Angela Blankenship
History of Adult/Community Education—
Based Adult Education in the 1980’s
EDAC 631
| Angela Blankenship | Commented On:
Jennifer Bradley Amanda Godwin |
Introduction:
During the 1980’s, many American’s embraced a new conservatism in social, economic and political life due to rising crime, inflation, and foreign policy turmoil brought on by the previous decade. The 1980’s is remembered for its materialism and consumerism, the decade became a time of blockbuster movies, cable networks such as MTV, music videos, and the “yuppies”.
According to the People’s History website, Japan started selling the first CD player in 1983. Motorola started selling the first mobile phones to the United States. The 1980’s started the age of the computer. Computers started in offices but them moved into homes.
Highlight:
The early 1980’s brought about debate, writing, discussion about the whether andragogy is a theory of adult learning. The five assumptions to the andragogy of an adult learner are (1) has an independent self-concept and who can direct his or her own learning, (2) has accumulated a reservoir of life experiences that is a rich resource for learning, (3) has learning needs closely related to changing social roles (4) is problem-centered and interested in immediate application of knowledge, and (5) is motivated to learn by internal rather than external factors (Merriam, 5). It was questioned whether andragogy was a theory for adult learning at all. The other question that continues to be asked today is to which assumptions are actual characteristics of an adult learner. Some adults require a teacher for structure and some adults may be externally motivated to learn for the sake of keeping their job
Influential Factors:
Adult education began to expand as there was in increased in leisure, earlier retirement, longer lives, new technologies, and even unemployment (Bruce, 210). There was also a push for learning to happen in other ways than just in a classroom setting.
The 1984 amendments to the Adult Education Act were indicative of Reagan administration. These include a renewed interest in literacy but without federal support, an emphasis on the use of the volunteer, and measures for cost cutting and the encouragement of private enterprise’s entrance in areas typically saved for the public or private nonprofit sector. In 1981 the nongovernmental Coalition for Literacy was established. This group emphasized volunteer activities, publicity for literacy issues, response to public inquiries, and fund raising to support these activities. The Reagan administration also pushed for the use of volunteers as a way of decreasing costs while still dealing with what was coming to be seen as a crisis in literacy. It launched the Secretary of Education’s Adult Literacy Initiative. This group focused on the use of volunteers to increase different literacy activities. The National Advisory Council on Adult Education (NACAE) found that there was widespread concern about the initiative among adult educators who feared that the secretary had overlooked existing ABE programs, that volunteers would not be properly trained and supervised, and that the influx of volunteers would affect management of programs in adverse ways. In addition, the Secretary of Education became responsible for providing an information network. The secretary was also mandated to come up with a definition of literacy within 2 years and to conduct a study to estimate accurately the number of illiterate people in the United States (Rose, 25).
Implications:
The field of Adult Education grew in the 1980’s due to the increase in technology. Computers started to become more commonplace. First in the office and then in the home and schools. There was in increase interest in adult education due to the fact that individuals were living longer lives, retiring earlier, and having a motivation to want to learn. Adults wanted to learn to better themselves or to have a better understanding of what they needed for their careers. The government was calling for an increase in Literacy. There was a push for more volunteers in Literacy.
| Summary of the History of Adult/Community Education | |
| AREAS | SUMMARY |
| Social Background | *Increase in technology
*Computers and mobile phones
|
| Highlights | *Andragogy as a theory
*Characteristic of adult learner |
| Influential factors | *Increase in who is interested in adult education
*Increase in Literacy *Use of Volunteers *Secretary of Education created an information network |
| Implications | *growth in Adult Education due to technology and the want/need of others to learn. |
References:
Bruce, M. (1982). Demand Is Growing for Adult Education. The Phi Delta Kappan, 64(3), 210-211. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.bsu.edu/stable/20386637
History.com. (2011). The 1980’s. Retrieved February 11, 2018 from http://www.history.com/topics/1980s
Merriam, S. (2001). The New Update on Adult Learning Theory. In S. B. Merriam & P. M. Cunningham (Eds.), Handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 3-15). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/anniv40/end-mean.pdf
Rose, A. (1991). End or Means: An Overview of the History of Adult Education Act. Information Series No346. Washington, DC: Eric Clearing House. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED341875.pdf
The People History. (2016). 1980s news, events, popular culture and prices. Retrieved from http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1980s.html
Community Based Adult Education Spring 2018 
Angela it was good to see that you highlighted the question of andragogy as a theory regarding adult education in the 1980s as well as outlined the characteristics of adult learners. I did not touch on these topics in my paper due to the majority of the articles and information I came across while writing my paper barely touched on the two subjects. It’s astonishing how the same assignment can take on different forms and go in differing directions as a result of the writer and the materials that they find while researching a particular subject.
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Angela，
You related social background to the development of adult education, which is good!
Suggestions:
1. There are not enough references in your paper. I only saw two references in your text. You need to cite more ideas from other references to enrich your paper.
2. The contents in Highlights and Implications are thin and need improvements. In Implications, you need to tell us how the contents in other parts of paper have impacted adult education, and what lessons we can gain in this period of time.
3. Check APA format.
Check APA about headings/subheadings.
Add references if the ideas you provided are not yours. For example, you need to add references in Introduction and Highlights.
Check APA in your References. You don’t need to capitalize all of the first letter in the title.
Bo
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Angela,
Your paper included a lot of great content that resulted in the AE accomplishments during the 1980s. The influences and implications that you have outlined included a lot of connections that I researched for the time period of the 1990’s. The advancement in technology that occured from 1980’s – 1990’s completely changed the field and allowed it flourish, considerably in regards to distance education opportunities. I liked that you included the theory of andragogy, as I struggled connecting this concept and its connection to my own research due to the complexity. You summarized this theory by including that these five assumptions of AE is still unclear to the current day.
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Angela,
I enjoyed reading your paper. You did a really great job. It was well thought out and put together. i found your information on volunteers an interesting subject. You mentioned how literacy programs utilized volunteers. I know that at the ABE program that I worked at before there were different situations such as if a person had little to no reading skills we would bring in Indy Reads. Then the student would primarily or exclusively work with them. I also know when I was working on my undergrad there were always requirements for working in the Deaf community. There was a volunteer based literacy program that you could volunteer with to meet requirements. I am curious to know if all literacy programs are volunteer based?
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Angela,
I liked that your paper focused on multiple factors. My paper focused mostly on legislation and the economy. I felt that your paper touched on social m, economics and cultural aspects of the 80s. You also incorporated how the the Raegan administration played a larger role in the 80s. You slightly touched on technology, I think it would have been great to elaborate more on this. I completely neglected that topic in my paper because I couldn’t find enough literature.
Thanks for the read!
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Angela,
I think you did a fine job with your history. I wonder how educators met the needs of the influx of adult learners. I know for nursing, we had an influx of students enrolling in nursing programs after the Great Recession in 2008. However, there were not enough educators to accommodate the demand. As a result, many qualified students were not accepted into the programs. Nursing education is interesting in that there are not enough educators today to meet the demand. Quite honestly, a floor nurse can make more money by working the number of hours a week that educators put into prepping and presenting their material. In other words, those who go into nursing education are ones who WANT to teach and choose to do it because they have a passion for it. I wonder if the same is true for adult educators.
Derek
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