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Essay Subject: Evolution, trends & patterns, goals, demographics, credit vs. noncredit, technology, types of learning, mandated continuing education, standards. Emphasizes suggestions for improvement.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Evolution, trends & patterns, goals, demographics, credit vs. noncredit, technology, types of learning, mandated continuing education, standards. Emphasizes suggestions for improvement. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this research is to examine the field of adult education in the United States to see what is needed to achieve increased effectiveness within it. At a time when the trend in adult education is toward increased availability and variety of programs in order to serve a growing and diverse population of adult learners, the need for such research is increasingly apparent. Accordingly, the plan of the research will be to set forth the various ways in which adult education has changed in the twentieth century, and then to discuss controversial issues affecting the direction that such education has taken in the past and ought to take in the future. Reference will be made to the questions regarding the type, administration, and availability of adult education programs,, as well as the motivations that adults have for entering these programs. The Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. This suggests that the reasons for theexpansion of adult education lie as much in sociocultural factors as inpopulation numbers-crunching. Hardly.The theories of women's knowledge speak chiefly to the manner in whichknowledge is presented, whether it is gained on a noncredit or for-creditbasis. As Cross explains, The following groups are seriously underrepresented in organized learning activities today: the elderly, blacks, those who failed to graduate from high school, and those with annual incomes under $1 , . Belenky,et al. Rather, the focus willbe on women as learning and how women's different ways of learning andmaking decisions to learn and grow affect their impulse to become a part ofthe post-compulsory educational culture. Excluded is full-timeattendance in a program leading toward a high school diploma or an academicdegree" (p. but they did not describe them as occasions for cognitive growth. 1 ). 2 ,et passim), which is the name given to a whole range of courses suited tooccupational license certification. Competency-based learning. Cross sees threegeneral categories of obstacles to the availability of adult educationprograms: situational, institutional, and dispositional barriers. 1 1). Further, agiven learner may move from stage 1 to stage 5, or back again. Very often, women fall into the latter category. 2 3). A degree requires six credits, and up to three exemptions are available for previous higher education. women may resist such programs for cultural as well as economicreasons, for according to Cross (1988), "social mores make them feel guiltyabout spending 'family' funds for their own education, or simply becausethey receive less financial support from government and business and aremore likely to have to pay out of their own funds" (p. Whereas onestudy cites figures showing a decrease in registration by adults for part-time college-credit courses, another cites an increase in such registrationfor the same period. (1986)pose the idea that educational methodology built on doubt and challenge maybe no better for men than for women. [typing, auto mechanics, history, photography] 5. From an institutional point of view, barriers shouldbe as absent as is feasible, so as to make the opportunity forparticipation as widely available as possible. The novelty of Levine's (1989) approach may lie in thefact that the personal-growth aspect of such education is asinstitutionalized as skills-oriented mandated continued education (MCE),which will be discussed hereafter. Cross cites"the socioeconomic elitism" of this category of adult education, whichcomprises classroom-style learning offered by continuing or extensioneducation departments of universities, by industry, community serviceorganizations, unions, or correspondence schools. Cross develops the idea that defining once and for all whatconstitutes the extent of adult education is problematic because adefinition may vary directly with the study design involved. Noncredit adult education. 98). As the information age proceeds apace, the direction ofadult education programs is a matter of both wonder and controversy.Questions exist regarding the types of programs available, theadministration of such programs, their availability, and the motivationsthat adults have for entering them. Cambridge: Harvard U P. It might be argued that women are darned if theydon't and darned if they do, and further that recruitment and subsidizationpolicies of educational or governmental bureaucracies may tend to aggravaterather than alleviate women's reluctance to explore adult education. Cross (1988) amplifies on studies ofthe characteristics of persons in this group: Students considered two things very important about their external degree program: it permitted them to maintain their regular work schedule, and it granted recognition and credit for previous college course work. She laments the absence of a uniform data bank thattracks trends and shifts in patterns and content of adult education,although she tends toward accepting data that show increased participationin education by adults. Cross(1988) makes an appeal to ordinary reason: "Either the spread of theovercredentialed society or the compromise of the standards of theeducational system would defeat the goals of the lifelong learningmovement. As a result, the thinking of women is often classified with that of children. Traditionalistsappear ready to co-opt and/or upgrade the academic quality ofnontraditional forms of education. This can occur not only at extension divisions of standardcolleges but at supposedly accredited community colleges. Her analysis, in sum, suggests that the singlemost consistent characteristic of the phenomenon in the twentieth centuryis that it is marked by change and expansion in scope. [chemistry, art history, current events] 3. occupationaltraining courses are taken by almost half of all adult learners, and it isa fairly safe guess that most of the people studying "general education"are also interested in upgrading their job options" (p. It must be said that Gilligan (1982) and Belenky, etal. Further to this point, Cross refers toCensus Bureau and other sources to list what she calls stimulants to job-related education, to demonstrate the factors of increase in the demand forlearning and/or skills development among persons beyond college age. Onone hand, there is an implication that those who do not participate in theexplosion will be socially and culturally left behind. The connection between women's development as adults and theirapproach toward education or indeed any self-interested participation ineveryday life is discussed by Belenky, at al. Others may solve their problem of lack of career mobility through seeking satisfaction in other ways--through new hobbies or recreation or attention to family, all of which may encourage new learning (p. Following is a precis of her low-threat-to-high-threatcontinuum. xv). 