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University of the Incarnate Word
San Antonio, Texas
Abstracts of Papers
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:
Abstracts contain links to online copies of papers.
Abstracts from Symposia
Abstracts from symposia are listed in the order they appear in the published version of the proceedings.
Published Conference Proceedings -
University of the Incarnate Word
Information is available regarding the 1998 published version of the conference proceedings compiled by the University of the Incarnate Word.
Andruske,
Cynthia Lee, University of British Columbia
Learning What? Content or Strategies?
Abstract. The purpose of this research is to explore what women learn in "upgrading" sessions in a pre-employment program as they make a transition from welfare to work and education.
Armstrong,
Paul, University of London
Stories Adult Learners Tell …Recent Research on How and Why
Adults Learn
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the current proliferation of research in the study of the education of adults that utilizes the biographical or life history approach.
Baptiste,
Ian, Pennsylvania State University
Towards A Pedagogy for Disempowering Our Enemies
Abstract. Adult educators seem hesitant to disempower anyone, including their enemies. This is because our humanist moorings makes us believe that all forms of disempowerment is evil. Proposed are rudiments of a pedagogy of ethical disempowerment, which I contend we desperately need.
Barnett, Bruce; Caffarella, Rosemary; and
Gimmestad, Michael, University of Northern Colorado
Teaching Scholarly
Writing to Doctoral Students: Giving Novice Scholars a Running Start
Abstract: Students entering doctoral programs in adult education and related fields often experience culture shock. Perhaps the biggest adjustment is learning how to think and write like a scholar. This paper examines how involvement by doctoral students in a formal scholarly writing project during their first semester of study influenced their subsequent doctoral experience and professional work.
Beder,Hal, Rutgers
University
The Outcomes and Impact of
Adult Literacy Education in the United States
Abstract. This study analyzed twenty-two of the most credible outcome/impact studies in adult literacy education conducted since that late 1960s to make reasoned conclusions about program effectiveness and to identify common conceptual and methodological problems.
Bierema, Laura L., Michigan
State University
A Feminist Critique of
Human Resource Development Research
Abstract. This paper shares the results of a critique of human resource development (HRD) research, according to a feminist research framework. The paper offers a brief description of feminist research and challenges HRD researchers to be more critical of their practice.
Blunt,
Adrian, University of Saskatchewan
Human Capital Versus Market Signaling Theory: The Case with Adult
Literacy
Abstract. Human capital and market signaling theory are compared using data from the Statistics Canada Survey of Literacy Skills Used in Daily Activities (1990). The results indicate that both theories explain variations in annual income and number of weeks worked. Employers use education credentials (market signaling theory) to select employees who are then rewarded with earnings based on their literacy levels (human capital theory). Implications of these findings for policy and practice are presented.
Boshier,
Roger and Wilson, Mary, University of British Columbia
Panoptic Variations: Surveillance and Discipline in Web
Courses
Abstract: Disciplinary surveillance nested in some Web courses violates principles of adult education. Using Foucault’s notion of panopticism, the authors present a model that can be used to determine levels of disciplinary surveillance.
Boud, David , University
of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Miller, Nod, University of East London,
UK
Animating Learning: New
Conceptions of the Role of the Person Who Works with Learners
Abstract: This paper focuses on the role of the person who works with others to foster their learning and describes our struggle to make sense of this role. We identify a perspective termed animation, consider its features and discuss issues of context, identity and relationships between animators and learners.
Bova, Breda Murphy, University
Of New Mexico
Mentoring Revisited: The
African-American Woman’s Experience
Abstract. The mentoring experiences of African-American women and the potential of the experience for assisting in their career development are explored. Through in-depth interviews the mentoring influence in the career development of 14 African-American women was investigated. Findings point to barriers to the relationship and the potential of group mentoring as a way to assist in the psychosocial aspect of mentoring.
Brew, Angela, The
University of Sydney, Australia
Qualitatively Different Conceptions of
Research: Implications for Adult Education Research
Abstract. This paper reports on an investigation into academics’ qualitatively different ideas about what research is and about what they are doing when they carry it out. It presents an overview of the literature, outlines the findings of the study and then discusses the implications for adult education research.
