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Select the letter from the list above to jump to appropriate section of the abstracts index. Abstracts are in alphabetical order by the first letter of the author's last name.
NOTE:
Online copies of papers are not available at this time.
Abstracts of Symposia
Abstracts from symposia are listed in the order they appear in the published version of the proceedings.
Ahmad, Shamsuddin, University
Pertanian Malaysia
Contextual factors
associated with evaluation practices of selected adult and
continuing education providers in Malaysia.
Provided in this qualitative multiple case study are descriptions of how selected developmental agencies in Malaysia carried out program evaluation and what factors influenced the practice. Data were gathered from interviews with evaluation practitioners and from official documents. Evaluation practice of the agencies was not systematic nor comprehensive. Four contextual factors shaping the practice that emerged from the data are discussed.
Alfred, Mary Vianna, Central Texas
College
Outsiders-within:
The professional development history of African-American tenured
female faculty in the white research academy.
African American female faculty continue to be underrepresented in White research universities. Those who make entry are often at the bottom of the hierarchy and are among the ones least likely to be tenured. Despite major obstacles, a few Black women are receiving tenure in the White research academy. This study examines the professional development history of five of these tenured women to gain insight into the experiences that have contributed to their successful career in the White research academy.
Armstrong, Paul, University of London
The professional
ethic and the spirit of post-modernism: Researching values in
teaching and research in the education of adults.
This paper reports on a research project being undertaken in Britain to find out whether those involved in university teaching and research in the education of adults need a code of ethics, and how the research question has been transformed into ‘why is this question being asked at this time?’ The answer, it is suggested, has something to do with the post-modern condition.
Bounous, Ruth Marcus, Cornell
University
Transforming the
teacher-student relationship: Collaborative learning in adult
education.
Questions explored in this study are: Do deliberately structured collaborative relationships between teachers and adult students result in learning for both teachers and students? If yes, what learning outcomes can be expected? What are the principles of collaborative relationships that result in this learning? The research setting was a nonformal adult education program directed by the researcher at a University in New York State. In the program, university employees (the "students") are linked in collaborative relationships with under-graduate students (the "teachers") for the purpose of improving the employees’ literacy skills. The methodology is based on the assumption that knowledge is socially constructed. Data collection was triangulated, using document analysis, focus groups, and interviews. Findings were that both teachers and adult students learned through the collaborative relationships. Outcomes for adult students included increased knowledge, skills, self-confidence, and pride. For teachers, learning outcomes included a greater appreciation for diversity, a greater understanding of self and others, and a deeper understanding of the dimensions of power. Seven principles and three corollaries were elicited from the data. These principles identify conditions for positive collaborative relationships between teachers and adult students.
Briton, Derek, University of Alberta
Decentering the
"self" in adult education practice.
Allusions to the "decentred subject" can be found in a growing number of educational texts. Yet many of these texts say little about the term’s meaning or genesis. What exactly is the "decentred subject"? what distinguishes this postmodern subject of language from the modern subject of consciousness it seeks to displace? What are the implications of the decentred subject for modern pedagogies based on the transference of knowledge? This paper draws upon the work of Lacan and a number of his commentators to elucidate the distinctive features of the decentred subject, highlight its distinguishing factors, and investigate its revolutionary implications for the field of adult education.
Brockett, Ralph G., University of
Tennessee-Knoxville
Humanistic adult
education: A critical appraisal.
Humanism has been influential in much successful work with adult learners. Yet, today humanism is often misunderstood and, as a result, its value and relevance are frequently challenged. This paper will examine some of the major tenets of humanistic adult education and will address some of the ways in which the approach has been misunderstood and misinterpreted.
Brookfield, Stephen, University of
St. Thomas
The postmodern
challenge to clarity: The meaning of George Orwell’s Politics
and the English Language for adult education theory.
The ascent of postmodernism has brought with it questions about the possibility of clarity of communication in language, both written and spoken. "Saying what you mean" is seen as a modernist illusion, obscuring the fact that all discourse is subject to multiple readings. Critical pedagogues view calls for clarity of expression in academic writing as either politically naïve or camouflage for a conservative agenda. In his essay "Politics and the English Language" Orwell argues the counterviewpoint: that a lack of clarity in language permits the furtherance of repressive, fascist and totalitarian political agendas.
