History

Language - Timeline - Post-WWII - Philosophical Perspectives

The history of adult and community education can be confusing and has many different eras of usage and importance, especially depending on the time period and location. For most of this page, we will specifically look into American adult and community education, but please note, other countries around the world were also grappling with the idea of adult learners and how best to not only serve the individual, but the wider community, as well.

Language

Prior to being called adult and community education, this form of learning was also known as “home education” or “university extension”. We don’t see the term “adult education” until 1875, when Joseph Henry uses it to consider how to teach science to amateurs (Stubblerfield & Rachal, 1992, p. 110).

Timeline

Adult and community education in America began to see traction at the end of the 19th century and had resurgence phases in the 1920s and late 1940’s to early 1950's. The 50's is when it really began to gain importance to academic professionals and to the wider community–like governments and businesses.

Post- World War ii

Adult and community education exploded after WWII due to multiple reasons:

“A knowledge explosion rocked US society after World War II and spurred on the growth and development of post-industrial society” (Grace, 1999). Assumingly from ‘post-war clarity’, many adult citizens thirsted for knowledge and knew there was no mobility to move up in class or status without expanding their knowledge. Governments and businesses also saw that to have a productive citizenship–probably like the ones the encountered during the War–they would need to support educational community motives.

The GI Bill and the National Defense Education Act were passed and allowed more opportunities and avenues for adult learners to obtain education and become a skilled set of workers the nation needed after a War.

Adult Education =

Productive Citizens

Many academics have found the connections between the importance of adult education and being an active, productive, and useful citizen to one’s community, government, and culture. Being educated means there is a more skilled workforce supporting the community and economy. The global market is highly competitive and for America to thrive, there needs to be citizens who are educated, innovative, and hungry to learn and do more. Once American governments and businesses realized this connection -- this began to happen post-WWII -- there has been an upsurge in providing adult and community educational opportunities to support the idea of lifelong learning and educating a workforce that keeps the economy thriving.

Check out these articles to learn more about these connections:

Deggs, D., & Miller, M. (2011). Developing community expectations: the Critical role of adult educators. Adult Learning, 22(3), 25-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/104515951102200304

Hake, B. J. (2010). Rewriting the history of adult education: the search for narrative structures. (pp. 14-19). Elsevier Ltd.

Reese, S. (2011). An education for all seasons of life. Techniques, 86(2), 20-23.

Philosophical perspectives of adult education

Within adult and community education, there are philosophies that help guide educational practice and reason. Below are the 5 different types of adult educational philosophies, their timelines, and important influencers to the perspective.

Purpose

Timeline

Figures

Traditional

Purpose is to make people literate in the broadest sense with a top-down learning style

Oldest philosophy with beginnings in the Classical Period in Greece

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Houle, Lyceum

Behaviorist

Learner takes an active role in their learning to change and improve their behavior for the betterment of themselves and society

Founded by John B. Watson in America in the 1920s

Skinner, Thorndike, Watson, Tyler

Progressive

Giving the learner practical and problem-solving skills to reform society and promote social change

Traced back to 16th century Europe, but a serious movement in the US in the early 1900s with John Dewey

Spencer, Pestalozzi, Dewey, Lindeman, Blakely

Humanistic

To teach self-actualization and personal growth to reform society

Roots in Classical China, Greece, and Rome, but resurgent in the US in the 1950s and 60s through Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

Erasmus, Rousseau, Maslow, Rogers, Knowles

Radical

To bring fundamental, societal, and cultural change through education

From 18th century anarchism, Marxism, and Freudian left, but the modern movement began in the 1960s in Brazil with Paulo Freire

Holt, Kozol, Reich, Freire, Illich

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