1 5-6). "In most cases," shestates, "people will have to have some motivation for adult education[e.g., suddenly single mother] before the removal of external barriers willmake any difference to them." Further to this point, Cross (1988) assertsthat the removal of obstacles to the availability/accessibility of programswould be "expected to benefit women more than any of the other groupsunderrepresented in adult education" for reasons of motivation: positiveeducation experience, good attitude toward education, cultural aspirationsfor a better life (p. 35). [academic courses and any of the above] (pp. As regards amplification of certain elementsof adult education, the increasingly pronounced visibility of women inadult education programs in recent years will be explored, with a viewtoward showing how women's different ways of learning, knowing, and makingdecisions about their learning activities can be considered in the processof developing a plan for such programs. "Between 1967and 1975," she writes, "the number of colleges offering noncredit adulteducation courses more than doubled, rising from 1,1 2 colleges to 2,225.The increase in student registration was no less impressive--up 57 percent,with an incredible 464 percent increase for the community colleges over theeight-year period" (p. As Cross explains, "Learningthat is relevant to jobs is in the lead and increasing. As important as it is for the adults who work in schools to understand themselves and their colleagues, integrating internal and external needs and goals is imperative (p. In thiscategory as opposed to the other two, there is also evidence of far moreparticipation by working-class or less-well-educated persons, and far moreorientation toward the economic, job, and career benefits associated withbetter and more education, as well as with what could be called a desire toconnect with the culture of "equal opportunity." The great majority of degree-seeking adults come from working-class backgrounds; most are first-generation college students whose parents did not attend college . 3 ) because of a whole range of learning-delivery systems.It is to the specific directions in which adult education is developingthat we turn next. One aspect of women's impetus toward adult education that isconsistent with the research on the adult education culture as a whole isthat the more educated and advanced in her career a woman already is, themore likely she is to participate in or otherwise take advantage of someform of extended learning. or tape, or in a correspondence school headquarters. The problems associated with MCE in some respects merge withcontroversial questions surrounding the administration of adult education.The question of where authority over MCE programs should reside--with thestate or with professional private-sector governance agencies--is only oneaspect of this. The implications for addressing issues of recruitment on onehand and course content on the other are multivaried for those institutionsthat might wish to exploit the special marketing requirements foraddressing women's segments. Still, theprincipal focus of attention in this research is not on postsecondaryacademic learning such as is available at two- and four-year colleges anduniversities as part of a continuous, full-time education track. Consider, forexample, a hypothetical situation in which an extension course in 17thcentury French art might be offered, either noncredit or for credit. . 16). [chemistry, art history, current events] 4. Institutional barriers arelocated in the mode of offering by an instructional entity, such as poorschedules, or expensive or "inappropriate" courses of study. Adults as learners. Thus the call is one sense for something like equal timein research methodology and assumptions. . Thus the counterpoint of identity and intimacy that marks the time between childhood and adulthood is articulated through two different moralities whose complementarity is the discovery of maturity (p. Audiotapes, videotapes, weekend seminars,"distance learning" (via educational television or correspondence course),and more traditional classroom settings are all examples of contemporaryadult-education delivery systems. "Moreover, a majority of peopleinterested in upward mobility in the labor market think that education isthe best way to achieve their goal" (p. 229). Cross (1988) has soughtto develop a theory of adult learning, which is overwhelmingly voluntaryand grounded in support systems but which also incorporates value andmeasurable benefit. With the future attraction of adult education more or less a given,it follows that a survey of how it has changed must include a focus on thechanges in the categories of education offered and shifts in the makeup ofthe student population. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. They told of weaving together the strands of rational and emotive thought and of integrating objective and subjective knowing. The research will also suggestpossible guiding criteria for making a system of adult education effective. Aside from the issue of what entities should control or set academicstandards for adult learners, there is controversy over who should have theadministrative control of the adult learning environment: institutions,governments, or the professions. Thiscalls for inclusion rather than exclusion, support rather than challenge.And that, given the history of educational opportunities in the UnitedStates, presents to the adult education community, the greatest challengeof all. There is rising opposition to bureaucratic governmental regulation; professional societies are accused of admitting only "their own kind"; and the universities and professional schools and the entire credentialing process are under attack for perpetuating class status . This brings up the question ofmotivation of adults for actually entering educational programs. On the otherhand, as a group women have far less access to discretionary funds, afactor that may keep women to whom career advancement may be financiallyessential from pursuing a course of study. AsBelenky, et al. Meanwhile, womendominate hobby, crafts, and psychological development courses, and studieshave shown that the less educated are less likely than the better educatedto be studying career subjects. Cross points to several such factors, whichdefy objective analysis because their dynamics may overlap and converge:social changes, equal opportunity advocacy, the changing status of women,technological advances, occupational obsolescence, complex side effects ofpopulation demographics. 2 1-2). The difficulty indeveloping a curricular approach that offers value to the better educated,more confident members of society and opportunity and acceptance to theirless educated, less confident counterparts is built into the system. Similarly, what kinds of programsshould be made available when well-heeled adult learners complain aboutlack of time for a course and the less-well-heeled complain about lack ofmoney? The implicit controversy as regards the preparation of policies ofadult education that could lead to more effective program availabilityarises because of the variety of experience that learners bring to theprospect of organized learning. . Or, to put it another way, adult education is institutionalized intoa teaching environment in a way that demand that teachers and theiradministrative colleagues remain, to some degree, perpetual students. (p. one major conclusion is that therewas a dramatic increase during the 197 s in the sheer numbers of studentswho had returned to education after some years of absence. Problems may arise, however, in for-credit math, grammar, or biology courses on one hand, or MCE qualifyingcourses on the other. Although a number of studies have sought in vain to identify absoluteprofiles of adults who are seeking academic credit, Cross (1988) says thata few general conclusions can be drawn. In particular, women, 66 percent of whom have beencited as bearing the entire cost of instruction and ancillary costsassociated with it (e.g., child care) note the expense of such instructionas a barrier (Cross, 1988, p. As Belenky, et al.