Carriere, Elizabeth, University of
British Columbia
Tales of the
Alhambra: Women's programs as harems.
This study illustrates how women’s programs in governments and institutions can be co-opted by bureaucratic operations. It utilizes feminist critiques of bureaucracy to describe how women’s programs and workers are feminized within the zones they occupy in organizations: exoticized as experts on, and inhabitants in, their own oppressive enclosures; and quarantined as/in "women’s places" within the bureaucracy.
Cavaliere, Lorraine A., Cabrini
College
The processes of
adult learning: Failure as feedback for motivation.
No abstract provided in published proceedings.
Chovanec, Donna M., University of
Alberta
Doing interpretive
research in a technocratic age: A clash of paradigms.
This paper uses Habermas’ paradigmatic conception to look critically at a research experience. It is postulated that a clash between an interpretive research approach and an institutional technocratic positivism was revealed through competing interests. Following a review of the paradigms and the research situation, conflicts around value, control and simplicity are discussed.
Christensen, Elizabeth Lange, University
of Alberta
Evoking a global
consciousness: Teacher professional development and global
education.
This study examined the effectiveness of a professional development program in transforming teacher thinking toward a global consciousness.
Conti, Gary J., Montana State
University
Using cluster
analysis in adult education.
Cluster analysis is a powerful multi variate tool available to adult educators for inductively identifying groups, which inherently exist in the data. Its power lies in its ability to examine the person in a holistic manner rather than as a set of unrelated variables. Once clusters are identified, other qualitative and quantitative techniques should be used to help name and describe the clusters.
Courtenay, Bradley, University of
Georgia
Merriam, Sharan B., University of Georgia
Reeves, Patricia M., University of Georgia
The centrality of
meaning-making in transformational learning: How HIV positive
adults make sense of their lives.
The meaning-making process, so central to transformational learning, is not well delineated in the literature. The purpose of this study was to understand how meaning is constructed in the lives of those diagnosed as HIV positive. Data analyzed from interviews with 18 men and women revealed that after an initial reaction period, a catalytic experience sets in motion a three-phase process of reflection and activity.
Courtney, Sean, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln
Knowledge and
self—adult learners’ conceptions of learning
implications for teaching in higher education.
Reforming teaching in higher education will mean in part, understanding more about the learning process as it occurs within and outside the existential domain of the classroom. This study seeks to contribute to that understanding by focusing on the meaning that students attach to the term learning. Over a five-year period graduate students at a large Midwestern university completed an open ended instrument, the Learning Questionnaire. Analysis of data yielded two major conceptions of learning. The conceptions and their implications for the teaching process will be explored in this presentation.
Davis-Harrison, Deryl, Milwaukee Area
Technical College
Nonparticipation in
adult education programs: Views of blue-collar male workers with
low-literacy skills.
Findings suggest that although low-literate, blue-collar male workers lack confidence in their "book learning" abilities, they are able to maintain their self-concepts by developing a high level of confidence in their work abilities. The resulting high "work esteem" and low "academic esteem" variables, conjointly persist as important determinants of nonparticipatory behavior in organized adult education programs.
Duman, Ahmet, Durham University,
England and Ankara University, Turkey
An initial pilot
scheme towards an international comparative adult education
research approach.
This paper is based on the relevant literature and experience gained in the process of doing Ph.D. research in international comparative adult education (ICAE). It seeks to analyze how comparative adult education (CAE) scholars can generate their own research methodology by codifying theoretical, ideological and practical elements, and what approaches and sequential steps may be followed to form a more coherent framework of research. The aim of this paper is to help AE researchers to ‘make’ their own problems rather than ‘take’ them from other research agendas.
Easton, Peter, Florida State
University
Moussa, Laouali Malam, Florida State University
Post-literacy in Niger:
Program design and the transfer of learning.
Post-literacy programs have been adopted in many countries of West Africa as a means of dealing with the paucity of applications for new literate competence in rural areas and the patch results of adult education. Results of such endeavors in the Republic of Niger provide a good means of analyzing their strengths and weaknesses.
Edwards, Richard, The Open University
Miller, Nod, University of East London
Demystifiers,
champions and pirates: How adult educators construct their
identities.
This paper examines the metaphors, labels and discourses employed by adult educators in the construction of their professional and personal identities in the rapidly changing social and institutional context of contemporary adult education. It suggests a typology for the analysis of metaphors of self-identity.
