Ronald Podeschi in His Extensive

Ronald Podeschi in his extensive Chapter entitled Evolving Directions in Professionalism and Philosophy utilizes a contextualist approach to discuss the history and diversity of the field of adult education.

Though Podeschi contends that the diverse philosophies of adult education should no be individualized in such a way that they subject the field to division, the diversity of varied philosophies should be embraced as there is a clear sense that these varied opinions drive personal choices of individuals and institutions in the field and therefore must be acknowledged as valid impetus to action and change in addition to other factors of change.

His contextualist framework is an attempt to integrate, "personal beliefs, occupational and institutional cultures in which adult education work, and the powerful macro contexts of historical-society." (612) Podeschi then goes on to briefly outline the history of adult education philosophies and professionalism movements. He begins with the decades of the 1950s and 60s being careful to stress that though periods will be discusses as such they are not discreet and are influenced by macro level American mainstream philosophies and ideals.

In this period Podeschi notes that American culture was in a period of transition, where the conservative 1950s met the more liberal ideals of the 1960s and in so doing again contributed to the adult education system.

The conflicts of these two decades drove changes in the Commission of Professors of Adult Education, which outlined by Podeschi was said to drive the professionalism of the field to greater levels, including but not limited to a much greater emphasis on empirical research as a guide for needs, philosophies and change in the system as well as a new set of definitions and directives for how adult education should assist adults.

"The CPAE records reflect two forces in American education during these years: federal funding and the quantitative research paradigm-both sparked by Sputnik [first rocket to orbit the earth, Russian] and the resulting schooling crisis." (617) the next period the author details is the period at the close of the 1960s which resulted in what he considers a downfall of the filed, when the Behaviorist and Humanist philosophies merged in adult education philosophy and reduced or eliminated challenging philosophies, in an attempt to garner cohesiveness.

Podeschi, then goes on to describe and briefly outline several seminal works on adult education that defined later decades, beginning with Knowles the Modern Practice of Adult Education (1970) and Lindeman's 1926 the Meaning of Adult Education.

Through this brief analysis of these texts and several other Podeschi demonstrates the error of the adult education field in divorcing itself from diversity of philosophy, despite the fact that it still existed on many levels not the least of which is the individual and created inherent conflict between institutions, individuals and the political arena now dictating many aspects of it due to funding.(618-620) The brief history provided by Podeschi perpetuates his contextualist framework and supports his arguments.

The next section of the work, Dynamics and Dilemas of Professional Practice outlines the practical manner in which such philosophical narrowing has effected the questions and standards that were not answered by the philosophies at hand, some of which are essential and core to the field.

(620) His work attempts to show the conflict and confluence associated with the attempt to define a Concept of Professional Practice, again relying on seminal works of adult education beginning with MacIntyre's 1981 work After Virtue which he believes stresses practice as a "cooperative human activity in which goods internal (for example, individual growth, equity) to that of specific activity (for example, adult education) are gained through achieving standards of excellence." (621) The following section Daily Institution Life stresses the resulting pressures and stressors of marrying philosophy, personal biography and practice with the pressures of daily institutional philosophy, practicality and politics.

"Whatever the institution, it is this micro-culture (with its subcultures) that is the main area where daily decisions and actions ultimately determine which assumptions come alive and have consequences." (622) the most unsettling and core of questions raised by.