(1986) point out, a good deal of educational research on classroom andlearning dynamics has been directed toward "'moving' students to moreadvanced levels, such as instigating moral arguments at varying stages (theadversarial model) and exposing students to real or fictional people makingstatements at a slightly more sophisticated stage ('plus-one-model'). These categories inevitably will overlap and converge. (1988). This goeswell beyond the issue of education as such to the loaded question of wealthdistribution and equal opportunity Cross's (1988) reference to surveys suggesting women's reluctance touse family funds to pay for adult education is put forward as somethingthat inhibits women's participation in the learning culture. The COR model also presumes that motivation precedes the decision toenter the adult education bureaucracy or curricula. The input of the culture, indeed, is strongly negative towardtheir educational aspirations, and this may begin with elementary schooland proceed through the process of higher education. It was said earlier that thefocus of adult education in this research will not be on full-time degree-tracking enrollment; however, certain aspects of part-time adult education,as we shall see, can result in the students' receiving college credit. Executives (well-heeled) and not clerks (less-well-heeled) are more likely to be subsidized by employers. Job obsolescence (automation, demographics, computerization, deindustrialization) Women's entry into the labor force (1/3 of all working-age women in 196 ; 1/2 by 1977) Increased longevity (of workers and careers both) Job competition Higher aspirations and equal-opportunity mandates (for minority participation, two-income families) Social acceptability of career change Portability of pension plans (e.g., Social Security) Increased leisure and "serious" leisure pursuits that may require special skills (e.g., sailing, tennis). Studies have found that would-be students findfew courses that are "interesting, practical, or relevant" (Cross, 1988, p.1 4). . Controversy surrounds the character and extent ofparticipation in such activities. Growth in the adult-age American population is consistent with growthin adult-education enrollment, or what Cross (1988) callsthe growth of the learning society. Adultswith poor educational backgrounds frequently lack interest in learning orconfidence in their ability to learn" (p. Reference will be made to the questions regardingthe type, administration, and availability of adult education programs,, aswell as the motivations that adults have for entering these programs. But it is fair to say that in the case of accredited academiceducation, firsthand experience may not be perceived as having as muchstanding as arbitrary requirements. Academic/nonvocational emphasis provides working-class learners with little perceived value (pp. Eachcategory of theory seems intrinsically valid, but it also tends to be tooclosely focused on specifics of behavior or circumstance. Although only a small percentage of adult learners now seek college degrees, the rising educational attainment in the United States, combined with the easier availability of credit for adult part- time learners, makes it reasonable to suggest that more adults will seek degrees in the future (p. Men'sjudgments are said to be based on categories of reason and hypothesis.Gilligan (1982) continues, However, as long as the categories by which development is assessed are derived from research on men, divergence from the masculine standard can be seen only as a failure of development. This refers to the ease with which adult learners can achieveaccess to various programs, and the most useful way one may understand thecontroversy surrounding availability is by examining those elements thatinhibit it in some way. Women's ways of knowing. Levine's (1989) discussion of teacher andschool-administrator development is only the most detailed instance of thisin a particular discipline, elementary education. All of this begs the question of what elements should go into thecreation of an effective adult education system. 34). For that reason, theirviews may be seen as more consistent in general with the voluntarycharacter of adult education. In part, it has changed right along with the dramatic changesthat so mark the twentieth century off from all previous ones. 186ff) cites three general categories of learning in thisregard: formal (academic) topics, comprising 6.9 percent of participation;practical topics (e.g., how-to, business, gardening, home repairs, job-related, hobbies, sports), comprising 75.9 percent of participation; and"intraself" topics (e.g., politics, religion, personal growth), comprising17.2 percent of participation. The degree to which these and other essential skills can be learned is unclear. A wiser choicemight be an introductory word processing class, a fashion design course, ora woodshop workshop. To the degree they are antithetical to thetraditions of compulsory or higher education, they suggest a whole range ofpossible future research and theory that is outside the scope of thisreport. Meanwhile, the bettereducated persons with generally satisfying career experiences who dominatethis area of adult education seek instruction either as an abstractlearning experience or as career development. This category of knowing forwomen can represent an apotheosis of self-direction, or it can merge withan increasingly rationalist, critical perspective and move beyondsubjectivity toward what is called procedural knowledge, wherein a voice ofreason can be heard. 145). . Theresearch of Cross, begun in 1981 and still in print in 1989, will be citedextensively for this purpose. make is a continuedcontroversy over (1) where standards-oriented adult education ends andmarket- or service-oriented adult education begins, (2) whether adulteducation that does not have a standards orientation is or should beentitled to state-sponsored support, and (3) who should establish criteriafor standards, if any. Some degree-seekingadults seek "external" or "nontraditional" degrees, which are on the wholeearned in tutorial or self-study situations and outside of lecture orclassroom environments. Combine this with a location for the community inwhich the course is offered that is working-class, largely uneducated, andcursed with one or another form of economic recession. . 51). She cites a number of theorists who have sought toexplain what brings adult learners unused to the environment intostructured education of some kind and what keeps them there. (1986) summarize, To learn to speak in a unique and authentic voice, women must "jump outside" the frames and systems authorities provide and create their own frame . The controversy surrounding the administration of programs of adulteducation is laden with partisan or self-interested hidden or unhiddenagendas that may eventually fall prey to public policy discussions thatturn on where funding comes from. The content of learning is equallyvaried, according as it may range from stained glass crafts instruction toart history. Dispositionalbarriers, once again, deal with the personal experience of prospectivestudents, who may have negative attitudes toward education in general ortheir-notions of themselves as learners in particular. 