Elliott, Gabrielle Ann Scott, University
of Tennessee-Knoxville
Miller, Alberta Iron Cloud, Montana State
University
The United States
Supreme Court vs. American Indian self-determination: A case
study of resistance and social action.
Supreme Court decisions transmit an adopted and recorded history that defines social and political relationships across the generations. Social movements question the legitimacy of these histories. Adults, engaged in active resistance, can effect a recharacterization of these histories. We examine the relationship between social action and recharacterization of the events in the historical context of the American Indian struggle for self-determination.
Fenwick, Tara, University of Alberta
Women’s
continuous learning in the workplace.
My study begins to explore the working-learning of women who describe themselves as "continuous learners". A major initial finding suggests that women’s workplace learnings intersect at three dimensions: (1) the intentions of the woman at a particular time in a particular community; (2) the disjuncture between the woman’s previous biography of experience and the situation immediately confronting her; and (3) the positionality of how a woman construes herself as a knowledge creator in relation to the object of knowing and the general knowledge community in which her learning is entwined. Overall, my findings suggest that the workplace is potentially rich with developmental possibilities, when an individual exercises autonomy and creativity in naming what is worth doing, what is valuable knowledge, and what is her idiosyncratic way of constructing this knowledge.
Fenwick, Tara, University of Alberta
Parsons, Jim, University of Alberta
Metaphors of adult
educators’ identity and practice.
Time is but a stream I go a-fishing-in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.—Thoreau
Perhaps Thoreau’s words can help us reflect on the process of "making metaphors", an act of naming images that can help us consider the almost inexpressible parts of our existence. Once conjured into existence, a metaphor is like a pool of water. It can be revisited to sip or drink deeply from. Our study explores the metaphors adult educators use to describe their practice. We believe the exercise of creating metaphors helps educators become more self-aware and self-reflective. We have based our work on Deshler’s (1990) process of helping people create and examine personal metaphors as a method of fostering critical reflection.
Flannery, Daniele D., Penn
State-Harrisburg
Hayes, Elisabeth, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Women’s
learning: A kaleidoscope.
The purpose of this study was to identify and synthesize themes from dissertations of women’s learning in settings other than those where women are students in higher education. One theme is explicated briefly to demonstrate the richness of the themes.
Flowers, Doris, San Francisco State
University
Sheared, Vanessa, San Francisco State University
The impact of
language functioning among African American adult learners in an
adult basic education classroom.
Dialogue taken from a focus group interview with 6 African Americans and one Latina woman were reviewed and analyzed to determine the significance of black dialect on learning. ‘Group think’ emerged as a construct that allowed for communalism and sharing of their polyrhythmic realities. While they had their own thoughts, they associated with one another based on their common understanding of what is was like to be a minority in this society. Language analysis revealed episodes of dysfluent speaking patterns as well as many characteristics of black dialect which did not interfere with communication throughout the dialogue.
Garrick, John, University of
Technology, Sydney
Hager, Paul, University of Technology, Sydney
Informal learning:
The experience of adult educators at work.
This paper examines the term informal learning. It uses an interpretive research methodology to study how individual adult educators learn at work, personal factors which influence this, and the effects of the micro-politics of complex organizations upon informal learning. The paper concludes that there is a need for a broader conception of informal learning.
Gonczi, Andrew, University of
Technology, Sydney
Some recent
Australian research on workplace learning and training.
This paper describes two recent Australian projects, which examined the learning of generic competencies in industry settings and considered possible ways of enhancing these competencies through a variety of training approaches.
Grace, Andre P., Dalhousie University
Adult educators as
border crossers: Using transformative pedagogy to inform
classroom practice.
This paper presents an understanding of transformative pedagogy that is sensitive to the social, cultural, and historical construction of identity—difference within classrooms as political and multicentric spaces and places. It relates that this border pedagogy emphasizes the inclusion of Others and values instrumental, social and cultural forms of adult education in developing transformative classroom practices. It considers themes, challenges, and risks impacting this development.
Guy, Talmade, University of Georgia
O’Neill, Linda, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Rose, Amy D., Northern Illinois University
Cultural pluralism
as adult education: Alain Locke, Horace Kallen, and the discourse
of difference.
This paper examines the development of the theories of cultural pluralism as laid out by Horace Kallen and Alain Locke. It places their ideas within their own historical context and attempts to link these writers to the current debates about multicultural education today.
