Adult Education Quarterly current issue

Philosophies of Adult Environmental Education

Walter, P. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:20:59 PDT

This article offers a typology of philosophical traditions in environmental education for adults, based on five philosophical perspectives of adult education described by Elias and Merriam. These five traditions are liberal, progressive, behaviorist, humanist, and radical adult environmental education, respectively. A summary of each philosophy’s main tenets, including the aims of education, beliefs about the nature of learners, the role of educators, and instructional strategies and assessment of learning is given in the article. Limitations of the typology are also discussed. Prominent examples from the environmental movement and adult environmental education practice in North America are then presented to illustrate each philosophy. The article ends with a discussion of directions for future research and implications for practice.

What Happened to the Promise?: A Critical (Re)orientation of Two Sociocultural Learning Traditions

Niewolny, K. L., Wilson, A. L. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:20:59 PDT

Cleary it is no longer possible to think about learning without context. Although context cannot be ignored anymore, educators often struggle to explain how people learn in and with various contexts. Situated cognition and cultural—historical activity theory (CHAT) hold promise for understanding how adult learners are cultural and historical agents embedded within and constituted by socially structured relationships and tool-mediated activity. This promise, however, is not yet realized as the politicized nature of learning in practice that is foundational to both situated cognition and CHAT remains overlooked in adult learning literature. To move toward fulfilling the promise, this literature review emphasizes the neglected dimensions of recursivity and power within situated cognition and CHAT frameworks.

Creative Expression as a Way of Knowing in Diabetes Adult Health Education: An Action Research Study

Stuckey, H. L. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:20:59 PDT

This action research study explores the meaning-making process using forms of creative expression for eight women with insulin-dependent diabetes. The study is theoretically informed by arts-based ways of knowing and aspects of feminist poststructuralism, and explains the process of creativity used in the action research process. The findings center on the role of the created images and (a) the layered processes of meaning around those images as imaginal, individual, and social, (b) the images as embedded in other life contexts, and (c) how creative expression deconstructs and complements medical knowledge. Focusing on the construction of knowledge and the process of creative expression, the article highlights the importance of attending to creative expression as a way of knowing in adult and health education.

W. E. B. Du Bois's Basic American Negro Creed and the Associates in Negro Folk Education: A Case of Repressive Tolerance in the Censorship of Radical Black Discourse on Adult Education

Guy, T. C., Brookfield, S. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:20:59 PDT

W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the brightest lights in African American history, wrote a sparkling critique of the American social and economic system originally planned as part of the Bronze Booklets series, edited and published by Alain Locke and the Associates in Negro Folk Education. The piece was never published and has, until now, been lost to the annals of adult education history. Using historical evidence, the authors examine Du Bois’s Basic American Negro Creed and the circumstances that led to its exclusion from the series. It is argued that the Creed was far too radical for the liberal minded Carnegie Corporation and its leaders who were only interested in accommodating adult education for Blacks through the AAAE funded Bronze Booklets. The exclusion of the Creed represents an example of repressive tolerance by the AAAE.

Organizing Project-Based Learning in Work Contexts: A Cross-Cultural Cross Analysis of Data From Two Projects

Poell, R. F., Yorks, L., Marsick, V. J. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:20:59 PDT

The authors describe research aimed at developing a more comprehensive framework for project-based learning in work contexts. This grows out of a cross-cultural reanalysis of data from two previous studies using two different frameworks: actor-centered learning network theory and a critical pragmatist lens on action reflection learning. Findings are based on a cross analysis of a subset of one another’s data sets using the authors’ respective original frameworks, thus intending to build reflexivity into the latter. The study identifies strengths and weaknesses of each framework and discusses a more comprehensive framework that takes into account both individual and organizational learning at a time when learning in work contexts is increasingly driven by the learner and integrated with work.