227-8). But she also cites afamous prediction, made in 1974 (p. The overriding area of controversy with respect to types of programsavailable in adult education is that of mandated continuing education(MCE), which is the name given to the practice of requiring persons incertain vocations to fulfill state- or profession-required instructionobligations. Elsewhere, Cross offers a definition that defines thecharacter, not so much of the students but of the structure of thecurriculum involved: Organized learning involves a student-teacher relationship in which the learner is supervised or directed in learning experiences over a specified period of time for a recognized purpose. In general terms, such measures make a connection betweenoccupational licensing and accountability to consumers. No tests, grades. When the subjectivity begins toquestion itself as well as received wisdom, and when it begins to balanceitself against new experience or reason or information, what Belenky, etal. In part, this issue overlaps with the notion ofmotivation to seek out such programs, but the present point will deal withthe elements in the culture that apparently act as deterrents to enter orgain access to the subculture of lifelong education. Resolution ofdifficulties surrounding administration of adult education will undoubtedlyalso depend in part on how rigidly opponents cling to their views. . For the reason that thepresent study is concerned with the intrinsic features of adult education,the focus will not be on such sociopolitical factors of women'sparticipation as civil rights or equal opportunity. Even those who are looking for work, who presumably have the time and the need for further education, are less likely to be participating in educational activities than those with jobs (pp. Citing a range of theorists who have proposeddefinitions over the years, Cross (1988) suggests a broadly conceived,inclusive designation as "sustained deliberate efforts to learn" (p. Gilligan (1982) andBelenky, et al. According to Cross,"The increase in professional education is easily explained by the growingneed for continuing education in the professions (Houle, 198 ) and by therecent tendency of states and professional boards to require continuingeducation for professionals wishing to retain and renew their licenses. (1986) deal in more sweeping ways with the methods andrationales, both moral and social, that involve women in the process ofeducation and in the culture as a whole. While most students rated independence and an individualized approach to studies as important, they regarded the minimal residential requirements as somewhat more important. 129). Correspondence course formats challenge less educated learners more than other formats. (2) Is compulsory education effective; that is, do people who are required to attend continuing education classes necessarily become more competent? To the extent that the developmental orientation of a person in a helping relationship needs to be both distinct from and more advanced than the developmental level of the person he or she is trying to help, the principals own development is of primary importance. At this level, womenare socialized into being seen and not heard, existing and functioningwholly at the pleasure of authority figures on one hand, or in social,emotional, and intellectual isolation on the other, they engage in the mostmarginal of life experiences, and view the world with fear or hostility orboth. 42).Some observers have noticed a trend toward self-regulation amongprofessional organizations, although others have noticedthat this "does not solve the problem of coerced education forprofessionals [or] . But traditionalteaching methods and ideas about developmental intellect and psychologyhave consistently positioned the ethic of right as superior to that ofresponsibility inasmuch as it argues individual dignity and entitlement.The ethic of responsibility is seen far more as a moral question that mustqualify the other. Rather,the focus is on the kind of continuing education undertaken by adults whohave completed more or less standard academic studies and who may enroll invarious courses on a part-time, ad hoc, professional-development, orotherwise informal basis. Does this mean that the appropriate response of adult educationprograms to theories of women's approach to knowledge is to make sure thereare enough noncredit personal-growth seminars for the women and enoughcredit science classes--based on reason and rights--for the men? She says that only after this process is understood appropriatelycan the vagaries of type, administration, and availability of programsmeaningfully come into play. (1982). The question of the administration of standards and authority attainsadditional controversy where periodic measures of professional (i.e.,nonacademic) competency area are concerned. Completely voluntary, with structure completely within the control of the learner. At a time when the trend in adult education istoward increased availability and variety of programs in order to serve agrowing and diverse population of adult learners, the need for suchresearch is increasingly apparent. Other critics are less concerned about nontraditional alternatives being absorbed by traditional education than about the erosion of traditional academic standards . Accordingly, the plan of the researchwill be to set forth the various ways in which adult education has changedin the twentieth century, and then to discuss controversial issuesaffecting the direction that such education has taken in the past and oughtto take in the future. Some people, denied promotion in one career, may decide on midlife career changes, most of which will require further education. (1986) in terms of their"ways of knowing." At the least sophisticated level of development, theysay, women's development is characterized by silence. An important measurable component ofthis category is the increased participation of career-driven women inrecent years. Most working-class students are not eligible, which means the degree may take six years to complete. 135). In large part, she discusses them in terms of whoparticipates in them. 2 3). The effectiveness of MCE is also problematic.As Cross remarks in an assessment of the system, "Unless some threat orreward can be devised to motivate the individual to learn (Loss of job? New York: Basic. address the question of the growing competitionamong the providers of MCE" (p. 68). Situational barriers are located in the mode of life currently beingexperienced by would-be adult learners, such as lack of time, money, childcare, or transportation. Assuming that women will have opportunities to enter adult educationprograms, the process of integrating women more thoroughly into thelearning culture promises to be highly complex. 125). Should the state, an institution, or a professionalassociation establish standards for periodic requalification or MCE of suchprofessions as accounting or real estate? One has been on the whole assigned to men, the other towomen, and the superiority of the former over the latter is a foregoneconclusion. Cross (1988) cites evidence that high school graduateshave observed that the connection between a good job and a college degreehas fallen prey to the law of diminishing returns. References Belenky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M., Goldberger, N.R., & Tarule, J.M.(1986). 269). Noris adult education, on this view, confined to skills enhancement. As a side issue, it may be noted that Belenky, et al. Those who suspect the value of MCE, forexample, also suspect that a required seminar is not going to "cure"anything that is a more general ailment of incompetency. As regardsthe form that instruction might take, it has to be said that its media orobjects vary enormously. Core-course students are required to attend a week of summer school. While the ethic of rights is a manifestation of equal respect, balancing the claims of other and self, the ethic of responsibility rests on an understanding that gives rise to compassion and care. Other forms of MCE include mandatorytraffic school or drug education for traffic or drug offenders. .. The kinds of adult education that have been made available in the2 th century have changed over the years. Rather than extricating the self in the acquisition of knowledge, these women used themselves in rising to a new way of thinking (p. Also implicit in the incorporation ofthe kinds of suggestions Gilligan and Belenky, et al. In this sense it is pragmatic orproblem-solving in orientation. This involves some public commitment, e.g., to classroom lectures. The places that might have been held byrecent high school graduates, therefore, are being touted as placesappropriate for adult learners. The teacher may be remote, such as on a recording. AsGilligan (1982) notes, women's "construction of the moral problem as aproblem of care and responsibility in relationships rather than as one ofrights and rules ties the development of their moral thinking to changes intheir understanding of responsibility and relationships" (p. Between 1 and 5 percent of such learners haveexpressed one or more of these factors as barriers to their participationin adult education. Televised courses as unregistered learners. Grades, tests, criticism, doubts built into system and may partly determine learner's future. Some career ladders have become severely congested, forcing people to look at a number of possible alternatives, all of which have ramifications for adult education. 