Module 6

Module 6: FOUNDATIONS OF ADULT EDUCATION

General theoretical issues

A social practice is well-founded if it is based on realistic world-view, justified ethical principles, valid theories and sufficient experience. For adult education this means several requirements. It is expected to relate to the world in a way that is understandable to the learners and acceptable to the experts. Its practise undergoes constant dialogical criticism and accordingly the professionals follow an ethical code and uphold standards that lead to socially acceptable work. The practical choices made and the tools used by the professionals are based on tested theories and both effective and economically sound practices. The adult educators themselves acquire experience according to a life-long learning pattern.

As the research on adult education is growing we are made more and more aware of the shortages of our field. There is no professional body that could at present uphold uniform codes and standards, and many of the principles (like sustainable development) are only step by step becoming chrystallized. Still, philosophical debate and general direction of research in our foundation disciplines like social sciences and psychology are making valid adult education research possible, and the field is studying critically its prevailing practices.

Basic text

Kari E. Nurmi, Foundations of Adult Education
Lambert Mulder

Lecture plan

Monday 19.4.

1.1 Links of epistemology, ethics and anthropology to adult education

- Central questions of philosophical inquiry and their relation to adult education: knowledge construction, value-realizing, man and andragology

- Are questions presented by Socrates / Plato / Aristotle (or Confucius / Guatemala Siddharta / Jewish and Islamic sages) relevant for modern adult education? How we would answer them, or equivalent modern questions you would find more relevant?

- How knowledge depends on its expression: an odyssey to cyberspace

Lecturers: Lambeert Mulder and Kari E. Nurmi

General literature

Aristotle, Politics Book VIII.

Tuesday 20.4.

- Adult education activities and research in the social thought and research of tradition, modernity and late modernity (or postmodernity, to put it bluntly)

- How virtuality and networking are affecting adult education

- Personal life politics & civil society or politics of worldwide educational cooperation as challenges for agendas in postmodernity

General Literature

Anthony Giddens, The emergence of life politics (p. 209-231 of Modernity and Self-Identity, 1991).

4. Future society of Jurassic Park and Independence Day or 1984 and Star Wars

Past history, present reality and futurology of Adult Education with excerpts from films & with discussion

General Literature

Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

George Lucas , Empire Strikes Back

Wednesday 21.4.

- What do a model of learning and a model of developmental sequence mean in terms of adult educational practice?

- What do they mean in personal terms: how could I develop to expert in adult education?

- An andragogical psychology for professionalism?

Literature

Peter Jarvis, Paradoxes of Learning

Thursday 22.4.

7. Own future competencies and adult education career options

A summary of the course from the point of view of competence development, available jobs and competition from other specialties

- with discussion

Friday 23.4.