifts, and globalization. Last, it explores what constitutes knowledge and adult learning, as well as relationships between adult education and other parts of the world of education. Chapter 2 considers key societal life contexts affecting the field of adult and continuing education. Through the lens of adult participation in adult and continuing learning, this chapter explores adult involvement in formal, nonformal, and informal learning. In addition, it discusses a contemporary model of adult access and participation based in the constraints of the policies and practices affecting adult participation in adult and continuing education.

What are the key roles for adult and continuing educators? Chapter 3 examines these key roles, both as categorized in the past, beginning with Houle's oft‐cited pyramid of adult educators, and as reflected in more contemporary literature of the field. The chapter highlights those roles that have remained prominent over time, such as teaching and developing programs for adults, and roles that have become more prominent in contemporary society, such as coaching and designing media. The chapter also shares metaphors that have been used to characterize the work of adult educators, along with recommendations for the preparation and professional development of adult educators. Chapter 4 examines the diverse and evolving understandings of the profession and the practice worlds of adult and continuing education. Providing an historical overview of the development of the field and profession of adult and continuing education, it considers the context of its early beginnings in relation to today's specialized boundaries of practice. It also explores the tensions of valuing specialization while also desiring a unified voice and presence for adult and continuing education. The second part of chapter 4 considers the nature of professions in our current society and the broader notions of the professional field and of professional identity for adult and continuing educators.

Chapters 5 through 8 examine the foundations of the field, including philosophy, history, the basic understandings of the adult learner, and the growing importance of policy. Chapter 5 explores varying philosophical approaches to adult education. It begins with the myriad philosophical approaches and premises that pervade the field. It then considers the ways that adult education is unique and the ways that philosophical arguments define the adult and the purposes of adult education. Finally, ethical issues related to the practice and research of adult and continuing education are examined.

Chapter 6 considers the historical foundations of the field. Offering a chronological approach, it focuses upon historic organizations, policies, and groups through thematic events. Additionally, this chapter examines the uses of adult education for social change; the ways it has been used to resolve social conflict; the varying adult education efforts for cultural maintenance through diffusion, and the varying ways education has been used in the workplace.

At the heart of adult and continuing education is its focus upon the adult learner. Chapter 7 considers both the historic and current understandings of andragogy, as well as contemporary understandings of cognition, intelligence, cognitive development, neuroscience, and emotions. It explores the complexity of adult learning and various influences on the adult learning process. Additional exploration of critical reflection, transformative learning, and embodied learning as well as group and organizational learning are considered.

Chapter 8 discusses the interplay among policy, politics, and adult education. In particular, it examines the various and complex federal legislative initiatives in the United States, how they are implemented, and how key issues emerge from this interplay between policies and politics. Because policy is a strong component of the international discussion on adult education, ways that policies are instituted and implemented in other areas of the world are explored. Our aim is to interpret the ways that political imperatives and funding exigencies have driven policy decisions on the national, state, local, and institutional levels.

The last four chapters in the text consider the landscape of formal, nonformal, and informal adult education contexts, as well as the context of technology in adult learning environments. Chapter 9 examines five major perspectives concerning adult learning and technology, including exploration of historic perspectives and current adult participation in technology. Key providers and their usage of technology are discussed, as well as major elements in designing effective adult learning programs through technology. Last, recent research on neuroscience, its relation to technology use, and its potential influences on adult learning are considered.

Chapter 10 explores prominent organizational contexts of adult and continuing education. The first discussion centers on work‐related learning within the contexts of both human resource development (HRD) and continuing professional education (CPE). The second discussion focuses upon an examination of adult higher education in terms of both functions and features of community colleges and responses of four‐year universities to adult and nontraditional students. Third, adult basic and secondary education programs, including English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, are examined as important contexts. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the organizational contexts of military education.

Chapter 11 considers community‐based and community action contexts of adult and continuing education. This chapter scrutinizes adult learning through traditional and evolving community‐based providers of nonformal and informal adult education, as well as community‐based adult education as a vehicle for community development. Also considered in the chapter is adult education for social change as a part of contemporary social movements focusing on human rights struggles.