Brooks, Paula A., The
University of Alberta, Canada
Cohort Communities in
Higher Education: The Best Example of Adult Education
Abstract. Cohort groups facilitate relationships that encourage learning and act as a support for individuals. The underlying philosophy of a cohort is that learners become empowered and have a sense of ownership for their academic development. A sense of respect and collegiality were the most important outcomes and experiences in the cohort groups studied.
Brown, Angela Humphrey, Piedmont
College
Challenging the Myth of the Universal
Teacher: An Examination of the Experiences of
African American Women Post-Secondary Mathematics Teachers
Abstract: This study examines the experiences of a group of African American women mathematics teachers to see what common themes emerge. The findings reveal that the race and gender of these teachers affect their teaching-learning environment.
Cain, Margaret L., University
of Wisconsin-Madison
A Critical Ethnography of
Adult Learning
In the Context of a Social Movement Group
Abstract. This ethnography studied the learning among members of two groups in a toxic waste struggle with the EPA. The socio-political context, along with the members’ class, race and gender, significantly affected the members’ learning of technical and emancipatory knowledge.
Carter, Vicki K. and Howell, Sharon L., Pennsylvania
State University
Circuit of Culture: A
Critical Look at Dilbert and Workplace Learning
Abstract: As a cultural artifact, the Dilbert comic strip has generated both amusement and consternation, particularly for corporate trainers. This paper summarizes a year of research on Dilbert and its surrounding discourse in order to extend the critique of corporate education and Human Resource Development (HRD) into the cultural realm.
Chambers,
Bille, Oklahoma State University
Moore, A.B., The University of Georgia
Bachtel, Douglas, The University of Georgia
Role Conflict, Role Ambiguity and Job Satisfaction of County
Extension Agents in the
Georgia Cooperative Extension Service
Abstract: Organizational, job related and personal correlates of role conflict, role ambiguity and job satisfaction were examined for County Extension Agents in Georgia. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for in-service training program.
Chapman, Valerie-Lee, University
of British Columbia
Adult Education and the Body: Changing
Performances of Teaching and Learning
Abstract. I discuss recent scholarship on the body and present two theoretical frameworks that attempt to explain how the body might be constituted in educational institutions, discourses and practices, and suggest these analytical tools and the literature on the body can be linked to adult education practice.
Chapman, Valerie-Lee and Sork, Thomas
J., The University of British Columbia
Changing Relations: Power, Ethics and
Responsibility In Graduate Supervision
Abstract: This paper continues the dialogue between a feminist graduate student and non-feminist male advisor in an adult education graduate program: they each define the power relations inherent in the relationship, and raise questions about their ethical and moral responsibilities.
Clark, M. Carolyn , Hill, Susan M. ,
Kilgore, Deborah W., Texas A&M University
Incarcerated Women's Identity Development:
Becoming a Self at the Margins
Abstract: This study explores the developmental experience of women at the margins of society. Our findings suggest that the role of connection is problematic for these women and gives rise to a self that has a restricted degree of agency, but one that is paradoxically resilient and sensitive to her social context.
Conti, Gary J., Oklahoma
State University
Kolody, Rita C., Medicine Hat College
Development of an Instrument for Identifying
Groups of Learners
Abstract. ATLAS (Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS) has been developed to quickly identify the learning strategy group to which the respondent belongs. The validation process involved the use of past learning strategy studies and multivariate statistical procedures.
Daley, Barbara J., University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Novice to Expert: How Do Professionals Learn?
Abstract. This study examined the different learning processes used by novices and experts. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with novice and expert nurses. Results indicated that novice learning was contingent on concept formation. Expert learning was identified as a constructivist process using active concept integration.
Day, Michael, University
of Wyoming
Whitson, Donna, University of Wyoming
Amstutz, Donna, San Francisco State
University
The Relationship of Adult Education Faculty to Their
Schools of Education
Abstract. This paper reports the findings of a descriptive study examining the relationship of adult education faculty to their schools of education. Comparing responses among adult education faculty, deans of their schools, and a comparable number of deans without adult education faculty, it was found that generally deans considered the lifelong learning theme more meaningful and relevant to their schools than did adult education faculty and that minimal collaboration exists between adult education faculty and their school of education colleagues especially in the preparation of beginning K-12 teachers. Factors that may enhance the worth of adult education in academic settings are also addressed.