21-2). It is hard to see, however, how responding sincerely to adultinterests in continued learning will do anything but benefit learners,institutions, and society" (p. Women did tell of occasions when teachers challenged their ideas . 164- 5). Meanwhile, encouragement by the culture thatresults in the elimination of obstacles to accessibility on one hand, andthe furtherance of self-esteem and self-confidence on the other, aresuggested as elements that are required of an effective adult educationenvironment. 69-7 ). 69). . Or, as Gilligan (1982) has it, women develop in anethic of responsibility, while men develop in an ethic of rights. As she explains, Introspection, empathy, sensitivity, and reflectiveness are all central characteristics of an adult developer. The studies of women'smotivation in realms outside education suggest that the ethic of care andresponsibility to others is an overriding fact of life for women. Thus the sheer availability of adult-age persons to the realmof adult education has implications for the course of development of thediscipline. . Academics who lament the erosion of standards in the area of adulteducation seem to have little credence among providers of adult educationas such, who "believe that adults are better served by programs that meetlearner standards rather than the standards of faculty committees" (Cross,1988, p. Asidefrom this, however, are more general sociocultural issues. Instead of lifelong learning, they say, we will find adults coerced into lifelong schooling . The purpose of this research is to examine the field of adulteducation in the United States to see what is needed to achieve increasedeffectiveness within it. It follows that to the degree opportunities for professionaldevelopment are limited by institutional constraints, the availability ofprograms is an issue fraught with peril. There are two broad aspects ofdefining the types of adult education that exist: The structure in whichsuch education is conducted, and the content of the structure. A TV receiver is essential, a study area desirable, and lower- income students who need each most are more likely to have neither. Writing in 1982, Cross (1988) cites NCESstatistics that predict part-time students seeking degree credit will by1986 comprise 48 percent of the college student body; it had been 39percent in 1976 (p. Cross (1988) summarizes the issuesinvolved in MCE thus: (1) To what extent should free American citizens be coerced into education? Self-directed learning is that which reflects a learner's intentionto obtain specific knowledge or skills. Promoting adult growth in schools: The promise of professionaldevelopment. The designation ofadult education, as one NCES survey states, "consists of courses and othereducational activities, organized by a teacher or sponsoring agency, andtaken by persons beyond compulsory school age. Degree-seeking adults who are either full-time or part-time studentsand who are enrolled in conventional classroom study are by and largedriven by career or class mobility, although part-time students as a grouptend to have some career achievement behind them. Andof course, both credit and noncredit courses are offered in the adult-education arena. Details of such proposals will be treated later in thisresearch. 19). Reference has been made in this research to the special problems andopportunities faced by women as adult learners. They are socialized toward self-doubt and away from doubtingon an objective basis. . Levine, S.L.(1989). 73).Accordingly, initial entry into adult education is not necessarily viewedin terms of a woman's natural entitlement to personal or professionaldevelopment but rather in terms-of requirement (e.g., traffic school, wordprocessing skills development) or responsibility (e.g., child-careclasses). . call a quest for self begins. Learner commits to achieve competency on a personal but not competitive basis. on theother, adult education that has no generally recognized standards is seenby academics as defeating the purpose of education. 229). Moreover,there are hints that formal universities and professional societies maycome into conflict as disputes over what kinds of institutions are bestsuited to supervising MCE. As Cross (1988) notes, many employed persons enroll in adulteducation so as to increase or improve certain skills or to otherwise addto their perceived value on the job. taking professional courses, compared to one in ten black males andabout one in six females, black or white" (p. The one phrase that might describe them better than any other is "upwardly mobile." They seem determined to rise above the socioeconomic level of their parents, largely through the route of advanced education (p. Rather,it is connected intimately with elements of personal growth, motivation,and self-esteem. Items in brackets indicate possible curriculum choices. 1. Classroom situations are less common thanone-on-one instruction from friends and relatives, consultants, or studyguides (books, television, audiotapes). Cross (1988) identifies three types of learning activity: organizedlearning activities, comprising about a third of all adult education; self-directed learning, which overlaps with the other two categories; and formallearning for credit. Meanwhile, nontraditionalists appearready to further radicalize the style of their programs in response to whatthey perceive as an encroachment, either by academia as such or by state-minded academic standards by way of academia, on their special connectionto noncurricular and frequently avowedly noncoercive learning experiences. opinion is divided,however, on whether such measures, including MCE, really provide consumerswith any competency guarantees. [handcrafts construction, birdwatching] 2. Cross 1988) sums it upin this way: Criticism over the aggressive "recruitment" of adult learners is directed almost solely at traditional higher education, which represents only one small part of lifelong learning. Nor, it must be said, do all institutional barriers exist between aneducating institution's priorities and their disadvantaged would-bestudents. Ifthey don't enter the adult education process, whether because they fear torob their family of necessities or because the idea of their learning isdevalued in some way, there is a very real likelihood that they will be atthe bottom of the scale as the gap between the rich and poor widens. This is strongly evident in Levine's (1989)account of a principal who left for a summer conference "with 'anassignment' from her faculty: 'Find something to boost staff morale" (p.21 ). Those who have begun to view the worldsubjectively and hear an inner voice may have begun to question authorityor have experienced authoritarian abuse of one kind or another. Ordinarylack of mobility on one hand, and on the other a self-concept that presumesbeing "too old to learn" commonly increase with age. There are exceptions to the mainstream, of course, and certain ofthem may be held to be significant. