Brandy Tomey
Ball State University
EDAC 631: Adult and Community Education
Dr. Bo Chang
Assignment 3: History of Adult/Community Education
For this assignment, I have chosen to investigate adult education from the mid 1940’s to the beginning of 1970. It was around this time that the importance of adult education was moving from Europe to the United States. The approach to adult education during this time was that of a utilitarian one. Previously, adult education had little dedication and higher education, in general, was not something everyone could feasibly do. The little information available for adult education was materials for those who taught adult education, not for the adult learners. This was when a shift started to take place where adult education would become more focused on the learner. This resulted in adult learners gaining access to more research and knowledge about adult education. More educators and learners began to take a closer look at adult education itself, giving a better idea of what was important for adult learners to research to further gain knowledge. This is despite the utilitarianism of adult education. One such educator, W. L. Schroeder, said that “adult education has neither vertical nor horizontal limits.” While this was a new idea that was gaining traction in popularity, there were some that still believed adult education was about teaching learners the “right” information to have a form of control (Bergevin). This was a major point of contingency in adult education at this time.
It may not have seemed as though this time period was making much progress, however, some of these moments would begin a significant change to adult education in the United States. The country was making great strides and growing during this time as well. According to B. W. Kreitlow, adult education did need assistance from “the great foundations” such as Ford, Kellogg and Carnegie, despite the oppositions that these institutions had on adult education. R. Podeschi called these forces that were against one another, liberal adult education and utilitarian government, erosion. What Podeschi meant was that while adult education was attempting to grow and learners to think for themselves, the powers that be caused information and previous adult education teachings to become obsolete, when education is what educators were trying to achieve.
Andre P. Grace suggested that history and philosophy at this time were thought to be “non-practical” and “non-productive” by those opposing liberal adult education. Wether feigning ignorance or true lack of knowledge, we can now see that the history and philosophy of adult education had great significance. Roger Axford said philosophy was essential “to develop a clear image of adult education.” Additionally, T. J. White believed that history and philosophy were also essential to adult education. According to White, “philosophy is concerned with such basic problems as freedom and social justice, equal opportunity — in civil rights and power — and the participation of citizens in great decisions. So is adult education.” This speaks volume to the importance of adult education and it’s opposing forces to work together to help each other be better and grow together. If you cannot have one without the other, it does no-one justice to be put against one another. Hindsight is only 20-20, because by 1970 according to Grace, “US academic adult education was still learning to crawl.”
Andre P. Grace, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
Comments
Post a Comment