Deems, Terri A., University
of Nebraska
Vital Work: Adult Development Within the Natural
Workplace
Abstract: This phenomenological study explores meaning and experience within the natural workplace. The educative potential is revealed through the organizations’ quest to nurture the human spirit at work and to create a more socially just work society. Findings illuminate conditions most conducive to growth and development within the context of work.
de los Santos, Esmeralda, University
of the Incarnate Word
The Formation of Identity in High-Achieving,
Mexican-American Professional Women
Abstract: This study examines how ten, high-achieving, professional Mexican-American women negotiate the Mexican-American and Anglo cultures and identifies what impact this negotiation has on their sense of identity. The women's early socialization determines whether they acculturate to the dominant culture; irritate it; adapt to it; or reject it.
Dirkx, John M., Michigan
State University
Knowing the Self Through Fantasy: Toward a
Mytho-poetic View of Transformative Learning
Abstract. Research suggests that adult learning can have a profound effect on our sense of self. Emergence of transformational theory provides a framework for understanding these processes of self-knowing. Yet, this research and theory is dominated by an heroic perspective, in which transformation results from hard effort of a rational ego. Relying on a philosophy of imagination and Jungian psychology, transformative learning is re-visioned here as a journey of soul, in which image and fantasy mediate processes of self-knowing.
Grace, André P., Pennsylvania
State University
Adult Education as Building Community: The
Parameters and Realities of Enterprise Identity in North America (1945-70)
Abstract. This paper takes up aspects of building community in North American adult education (1945-70). It looks at adult education’s efforts to build community in itself and explores the degree to which the enterprise built community in education and society.
Grosjean, Garnet, University
of British Columbia
Adult Education and the Body Politic:
Radical Intervention or Palliative Care?
Abstract: Problems of legitimation have eroded adult education’s distinctiveness and sense of social purpose. Attempts are made to diagnose the condition of adult education and determine the etiology of the crisis.
Guy, Talmadge C.; Schell, John W.; Burnside,
Jennifer; Thornton, Grace; Scott, Keener, The University of
Georgia
Like Peeling an Onion: An Examination of Cultural
Identity Among Adult Learners
Abstract: This paper describes the results of a study concerning the cultural identity of adult learners in graduate programs at the University of Georgia. Employing analytic induction research design the research team, itself a culturally diverse group of graduate students and professors, analyzes focus group transcript data. The conclusion is reached that verbal statements aside, cultural identity is complex and manifested situationally. Adult educators are advised to adopt sophisticated tools to assess learner identity issues in order to challenge learners to think more critically about their assumptions and biases toward those who are culturally different.
Hansman, Catherine A, Georgia
Southern University
Wilson, Arthur L., North Carolina State
University
Cognition and Practice: Adult Learning Situated
in Everyday Activity
Abstract: Theories and procedures used to teach adults to write often lack an understanding of the central constitutive dimensions of activity, tools, and culture in adult learning. A situated view of teaching writing is introduced.
Hayes, Elisabeth and Way,Wendy, University
of Wisconsin-Madison
Negotiating the Discourse of Work: Women and
Welfare-to-Work Educational Programs
Abstract . This critical qualitative study explores women's experiences in a short-term welfare-to-work job training program. In this paper, we examine how the women's efforts to combine schooling, work, and family life were affected by what we identified as a dominant discourse of work. The study contributes to knowledge of the ideological assumptions underlying dominant conceptions of work-related knowledge and skills, and points to the need for more critical approaches to work-related adult education.
Hill, Lilian H., University
of Georgia
From Global Consciousness to Social
Action: An Examination
of Adult Education Theory
Abstract. This paper links 1) social action theories in adult education, and 2) literature about the transition to a global consciousness, a world view emerging in the latter part of this century. Global consciousness does not emanate from a single body of literature, but exists within many disciplines.
Hill, Robert J. Pennsylvania
State University
From Motherhood to Sister-Solidarity: Home-making
as a
Counterdiscourse to Corporate Environmental Polluting
Abstract. This presentation examines the conjunction between women-homemakers and contaminated spaces, both public and private. Learning for the women was embedded in concerns about motherhood and domesticity. Although the women never expressed their solidarity in terms of sisterhood or feminist language, they functioned as a cohesive group consciously aware of their marginalized status as women. But the "girls solidarity" was not the source of political action, rather it was the context for it. Domesticity and motherhood was a substantially stronger antecedent for action that enabled the women to build the notion that they could challenge power relations, values and beliefs of the dominant culture in the community.