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule(1986) note studies that have confirmed this dramatically: People are said to be precipitated into states of cognitive conflict when, for example, some external event challenges their ideas and the effort to resolve the conflict leads to cognitive growth . Paradoxically, if we could only require that people be motivated to learn voluntarily, most of our problems would be solved (p. Such obligations are frequently tied to license renewals.Disagreement arises over the difference between the need for such educationin certain professions, which is generally acknowledged, and government orprofessional interest in requiring it. 3. Research by Belenky, et al. As economic options decline,therefore, so do options for adult education. These tend to consist of a generally older andgenerally better educated population, employed in professional,subprofessional, and technical jobs. In other words, Cross explainsmotivation for entering and remaining with adult education in terms of aprocess of behavior rather than in terms of specific ways of behaving.Self-image, self-esteem, individual sociocultural experience, specificgoals, and a special "trigger" that may influence entry into a givenprogram. "Many oldercitizens," Cross explains, "feel that they are too old to learn. Such ahypothetical notion may seem absurd, but Cross describes a 1975 survey of acorrespondence-course-based British Open University. . Boston: Allyn and Bacon.----------------------- 41 . Breaking the institutional barriers of the culture at large maytherefore be seen as an important element of program availability andmotivation where women are concerned. 43-4; 45). On this view, the institutional barriers to women's visibility asadult learners do not exist merely at XYZ Community College but within themoral institutions that influence how and to what extent women enter thecultural mainstream. Lack ofinterest was earlier cited as a deterrent by lower-income, less-educatedpersons, but as Cross points out, this "was a leading barrier (26 percent)attributed to others, but fewer than two percent were willing to admit thatlack of interest deterred their own participation" (p. . [Research subjects] have realized this. Arguments in favor concern the presumed relevance of the learning to practical problems; the arguments against concern the ultimate control by the profession of entry and continuation in the profession (Cross, 1988, pp. In order to come up with specific recommendations for achievingoptimum results with adult education programs suited to the challengesposed by the twenty-first century, it may be useful to examine how thepresent system of adult education came into being and expanded throughoutthe twentieth century. An increase in the size of a population segment implies increasedcompetition within that segment for the social and economic benefitsoffered by the culture. Even more decisive, however, are the figurescited for adult-education enrollees in noncredit courses. Subject matter presented by teachers or other experts; no test required. The morality of rights is predicated on equality and centered on the understanding of fairness, while the ethic of responsibility relies on the concept of equity, the recognition of differences in need. 16), that the influx of new aging andminority populations into the realm of higher and adult education couldinhere in a doubling of college attendance. (1986) seek to incorporate their suggestions into formal curricula andthe philosophy of accredited education in general. one teacher finds praise insufficient, wanting challenge anddebate; another finds questions unnerving and would prefer specific ideasthat she can simply take and implement" (p. cross urges across-disciplinary organization of relevant factors in the chain-of-response (COR) model of student motivation, the basis for which is anassumption that "participation in a learning activity, whether in organizedclasses or self-directed, is not a single act but the result of a chain ofresponses, each based on an evaluation of the position of the individual inhis or her environment" (p. The fact that women increasinglydominate poverty and working-poor rolls itself becomes increasingly"institutionalized." On the other hand, if they do enter the adultlearning process, they may be perceived as encroaching into territory thatis properly male or as treating marginal family income as discretionarilytheirs. Psychologicaltheory tends to focus on individual rationales for entering (or notentering) adult education, while learning theory as such tends to focus oninstitutional elements that diminish or encourage participation. Womenwho fall into the category of the disadvantaged are especially likely towork in the margins of the economy or be so little selfsufficient as tobecome or remain wards of the state. . What kinds of programs should be madeavailable when men from one socioeconomic group are willing to pay more fora course than women from the same group? . One indexof this change, Cross explains, is the emergence of the middle-aged adultpopulation as the dominant demographic group, not least because of the so-called baby boom segment born between 1945 and 196 which has begun to ageand because of the baby "bust" decline in birth rates in the years justafter 196 . In general, Levine (1989) advocates anatmosphere of support, although she cautions that when supports availablediffer from the supports needed, adults (teachers, employees, managers,line supervisors!) "can feel threatened, undermined, attacked, orabandoned. In other words, adult educators seek ways to solicitvoluntary adult learners and to provide programs that are client-centeredrather than curriculum-centered. . (3) Who should be charged with developing and enforcing standards for professional accountability? Nowconsider that the community college offering the course has anadministration strongly committed to excellence in education and highcommunity standards. Cross cautions the reader to take news about this trendwith a grain of salt, but she acknowledges "some truth in the allegationsof the critics that some colleges are compromising standards in order toattract adult learners; that some colleges are more interested in meetingtheir needs to protect faculty jobs than in serving adult learners" (p.35). . Much of thesuccess of these systems appear to be predicated upon the ability of theinstitution involved to make options available to a wide spectrum ofinterested persons. There is therefore potential socioculturalconflict embedded into the delivery of adult education programs. What they have in common is that to one degree or another theyreflect an organized approach to learning. The point is that by the time a would-be learner is finished adaptinghimself to an institution's rules, standards, and practices, he may as welltune in to reruns of Hawaii Five-O as to PBS classroom programming.Although the practical needs for adult education are contained in theworking class, the programs themselves are more suited to the dynamics ofthe middle and upper classes. Without supporting structures and a fertile school culture, growth will be isolated and idiosyncratic, its impact minimal and unsustained. . Ongoing professional development opportunities for principals and other adult developers are therefore imperative (p. Cross alludes to conflicts between teachers who believethat the market-oriented approach of many institutions where adulteducation occurs has a negative effect on the quality of creditinstruction, and institutions that seek to offer student-centered services,as instances of controversy between academic authority and academicsubservience. Another area of adult education in which there has been a good dealof opinionated discussion is that of the availability of programs to adultlearners. But in our interviews only a handful of women described a powerful and positive learning experience in which a teacher aggressively challenged their notions . A working definition of adult education istherefore in order. 