Hemphill, David F., San Fancisco
State University
Allen, Audrey K., Kyle Family Learning and Career
Center
Literacy: Issues of
culture, gender, and hidden curriculum.
Family literacy is a socially-contexted program delivery construct embraced with increasing fervor in recent years. Recent studies of family literacy programs for immigrant populations suggest that those who design and operate such programs must pay greater attention to hidden curriculum and social context issues including gender, culturally-mediated interpretations of the purposes of education, appropriate mother tongue usage, enhanced community participation, and more effective application of existing adult learning theory.
Hill, Robert J., Pennsylvania State
University-Harrisburg
"In a company
town, when you need help, where do you turn?": The effects
of ideological colonization on democratic life in an
industry-polluted community in Appalachia.
The social, economic, political, and environmental history of an industrially-polluted town was investigated, revealing 100 years of education embedded in a master narrative of ideological colonization and power asymmetries shaped by industry. "Learning to comply" with the dominant discourse resulted in community consent, dependency, and – with the struggle over who would control the meaning of contamination – radical boosterism of the hegemonic discourse. A recently emerged grassroots group chose to control the meanng by appropriating official knowledge, not by constructing local knowledge, as is commonly reported for emergent groups. It is insufficient to say that mainstream knowledge always transports specified (dominant) politics and power arrangements. Rather, these are contingent upon the social and ideological relations in which the official knowledge is inscribed.
Howell, Sharon L., Penn State
University
Preston, Judith A., Penn State University
Schied, Fred M., Penn State University
Carter, Vicki K., Penn State University
Creating a learning
organization, creating a controlling organization: A case study
of total quality management in an industrial setting.
This study investigated the impact of a TQM program on hourly workers in an industrial setting. The paper argued that the basic skills program and the TQM process were implemented in the guise of education and training, but were driven by a corporate policy to reduce labor costs. The paper examined the way in which adult education was complicit in defining and controlling workplace knowledge. Data were collected through interviews with management personnel, education and training providers, and hourly workers.
Hwang, Li-Shyung, North Carolina
State University
The professional
development of adult education professors: A qualitative inquiry
of the Kellogg faculty seminar participants.
Qualitative research methods were used to focus on the professional development of adult education professors who participated in a Kellogg faculty seminar. Findings include a phenomenological understanding of the nature and significance of the participants’ professional development experiences.
Ilecki, Paul J., The University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Metaphors across
models: On the interpretation and use of metaphors in qualitative
research.
A conceptual framework that indicates how researchers interpret informants’ metaphoric speech, how informants themselves use and understand their own metaphors, and even how metaphors represent "truth" are the often assumed but missing pieces of qualitative research. This paper constitutes research on qualitative research methods in four disciplines: education/adult education, anthropology, psychology and theology. Those results are applied to a review of how informant metaphors are interpreted and used in examples of qualitative research in the four selected research models. The paper concludes with the assertion that researchers should be more forthcoming with the assumptions that determine how they interpret and use informants’ metaphors. When metaphors are analyzed in light of these assumptions, a consistent understanding may govern the presentation of findings and conclusions.
Kenney, Wayne R., Apollos Resources:
Creative Alternatives for Adult Education
"A great
conspiracy": Self-directed learning among Protestant clergy
in Russia.
This study investigated how Protestant clergy in Russia sought ministry education in the years prior to 1987 and what their education and ministry meant to them. Because formally schools and organized programs were forbidden, these clergy undertook clandestine, self-directed learning activities what on participant described as a great conspiracy. Their collective story presents new insights regarding assumptions, definitions and issues regarding self-directed learning, adult learners, and cultural and social contexts.
Kingsbury, Rev. Charles E., Florida
State University and Daystar University-Nairobi, Kenya
Developing critical
reflective thinking among church leaders in sub-Saharan Africa
The author summarizes the current state of Church leadership development programs in sub-Saharan Africa. His pilgrimage of moving from "banking" to praxis teaching is related. The need for training for teachers in such programs is explored and initial results from a pilot program are given. Positive changes in the Church resulted. A model for the diffusion of this type of teaching is proposed.
Kolody, Rita C., Medicine Hat College
Conti, Gary J., Montana State University
The use of learning
strategies: Do distinctive groups of learners exist?