Holford, John, University
of Surrey
Is Our History Bunk? Adult Education’s
Historiography and the Notion of "Learning Society"
Abstract. The notion of "learning society" presents a paradigm shift necessitating radical rethought of approaches to historical research in adult education. This paper re-evaluates the English-language historiography of adult education from a "learning society" perspective.
Ice, Randal, University
of Central Oklahoma
Nolan, Bob, Oklahoma State University
Adult Education Programs of the New Deal: The Case of
Oklahoma, 1933 - 1942
Abstract. The federal Adult Education programs of the Great Depression represented the response of the New Deal to unemployed teachers. Although these programs were essentially relief projects intended to take unemployed teachers off the rolls and hire them as adult educators, they resulted in: 1) establishing adult education as a legitimate field of practice with unique educational needs and methods; 2) introducing the nation to adult education theory as it then existed; and 3) teaching large numbers of adults to read for the first time.
Jarvis, Christine, University
of Huddersfield, UK
Zukas, Miriam, University of Leeds, UK
Feminist Teaching, Feminist Research,
Feminist Supervision: Feminist Praxis In Adult Education
Abstract. Feminist teaching and research have both been the subject of analytical discussions within adult education. Feminist research supervision has received rather less attention. We focus on two main issues, the role of experience and the feminist analysis of power/knowledge dynamics, in order to highlight the similarities and differences between the three areas.
Johnson-Bailey, Juanita and Cervero, Ronald
M., The University of Georgia
Positionality: Whiteness as a Social
Construct that Drives Classroom Dynamics
Abstract. When teachers and learners enter classrooms, they bring their own positions in the hierarchies that order the world. This study examines how one of those positionalities, Whiteness, drives classroom dynamics.
King, Kathleen P., Fordham
University
How Adult Learners Change In Higher Education
Abstract. Research about the nature of the relationship between perspective transformation and education was conducted among 422 adult learners in higher education. This paper addresses the areas of change recognized, the formal stages of perspective transformation identified, the relationship of the experience in adult learners' education and the implications of the findings.
Martin, Lee, San
Francisco State University
Piney Woods Country Life School: An Educational
Experience of African Americans
Abstract. This study is a historical analysis of the Piney Woods Country Life School during the Jim Crow era. The study focuses on the school's underlying mission to aid African Americans in gaining financial and political control over their lives through education for self-reliance, self-determination and economic independence by any means necessary.
McCracken, Jamie L., Oklahoma
State University
Examining the Impact of Formal and Informal
Learning On the Creativity of Women Inventors
Abstract. This research is about women inventors and how they feel education impacted their creativity. Data gathered strongly supports existing data which theorizes that "women's learning" (e.g. connected learning and relational learning) is different from men's. Creative women speak out about how they felt education impacted their creativity and what they would like to see education do to increase creativity and self-esteem in girls and women.
Moore,
Bernie and Hill, Lilian H., University of Georgia
Preaching What We Practice: Theories-in-Use in Community
Development
Abstract. This paper examines theories-in-use among community development practitioners and attempts to bridge the schism between practice and theory by articulating implicit theories utilized in practice.
Ottoson, Judith M. University
of British Columbia
Are Resources and Support Necessary or Just Nice
in Post-program Application?
Abstract. This study uses matched survey data (n=1356) to explore the relationship between post-educational application and five contextual variables. Significant positive associations were found between contextual and outcome variables; significant differences were found between post and follow-up ratings of contextual variables. What happens after adult education programs may have more effect on post-educational application than what happens during educational programs.
Pratt, Daniel D., Kelly, Mavis, Wong, Winnie,
University of British Columbia, Canada
The Social Construction of Chinese Models of
Teaching
Abstract. Five principal relationships, derived from long-standing Confucian values, are described as the cultural and social foundation for Chinese models of teaching. Three related models of teaching will be described during the presentation: Teacher as master; teacher as virtuoso; and teacher as coach.
Reeves, Patricia M., Merriam, Sharan
B., Courtenay, Bradley C., University of Georgia
"Dancing As Gracefully As I Can":
A Developmental Model Of Coping Strategies In Successfully Adapting To Hiv Infection
Abstract. The purpose of this study was to understand the use of coping strategies in successfully adapting to HIV infection. Data analyzed from 18 interviews revealed that coping strategies employed immediately after diagnosis differed from those used later. An underlying developmental process in the use of coping strategies was also uncovered.