6. When reason inflects the encounter with an exploration of whatis not known, then women's ways of knowing are marked by systematicanalysis, application of that analysis, and an acknowledgment that issuessurrounding "the right answer" may be complex rather than simple. Credit classes. Learners enter competitive, threatening environment, pitting their skills against those of others. Studies cited by Cross (1988) indicate that poorly educated orworking-class persons lack interest in adult education in part because theyare antiintellectual and see no value in knowledge for its own sake.Further, those who have failed in the world of compulsory education arestrongly unmotivated to pursue learning as a pleasant exercise. Research hassuggested that many women are culturally predisposed not to pursue theireducation. Census Bureau figures show thatself-directed occupational training is the most common category (44.6percent in 1969 versus 48.7 percent in 1975). A recent study estimates that as many as forty million Americans [17.7 percent of a total population of 225 million] are in a state of transition regarding their jobs or careers; 6 percent of them say that they plan to seek additional education (Arbeiter and others, 1978). It is discussed as against organizedinstruction inasmuch as it tends to show less socioeconomic bias, but onthe whole, studies have found a positive relationship between higher levelsof education and participation in tutorials and media-oriented learning.Cross (1988, pp. . Institutional barriers and program availability appear to go hand inhand, particularly where the broad cultural questions of curriculumdevelopment are concerned. For myriad reasons, then, myriad adult learners who might takeadvantage of programs resist doing so. Critics of this kind of policy, which hasthe effect of mainstreaming nontraditional students, say it is "aimed atpromoting the survival of institutions rather than the improvement of adultlearning" (p. Should state-funded institutions becontrolled as to academic standards, funding availability for noncreditcourses, and the like? Subsidies for courses are limited to tuition, although the major expenses are for time and travel. The women who "know" by virtue of received knowledge take theircues, largely without any notion of critical judgment, almost entirely fromfriends or authorities. 1 7). Meanwhile, however, at traditionalinstitutions where the authority role is played by teachers and bycurriculum standards, there is some evidence of recruitment of adults foracademic courses but without academic accountability, who might otherwisetend toward noncredit courses. This would apply equally to men and women students, although whatone student segment might like, the other may find uninteresting. 72-3). 44). Moreover, thereare critics from many quarters not only of MCE but of other entities thathave assumed jurisdiction over the whole area of education-related consumerprotection. Levine's (1989) study of the adult environment of the elementaryschool, which began when her teaching staff urged her to participate in aworkshop and bring back morale-building wisdom, suggests that, even amongbettereducated professionals who presumably have the intellectualcapability to reason their way toward career enhancement courses, there-isan affirmative obligation on the part of the administrator who would have asatisfied staff to encourage staffers to engage in programs of self-development. The connected knower seeks resolution by as itwere walking in the other's shoes, trying to gain access more or lessintuitively or by consensus to the opportunity to gain and use knowledge.It is when these sundry voices and approaches to knowing and understandingthe world are most potently integrated and proceed from their capacitiesand what a body of knowledge reveals about itself that women appear toreach what might be called the highest and best use of their voice. Granted that the need forlearning contexts is equally apparent among the educated and the less-well-educated, where will an institution's priorities for attracting learnersand making available programs suited to their needs be established?Plainly, this is an issue with more questions than answers about the natureof institutions. Dispositional barriers to participating in available adult educationprograms, Cross (1988) says, are difficult to measure because theiranalysis has traditionally been based on self-selected samples. This may involve a radical break with anauthoritarian or abusive past on one hand, or all physical andpsychological claims upon them on the other. Some critics believe that the recruitment of adults into traditional educational programs will result ultimately in the spread of lockstep schooling and an overcredentialed society. The power of theteacher to exercise authority by his or her very presence is thereforeenormous, and this is potentially quite as true in a voluntary as acompulsory learning situation. In otherwords, this is a problematic area that demands more refined researchtechniques. These arguments tend to fall outalong traditional versus nontraditional academic lines. Shortterm workshops and seminars are considered adult education (p. Several women said that they and their friends left school as soon as they legally could, married, and got pregnant (not necessarily in that order) "so that we wouldn't have to put up with being put down every day." Because so many women are already consumed with self-doubt, doubts imposed from outside seem at best redundant and at worst destructive, confirming the women's own sense of themselves as inadequate knowers (p. Thus economic factors or moralperceptions of them are seen as the controlling element of a decision topartake of a sociocultural or indeed economic experience for women.Gilligan (1982) explains in terms of adult- and student-development studiesthe cultural factors underlying women's limited participation in adulteducation. This poses no particular difficulty in a stained glass class or forthat matter an art history class. Some kinds of adult education straddle the credit-noncreditcircumstance. The principal area of future controversymay well be that of government-supported programs and institutions, andwhere that is possible, there is also the possibility for protracted andvirulent litigation or other public disputation. discuss separate and connected knowing as two sides of the same coinof knowledge and reason. The personal satisfaction of having pursued and completed their college degrees was far and away the most important goal for adults pursuing external degrees, followed by having the credential as a prerequisite to further study and to job advancement (pp. But MCE extends beyond requirementsfor CPAS, realtors, nurses, teachers, and others to update the officialperception that they are competent. The needs for support and encouragement that are apparent outside thespecific realm of professional development programs (which may or may notbe offered in a standard community college classroom setting) are discussedby Cross (1988). Asthe preponderance of research suggests that, in any case, adult educationhas always been and is highly likely to be something readily available toand readily taken advantage of by those in higher socioeconomic groups.Accordingly, the bulk of effort required to develop appropriate programsmay be more usefully employed on those groups that have been or aredisaffected, dissociated, or otherwise educationally disadvantaged. Accordingly, she forecasts acontinued statistical interest in degrees that will be consistent with anaging student population: [E]ven though younger people may be questioning the value of a college degree, their elders, who missed the opportunity when they were younger, seem to be increasingly interested in degrees and credit. 4 ). 