Learning strategies were examined in a province-wide study involving five colleges throughout Alberta. Several multivariate analyses using discriminant analysis failed to produce any powerful functions although weak differences were found in the areas of grades, gender, program, and age. The multivariate technique of cluster analysis, however, did produce a solution with five clear and distinct clusters of learners.
Law, Michael, University of Waikato,
Hamilton, New Zealand
Rediscovering hope
in a new era: Possibilities for the radical tradition of adult
education.
In the context of globalization, socialism’s crisis of theory and practice on the one hand and the consequences of unbridled capitalism and new-liberal ideologies and practice on the other have brought the radical tradition of adult education back to its roots.
Lawler, Patricia A., Widener
University, Chester, PA
DeCosmo, Arlene D., Widener University, Chester, PA
Wilhite, Stephen C., Widener University, Chester,
PA
Faculty awareness
and use of adult learning principles.
This research explored the awareness and use of adult learning strategies by faculty in a mid-size comprehensive university. Through initial and follow-up surveys and interviews, participants in a faculty development initiative reported an awareness of, but little use of these strategies prior to attending the workshops. Results suggest that faculty development programs should be focused on implementation issues. Researchers found a rich pool of data to be used in planning subsequent workshops.
Merriam, Sharan, University of
Georgia
Mott, Vivian, East Carolina University
Lee, Ming-yeh, University of Georgia
Learning that comes
from the negative interpretation of life experiences.
The prevailing assumption underlying much of the adult learning literature is that growth-oriented changes are the result of adult learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the process involved when the learning from the negative interpretation of a life experience results in growth-inhibiting, rather than growth-oriented outcomes. Data analyzed from 18 participants revealed that if a life experience challenges some central defining aspect of the self, and the challenge is perceived as too threatening to the self, growth-inhibiting responses, including blame, hostility, withdrawal, and distrust are learned in order to protect self. However, when and if the threat to the self is reduced, the process may reverse itself toward more growth-oriented outcomes.
Mulenga, Derek C., Northern Illinois
University
Impact of economic
crisis and structural adjustment on education and training in
Africa.
This paper examines the impact of economic crisis and structural adjustment on education and training in Africa, and the major implications for adult education.
Ottoson, Judith M., University of
British Columbia
After the program is
over: Exploring teams and application.
This study found no significant association between extent of post-training application among those who attended training in teams, with others but not as a team, or alone. Unless teams are considered in the planning, teaching, and evaluation of training, as well as given follow-up support, resources, authority, opportunity, and encouragement, separate team effects are unlikely.
Pratt, Daniel D., University of
British Columbia
Surface & deep
approaches to evaluating teaching.
The evaluation of teaching in adult and higher education tends to focus on surface rather than deep aspects of teaching perpetuating the perception that teaching is not scholarly work. Deep aspects of teaching are explained and nine principles for evaluation of teaching are offered.
Rees, E. Frances
Language, power, and
program planning.
To explain the exercise of power through the use of language and its effects on power relations and program construction, the verbal interaction between three individuals in a program planing meeting was analyzed. Using critical language study, a type of discourse analysis, the investigation revealed that crucial planning action was situated by political relationships enacted through the use of language. Learning objectives, and adult education prescriptions and ethical imperatives took concrete shape within a socio-political context where the negotiation of power and interests was the central feature of "planing talk". e implications are that program construction is not only messy and contingent, but that it demands an awareness of many levels of meaning in discourse. Planners, therefore, must be prepared to use language skillfully and politically if they intend to act responsibly and exercise the full extent of their agency.
Reeves, Thomas C., University of
Georgia
Reeves, Patricia M., University of Georgia
A model of the
effective dimensions of interactive learning systems for adults.
Little agreement exists concerning the effective dimensions of interactive learning systems (ILS), including computer-based training, interactive multimedia, and the World Wide Web. This paper presents a model of interactive learning derived from research and theory in instructional technology and adult education. The model encompasses ten dimensions of interactive learning for adults, including 1) underlying psychology, 2) educational philosophy, 3) task orientation, 4) accessibility, 5) source of motivation, 6) instructor role, 7) metacognitive support, 8) interaction control, 9) cultural sensitivity, and 10) collaborative learning. Relationships among these ten dimensions and the principles of adult learning theory are explained, and recommendations for how these dimensions can be used for the design, implementation, and evaluation of ILS are made.
