Transformative Adult Education Did You

Transformative Adult Education Did you notice any common themes in the three articles or conflicts and tensions in the ideas expressed by the different authors of the articles? What is the purpose of adult education? Is it to help the individual pursue a more fruitful economic life? Is it to help the learner realize personal goals, such as achieving a sense of personal fulfillment or finding a 'voice' in defiance of social and community-imposed norms? Is it to show disenchanted adult learners that the educational process can 'work for them'? Or is it to act as a medium of political change in a community? While most educational theorists grant that adult education has the potential to create changes within the individual and society, whether the goal should be to change the individual to help the individual better fit into existing societal molds remains debatable.

As suggested by Jennifer Ferrigno's article on "Teaching for empowerment: Liberatory pedagogy, social change and gender dynamics," while it is a laudable goal to use education as a tool of personal and economic empowerment for women, empowerment does not 'take care of itself.' The teacher must carefully orchestrate social change and consciousness-raising to help students to fully enjoy the benefits they receive from the educational process.

It cannot be assumed that subtle changes, such as the interjection of inclusive language into the classroom will automatically result in a sense of liberation. True liberation from class and gender constraints can be achieved through the creation of a world in the classroom where women can 'find their voice' and then use the education they receive to change society. Ferrigno focuses on a Marxist technique known as 'popular education,' designed as a method of class-based liberation in Latin America.

The approach has been deemed problematic in recent years, particularly amongst feminists and postmodernist theorists that critique its focus on only one dynamic of social oppression, that of class.

However, Ferrigno believes the popular education paradigm has proved useful when tailored to the needs of specific population groups, such as women and immigrants to America, and can achieve what she sees as the goal of adult education, to help women use what they learn in the classroom to challenge their community's and the nation's ideals of what it means to be a Latina. If this is not accomplished, Ferrigno's article implies, their education will be of little use.

Ferrigno analyzes an attempt to use such an educational philosophy to empower Latina women in the classroom and in their community, as well as mobilize them in more conventional ways.

Said one teacher: "I looked around the room and realized that there was so much interaction and lively discussion -- everyone was talking during small group sessions...I realized the power that exists when exercises are designed specifically for quiet people to have space and to have voice." Eventually, using specific techniques designed to address the needs of having a 'voice' as a marginalized individual because of gender as well as class, one student found the confidence to stand up and speak in front of one hundred people.

It was not enough to engage in popular education to enact change without addressing gender and other issues germane to the specific community being targeted. The goal of the adult education, Ferrigno implies, is achieving social change by mobilizing political change on the part of the individual, and fostering the meaningful participation of women in the classroom, without assuming a one-size fits all approach to popular, populist education.

To promote gender equality in the Latina community and racial and gender equality in society begins in the classroom, but must extend outside of the classroom. Encouraging female speech, having women-only spaces to encourage greater discussion addressing practical considerations like the need for childcare during school hours and finding 'teachable moments' with social issues is vital. Adult Education for Social Change" by Guo and Sork likewise seeks to find role for adult education in community development.

Guo and Sork focus on changing the individual to 'fit' into society, rather than changing society. Guo and Sork's stress on the need for recent, as opposed to long-standing, immigrants in Vancouver to learn the language of their new nation, rather than more intangible ideals like community and personal empowerment may be the reason for this bias. They also focus more on institutional support, like the need for appropriate funding for such educational programs, rather than psychological issues attacked to assimilation.

Changing demographics in recent years in Canada have forced adult education programs to meet the challenge of doing more with fewer resources, as they fight, for more funding for programs designed to orient immigrants in the language and culture of the area.

"As new citizens to Canada, they need educational programs to help them navigate the complex paths that citizenship entails and to upgrade their language, knowledge and skills to fully participate in Canadian society." Unlike Ferrigno's article on education that accepts community criticism and a critique of society as a whole, Guo and Sork's see "adult education as an agency of social progress" in moving students forward into better economic opportunities. Adult education is "an important forum for building inclusive citizenship" more so than changing the national consciousness.

Guo and Sork seem to have a fundamentally different social aim than Ferrigno, and even deny the need a high level of learner involvement in programs and "the planning of programs. They believe that "the development and character of the programs offered was determined not so much by the interactions of individuals in planning groups representing the interests of various stakeholders, but rather by the changing nature of Canada's immigration policy, the shifting character of the immigrant population, and government funding," in short, external social issues.

However, the program called SUCESS which they studied did engage in some social engineering efforts that proved successful, such as a radio station broadcast a program called the "Dim Sum Diaries," which "satirized the accents of new Chinese immigrants and stereotypes of their behavior.

SUCCESS participated in a national campaign against the first and led a protest against the second resulting in apologies and withdrawal of programs," and was "constantly responding to changing needs and to the gaps left by government and mainstream organizations who were not developing programs for this group." In their conclusion, they also stress the need for social change as well as integration and assimilation. Cunningham and Curry's article on "Learning within a social movement" delves into how adult education can.