Adult education at the crossroads : learning our way out / Matthias Finger & José Manuel Asún.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finger, Matthias.

Contributor:

Asún, José Manuel.

Series:

Global perspectives on adult education and training

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adult education.

Physical Description:

207 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Zed Books ; Leicester, U.K. : Niace ; New York : Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave, 2001.

Summary:

This assessment the state of adult education--its traditions, current problems, and possible futures--is written from a social action perspective. The authors demonstrate how adult education's commitment to deliver social change ran into difficulties in the 1980s and 1990s. The book identifies four possible scenarios for the future and on this basis defines the challenges confronting an adult education still committed to social change. The authors outline the key features of an adult education that can contribute to "learning our way out of" the dead end of relentless industrial development, mounting inequality, mass immiseration, and alienation.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Ivan Illich: Learning Webs, Not One-way Streets 6

Ivan Illich: the person 7

Ivan Illich: the theory 9

Counterproductive education and its alternative 12

Part I The Main Historical Traditions in Adult Education 17

Chapter 2 UNESCO: Humanising Development through Permanent Education 19

The context and history of UNESCO 19

'Lifelong education', or how to humanise development 22

Critique of education permanente 26

Chapter 3 Pragmatism: A Genuine American Highway 29

John Dewey 30

Dewey's anthropology of learning

Dewey's theory of education

Relevance and critique of Dewey

Eduard Lindeman 37

Experiential learning 39

Kurt Lewin

David Kolb

Chris Argyris and Donald Schon

Symbolic interactionism and adult education 47

Symbolic interactionism

Peter Jarvis

Jack Mezirow

Critique of pragmatic adult education 59

Chapter 4 Humanism: The Lonely Traveller on the Road to Heaven 62

Carl Rogers 63

Malcolm Knowles 66

Mixing humanism and pragmatism

The concept of 'facilitation'

Andragogy, not pedagogy

Stephen Brookfield 71

Critique of humanistic adult education 73

Chapter 5 Marxist Adult Education: Democratic Centralism or Multiple Paths to the Right Solution? 75

From Marxism to critical pedagogy 76

Marxism and education

Critical Theory

Critical pedagogy

Paulo Freire 79

Freire's context and life

The philosophical foundations of Freire's thinking

Freire's pedagogical practice

Critical appreciation of liberation pedagogy

Participatory Action Research 88

The context of PAR

PAR's philosophy, epistemology and practice

PAR: a critical appreciation

Chapter 6 Conclusion: Adult Education and Development 96

Adult education in Europe: emancipation and compensation 97

North America: Utilitarian, liberal and radical trends 98

Adult education in the South: accompanying development 100

Part II Crossroads and Dead Ends 103

Chapter 7 Roads Diverging 105

From 'development' to 'free trade': turbo-capitalism and the casino economy 106

The erosion of the welfare state and the rise of conflicting demands 111

Postmodernism: many roads to nowhere 114

The ecological crisis: the ultimate dead end of industrial society 119

Chapter 8 The Transformation of Adult Education: Where Adult Education is Going

or Being Driven Towards 124

Privatisation 1 Me, myself and I 125

Adult education: customised learning for individuals

Adult education discourse: self-directed learning by individuals

Privatisation 2 The erosion of the nation-state and its implications for adult education 129

Instrumentalisation: learning for earning 130

Chapter 9 Conclusion: Dead End or Social Responsibility? 134

Part III Possible Ways Out 137

Chapter 10 The Theory of Learning Our Way Out 139

The adult education dimension to learning our way out 140

The developmental dimension to learning our way out 142

The theoretical territory of learning our way out 144

Conclusion: towards an integration of the adult education and the developmental dimensions 146

Chapter 11 Ways Out: The Practice 149

Summary of challenges to learning our way out 149

Learning our way out of turbo-capitalism 150

Learning our way out of eroding politics 154

Learning our way out of postmodernism 157

Learning our way out of the ecological crisis 159

Chapter 12 Synthesis and Analysis 163

Awareness 165

Perspective (conceptual clarification) 166

Praxis 168

Chapter 13 Adult Education, De-institutionalisation and the Theory of Learning Our Way Out 171

Illich and the critique of institutionalisation 172

Adult education and de-institutionalisation: a research agenda 177

Future challenges to adult education 179.

Notes:

Includes bibliographic references index.

ISBN:

185649750X

1856497518

OCLC:

44603051