Resides, Diane, Penn State University
Learning and new
voices: Lesbian development and the implications for adult
education.
This study contributes to the understanding of lesbians, an oppressed group of people, from their perspective. Incorporating the unique life experiences of lesbians adds value to the research base of the field. This type of research is necessary to give "voice" to diverse groups in theory building and to reveal the "myths" presented in adult education literature.
Ross-Gordon, Jovita M., St.
Edward’s University
Brown-Haywood, Felicia, Penn State - Harrisburg
Ingredients for
college success: Looking through the eyes of African American
adults.
Much has been written about adult students in higher education and an increasing amount of research has focused on this population, yet the minority adult is rarely visible. This research aimed to begin to address this gap in knowledge by talking to minority adults themselves. How do minority adults studying in higher education characterize their successful learning experiences?
Schied, Fred M., Penn State
University
Welensky, Kenneth C., Penn State University
Seeds of conflict,
seeds of compromise: A historiography of American workers and
adult education in the first half of the twentieth century.
This paper reviews three interpretive schemes for understanding workers’ education, then highlights federal and university involvement. The study reviews some of the major critiques of workers’ education, highlighting workers’ education often ambiguous and contradictory nature.
Sork, Thomas J. , University of
British Columbia
A few potholes on
the road to salvation: Codes of ethics in adult education.
This paper presents a critical analysis of two ethical codes and a set of guidelines for developing ethical codes that present principles intended to guide adult education practitioners. The analysis suggests that these initial efforts, although laudable in intent, have serious flaws that must be corrected if codes of ethics are to be viewed by practitioners as useful and credible statements of their ethical obligations.
Spencer, Bruce, Athabasca University
Labour education for
2001.
How should unions educate their members and activists for the new century ? Labour education trends in the USA, Canada, Britain (UK), Australia, and New Zealand (NZ) indicate that both incorporatist and independent educational strategies will prevail.
Stalker, Joyce, University of
Waikato, New Zealand
Women mentoring
women : Contradictions, complexities and tensions.
Women who mentor women enter into a complex adult learner/teacher relationship filled with contradictions and tensions. Normally it is viewed as having positive implications for both the learner and the teacher. In an earlier paper (Stalker, 1994) I theorised, from a feminist perspective, this phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to explore that theorisation through the empirical study of women mentoring women in the academy. The paper first presents briefly a feminist critique of the traditional conceptualisation of mentoring. It then focuses on the theoretical implications of that critique which formed the basis for the empirical study. The methodology and selected findings are followed by a brief discussion of the findings and their relevance to our understandings of women mentoring women in the academy.
Taylor, Edward W., Antioch
University, Seattle
Rationality and
emotions in transformative learning theory : A
neurobiological perspective.
Transformative learning as explained by Mezirow has been criticized as a process that is too rationally driven and minimizes the role of emotions and feelings. This paper further substantiates this criticism by exploring the emotional nature of rationality from the field of neurobiology, by offering a physiological explanation of the interdependent relationship of emotion and reason. Furthermore, these findings encourage the promotion of emotional literacy in the practice of fostering transformative learning.
Tisdell, Elizabeth J., Antioch
University, Seattle
Feminist pedagogy
and adult learning : Underlying theory and emancipatory
practice.
This paper examines the theoretical underpinnings of various trends of feminist pedagogy and its relationship to adult learning around issues of the construction of knowledge, authority, voice, and dealing with difference.
Whitson, Donna L., University of
Wyoming
Amstutz, Donna D., University of Wyoming
University faculty
and information literacy.
This descriptive study surveyed faculty and academic professionals at the University of Wyoming and looked at the ways in which faculty acquire the information they need and the ways in which they require or encourage students to access and use information. The findings describe the characteristics and roles of faculty who use technology for information access and describe how and what resources they use. Recommendations for further investigation are made.
Wolensky, Kenneth C., Pennsylvania
State University
Collective struggles
– collective learning: A history of women garment workers
and adult education.
Since early in the 20th century workers’ education has been a vital part of the agenda of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). This paper provides an overview of various aspects and examples of workers’ education in the ILGWU primarily during the first half of the 20th century. It also argues that, although the historiography of North American adult education tends to marginalize workers’ education, the efforts of the ILGWU are indeed contributory to the broader history of the field.
Yang, Baiyin, The University of
Georgia
Understanding adult
educators’ power and influence tactics in program planning
practice.