4. As she puts it, Teachers and administrators function in schools, systems, and communities. While it is essential to provide individual supports and incentives for growth, it is equally important to offer structural supports and a school culture that values and creates opportunities for personal and professional development. On one hand,highly successful adult education suited to the needs of life-long learnersis a wished-for goal among educators and public policy makers. Cross (1988) cites career-tracking as well as personal-growth factors as decisive for expandedenrollment in adult education throughout the 197 s and 198 s. Additionally, certainprofessions are legally subject to "mandated continuing education" (p. women, researchers have found, make judgments that "are tied tofeelings of empathy and compassion [I can't take money for food and rentand clothes for the kids for a course in crafts] and are concerned with theresolution of real as opposed to hypothetical dilemmas" (p. . One who is not predisposed to seeking out adult education maynot be interested in general, not interested in the courses being offered,or may lack self-confidence in his learning abilities or ability tounderstand the course of study. Mostof the research on these matters had, of course, been done by and 'on'males" (p. 52).Additionally, however, she refers to a study sponsored by the NationalCenter for Education Statistics (NCES) , which anchors such effortsdirected toward persons who would in the ordinary course of existence notbe students, in a structured setting of some kind. . urge educators tofacilitate women's development in the intellectual sphere by stressing"connection over separation, understanding and acceptance over assessment,and collaboration over debate; if they accord respect to and allow time forthe knowledge that emerges from firsthand experience; if instead ofimposing their own expectations and arbitrary requirements, they encouragestudents to evolve their own patterns of work based on the problems theyare pursuing" (p. 2 ). On this view, women learners who for one reason or another areperplexed by making particular claims for their readings, opinions, doubts,may have enormous difficulty in an educational situation that isconfrontational, socratic, or otherwise predicated upon defense of positionand ability to express in a reasonable way doubts of other positions. . But the attributes of the mainstream culture wield tremendous power,and this approach may in part explain the institutional distance betweenwomen as a group and the culture of adult education. Gilligan, C. This absence of alternative criteria that might better encompass the development of women, however, points not only to the limitations of theories framed by men and validated by research samples disproportionately male and adolescent, but also to the diffidence prevalent among women, their reluctance to speak publicly in their own voice, given the constraints imposed on them by their lack of power and the politics of relations between the sexes (p. 5. Hence an increased demand for adult education thatmay provide persons with a competitive edge. Should professional associations control continuing education in the professions? 269). 19-2 ). For example, in 195 , about 6 percentof high school students graduated; by the 198 s, this had risen to some 8 percent. The types of adult-education programs that exist are extraordinarilyvaried. Specific goals may vary and intersectwith more general objectives. What began as a specific objective soon grew into an almostinstitutional application of adult development theory, which the principalemployed not only as a managerial tool but also as a way of encouragingfaculty members to pursue professional development workshops as part andparcel of their careers. Not only are questions ofcurriculum scope and content considered important, but also the vagaries ofsocial class. They told us that their current way of knowing and viewing the world--a way of knowing we call constructed knowledge--began as an effort to reclaim the self by attempting to integrate knowledge that they felt intuitively was personally important with knowledge they had learned from others. To put it another way, educational,economic, and class lines continue to separate those who areprogrammatically upwardly mobile from those who are not. Occupational training is not confined to auto mechanics who want tomanage parts departments but cuts across the demographics of adults'notions of educational development. No less significant in the change-and-expansion equation of adulteducation is the onset of the information age, or what Cross (1988) callsthe combination of technological change and the knowledge explosion. 6). While theimpulse toward critical thinking can be healthful, the inner voice cansometimes become so subjective that it becomes nonrational; accordingly,much objective evidence or reason can be rejected out of hand in favor of acommitment to intuition or feeling. 2. But it is an important part. But the potential obduracy of an academicallyoriented bureaucracy might prevent such courses from being offered. . 33-4). 133-4). (1986) illustrates that women'sapproaches to knowledge are reinforced by or are a product of culturalinfluences. professional pride?), mandating continuing education seems likely tofail" (p. This has controversialsocioeconomic implications for the reason that, to the degree learning inthis area is employer-sponsored or funded, by and large this segmentcomprises managerial men. The controversy surrounding theparticipation in what Cross calls organized learning, which is typicallynoncredit in orientation is located in sociocultural factors. There is a good deal of documentation of the expanding limits ofadult education during the most recent twenty years of the twentiethcentury. On the other,however, the same explosion has made lifelong learning "increasinglypossible" (p. Controversy enters self-directed learning when trends in the fieldare balanced against cultural and economic factors. The potential stridency of nonrational and stubbornintuition or the compulsive loyalty to the form or content of one'sthoughts. But Cross cites statistics showing that adult-educationenrollment has grown 2.5 times faster than the adult population as a wholesince 1969, although since 1972 the rate of annual enrollment growthappears to have slowed somewhat. Belenky, et al. Self-directed learning projects. In a different voice: Psychological theoryand women's development. The followingsummary, which deals with a forcredit situation, is nevertheless highlysuggestive of the scope of program-availability problems that institutionsmay be forced to address: 1. Thefundamental points of discursive departure of men and women seem embeddedinto the culture, and they seem fundamentally different. The separate knower encounters information andseeks to resolve its complexities or reach its truth by as it were doubtingits authentic nature, taking the other side, and working by reason andlogic toward a solution. On the whole, women found the experience of being doubted debilitating rather than energizing. Frank Wolf of Columbia University charges that, in their eagerness to recruit adult learners, colleges and universities are engaging in "academic hucksterism" (p. Cross, K.P. 53- 4; emphasis added). Levine(1989) addresses the question of motivation among adults who are more orless predisposed toward seeking situations of instruction and development.What she says about the need for school administrators to motivate theirteaching staff to seek professional development education can apply equallyto any employer-employee situation. In this regard, Levine's (1989) detailed study of anemployment environment that is programmatically dedicated to individualemployee career development is proactively concerned with assistingprofessional women. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.