The final chapter, chapter 12, examines the changing boundaries of adult and continuing education. It offers a final discussion of some of the important trends and changes found in adult continuing education today.

Acknowledgments

This book could not have been written without the contributions of previous textbooks and their authors. First and foremost we acknowledge the work of Sharan Merriam, Ralph Brockett, and Gordon Darkenwald. It has been our privilege to continue in the traditions of our predecessors. We trust that we have honored their work by developing this volume and hope that it will be of value to those who use it to inform their practice. In addition, we thank Sharan Merriam for inviting us to undertake this project and David Brightman for his early support. We also thank Alison Knowles at Wiley for her patience and consistent support throughout this project.

We are also very appreciative of the following colleagues who offered invaluable feedback in the development of these chapters: Chad Hoggan, Kathy Lohr, Gary Dean, Linda O'Neill, and Tom Nesbit. In particular, we thank Kayon Murray‐Johnson, Renée Jones, and Merih Ug˘urel Kamisli, who provided assistance with literature searches and toiled over reference checks. Finally, we thank our families for understanding the exigencies of this project and for putting up with our engagement in the project for way too long.

References

  1. Darkenwald, G., & Merriam, S. (1982). Adult education: Foundations of practice. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
  2. Merriam, S., & Brockett, R. (1997). The profession and practice of adult education: An introduction (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey‐Bass.
  3. Merriam, S., & Brockett, R. (2007). The profession and practice of adult education: An introduction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey‐Bass.
  4. Rowden, D. (Ed.). (1934). Handbook of adult education in the United States 1934. New York, NY: American Association for Adult Education.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jovita M. Ross‐Gordon is professor of adult education at Texas State University; she taught previously at Penn State University, St. Edward's University, and the University of South Florida. Her research centers on teaching and learning of adults, focusing particularly on adult learners in higher education and on issues of diversity and equity. Dr. Ross‐Gordon is a coeditor of the Handbook of Adult Continuing Education: 2010 Edition; coauthor of SuperVision and Instructional Leadership: A Developmental Approach; and author or coauthor of numerous articles and book chapters. She serves as coeditor‐in‐chief for the New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education series and has served as the coeditor of Adult Education Quarterly. Dr. Ross‐Gordon's positions of leadership in adult and continuing education have included serving as chair of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education; on publications, nominations, and Okes Research Award Committees of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education; and on steering and host committees of the Adult Education Research Conference. Her recent honors include the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame; the Career Achievement Award of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education, and the Distinguished Alumni—Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Georgia College of Education.

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Amy D. Rose is emeritus professor of adult education at Northern Illinois University, where she taught for more than twenty‐five years. She has written and presented on issues related to history and policy analyses in the areas of literacy and adults in higher education. In her research, she focuses primarily on historical and qualitative methodologies, although recently she has been part of a team analyzing Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data. In addition she has served as a president of the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education; a coeditor of the Adult Education Quarterly; and a coeditor of the Handbook of Adult Continuing Education: 2010 Edition. She has also served on the board of the American Education Research Association—Adult Literacy and Adult Education (ALAE) Special Interest Group (SIG) as secretary/treasurer and member at large. She is currently a coeditor of the Journal of Research and Practice for Adult Literacy, Secondary, and Basic Education.

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Carol E. Kasworm is the W. Dallas Herring Emerita Professor of Adult and Community College Education at North Carolina State University. Dr. Kasworm's career has included leadership, administration, instructional, and program development efforts in faculty and academic administrative roles at North Carolina State University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston‐Clear Lake, University of Tennessee‐Knoxville, University of South Florida, and Michigan State University. Her main research and writing interests have focused upon the adult undergraduate experience, including the nature of learning engagement, the situated influences of varied higher education contexts on adult learners, and the role of adult higher education in a lifelong learning society. Her scholarship includes five books, thirty‐two book chapters, eighty‐five refereed and nonrefereed journal articles and proceedings, as well as numerous papers and presentations. She has served on a number of national and international editorial boards for the adult education profession. Honors have included International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame; Career Achievement Award from the Commission of Professors of Adult Education, American Association of Adult and Continuing Education; and Distinguished Professional Achievement Alumni Award from the College of Education, University of Georgia.