Recent program planning literature acknowledges the political dimension of planning practice. This paper proposes a theoretical framework of power and influence tactics.
Zygmont, Dolores M., Temple
University and University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
Factors or
experiences that contribute to the development of expert nurses
using the triarchic theory of human intelligence.
This is a qualitative study designed to explore the developmental and cognitive processes of expert nurses using the Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence. The research was designed to answer the following research questions : What types of personal and/or professional contextual environments has the expert encountered that may have contributed to professional development ? How does the expert practice in a professional situation ? Does the expert use metacomponents, performance components and knowledge acquisition components when processing information for problem solving and decision making ? A key informant process was used to identify the six expert nurses who participated in the study. The study was conducted in three institutions. Data was collected using a Resume Sort as the basis for the first interview. A three hour participant-observation session was then conducted, followed by a second interview. During the second interview, participants shared an Exemplar. The Exemplar was an experience that was meaningful to the participants. This was followed by an interview that incorporated data from the participant-observation session. A case study was formulated for each participant using the transcripts from both interviews. A cross-case analysis was performed to identify the emergence of themes common to the expert nurses. The data were analyzed and reported within the framework of The Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence, that is, the contextual subtheory, the experiential subtheory, and the components of intelligence subtheory.
I-1 Learning styles : Are they fact or fiction ?
Waynne B. James
William E. Blank
Donna Morrison
Kourtland Koch
Arthur Shapiro
Len Schiaper
Marsha Tindell
As researchers attempt to identify and analyze the variety of factors that contribute to or inhibit the learning process, it is common to focus on elements external to the learner (e.g., teaching methods, classroom setting, curriculum development). Less research has focused on elements internal to the learner (e.g., the processes by which the learner perceives, interprets, stores, and recalls information). The various ways in which learners react to learning experiences, the learning environment, and related elements compose an individual’s learning style.
- Do Learning Styles Really Exist ?
- Research Related to the Perceptual Learning Style Modality
- Research related to Cognitive and Affective Learning Style Modalities
- An Assessment of Learning Style Instruments for Adults
- What’s Needed ?
I-2 Paulo Freire and transformative education.
Paula Allman
Elizabeth Lange Christensen
Peter Mayo
Sue M. Scott
Daniel Schugurensky
The purpose of this symposium is to pay tribute to Paulo Freire, one of the most influential theorists and practitioners in adult education and pedagogy in general. The first presentation provides a general background to Freire’s work and it is followed by an exposition of Freire’s central concept of ‘Conscientization’. The discussion will then highlight two key strands in Freiere’s work, namely the Marxian and Liberation Theology strands. The concluding section addresses Freire and postcolonial politics.
- Paulo Freire : from Pedagogy of the Oppressed to Pedagogy of Hope (Daniel Schugurensky)
- Conscientization as the Object of Practice (Sue M. Scott)
- Freire with no Dilutions (Paula Allman)
- Freire and Liberation Theology (Elizabeth Lange Christensen)
- Paul Freire and the Colonial Legacy (Peter Mayo)
II-1 The revision and validation of Havighurst’s social roles research.
Waynne James (chair)
Howard Abney, Jr.
M. Suzanne Kirkman
Lynn Dye
Kathleen Hargiss
Nancy Wall
- Historical Context of Havighurst’s Social Role Research
- Identification of Major Social Roles for the 1990s
- Developing an Assessment Process for the Identified Roles
- Findings Based on Gender, Age, and Socioeconomic Level
- Implications of the Social Role Research
- Social Role Research : What’s Needed Next
II-2 Power matters : The end of innocence in adult education program planning.
Arthur L. Wilson (chair)
Thomas Sork
Elizabeth J. Tisdell
Ronald M. Cervero
The purpose of this symposium is to make public the crucial debate about our political and ethical responsibilities as adult education curriculum and program planners.
- Knowledge, Power, and Identity : Planning Theory’s Construct of Adult Education Practice (Arthur L. Wilson)
- Of Babies and Bathwater : A Friendly Critique of Conventional Planning Theory (Thomas J. Sork)
- The Politics of ‘Inclusivity’ in Curriculum and Program Planning (Elizabeth J. Tisdell)
- Beyond Innocence in Program Planning : Our Issues and Responsibilities in Graduate Education (Ronald M. Cervero)
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