Rocco, Tonette S., Ohio
State University
Adults with Disabilities and The Accommodation
Communication in Higher Education
Abstract. This qualitative study describes the accommodation communication as it occurs between faculty in higher education and students with visible and invisible disabilities. Elements of an accommodation communication model are: (a) disclosure, (b) validation, (c) request, (d) responsibility, (e) timing, and (f) negotiation.
Rubenson, K., University of British
Columbia
Adults’ Readiness to Learn:
Questioning Lifelong Learning for All
Abstact. Lifelong learning for all has become a major policy objective in the industrialized world. This study, which is based on analysis of IALS data, indicates several disturbing trends in the present distribution of lifelong learning. The differences in readiness to learn as an adult can be explained by "the long arm of the family and the long arm of the job." A main conclusion is that Lifelong learning for all is conditional on a working life organized in a way that promotes the use of literacy, and a society where people are encouraged to think, act, and be engaged.
Sanders, Kathryn A., Oklahoma State
University
Identifying Research Strategies for
the Future: Alternatives to the Traditional Doctoral Dissertation
Abstract: This study was designed to explore the attitudes and opinions of experts in the fields of adult education and vocational education toward future doctoral research needs and toward potential alternatives to the traditional doctoral dissertation. A three round Delphi and semi-structured interviews were used to gather data.
Southwick, Catherine J.,
Payne County JPTA, Nolan, Bob, Oklahoma
State University
An Analysis Of Self-Efficacy, Welfare
Status, And Occupational Choice Among Female Single Parents
Abstract. The concept of self-efficacy has been proposed as a possible explanation why women are deterred from pursuing higher paying, traditionally male occupations. This study sampled 199 women pursuing occupational training in Vocational-Technical Institutes to obtain some measure of occupational self-efficacy and compare those measures by non-traditional occupational training and welfare status.
St. Pierre, Nate, Montana
State University
Listening to the Student Voice in
Adult Education
Abstract. Tribal colleges are receiving much recognition for their successes. This study acknowledges the Crow Indian people as well as the involvement of Little Big Horn College in its own educational and social movement. The student voice represents an integral part of carrying out the institutional mission.
Tett, Lyn, Moray House Institute,
Edinburgh, Scotland
Finding a Route into Higher Education
for Local Working Class Adults
Abstract. The accessibility to adults of six Scottish HEIs and the structural and ethical factors which operate to exclude or include them are examined.How higher education might create a true access culture is assessed through a case study of one institutional response to participation barriers for working class community activists.
Yang, Baiyin, Auburn University
Examining the Dynamic Relationships among
Three Facets of Knowledge: A Holistic View
Abstract. This paper proposes a holistic theory of knowledge and learning. The theory posits that knowledge is consisted of three indivisible facets: explicit, implicit, and emancipatory, and that it is more important to examine the dynamic relationships among the three facets in order to better understand different learning modes.
Ziegahn, Linda, Antioch
University
Transforming Intercultural Perspectives:
Reflecting On-line
Abstract: The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how students in an online course showed evidence of reflection and transformative thinking around issues of social justice and intercultural communication. Email transcripts from six students were analyzed for evidence of reflection on underlying assumptions regarding course content. Results suggest that the range of kinds of reflection on premise described by Mezirow (1991) are all present, that each student has a "refective style", and that transformation around issues of race was compromised by frustration with the concept of white identity.
Courtney, Sean, McGivney, Veronica, McIntyre, John,
Rubenson, Kjell (Chair)
Rethinking Participation Research in Adult Education: International
Perspectives
Abstract. The purpose of this symposium is to analyze research on participation in adult education from an international perspective. Panelists will discuss findings from their respective parts of the world and consider how research and theory on this important phenomenon can be advanced.
Edwards, Kathleen, Grace, Andre, Henson,
Brenda, Henson, Wanda, Hill, Robert J., Taylor, Ed,
Tabooed Terrain: Reflections
On Conducting Adult Education Research In Lesbian/Gay/Queer Arenas
Hayes, Elisabeth, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Chair),
Sparks, Barbara, University
of Nebraska-Lincoln,
Hansman, Catherine, Georgia Southern University,
Hart, Mechthild, DePaul
University,
Sheared, Vanessa, San
Francisco State University
Talking Across the Table: A
Dialogue on Women, Welfare, and Adult Education
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