|
Title: The Foundations of Adult Education in
Canada Anyone who has ever taught or planned a program for adults, conducted research in this area or had an interest in the nature of the discipline has spent endless hours sorting through the maze of adult education literature looking for Canadian perspectives in this field. Finally, under one cover Selman and Dampier have provided us with a well constructed and amply documented volume that does justice to the lively adult education scene in Canada. The Foundations of Adult Education in Canada is a discussion of the unique characteristics of both the field of practice and the field of study with an emphasis on the most recent decades. As the title suggests, the authors describe the fundamentals of the enterprise - definitions, functions and philosophy, participation, program development, public policy and the contemporary scene. The book provides a rich and insightful explanation of "What is Canadian about Canadian adult education?". Over the years adult education has been criticized for many things including its lack of precision in definition. Chapter 1 greets this criticism head on by describing the differences between the education of adults and adult education, clarifying the distinctions between related terms and outlining the broad categories pertinent to the organization of content in the field. For practitioners new to this subject, the imagery of the continuum in the section on the relationship of the learner to educational resources provides a foundation for understanding learner autonomy. Early in "Definitions and Boundaries", the authors explain that throughout the volume adult education is discussed on three different dimensions - as a set of activities, as an intellectual process in which adults seek to learn things and as a social system which is made up of individuals and organizations. However, the focus of the book is actually on the activity and social system phenomena. Deciding how to make a philosophical foundations section inviting and practical to the reader is a challenge to any author. Selman and Dampier fair well on this count. Threaded through chapter 2 are examples of the functions which adult learning performs in the life of individuals in society as well as scenarios which are presented in the context of adult education to help the reader distinguish the philosophical perspectives. Although the two sections of "Functions and Philosophical Considerations" were written by two different pens, together they act as a backdrop for reflection on the practice of adult education. As the authors mention there is no sustained scholarship in these fields which as been produced in English speaking Canada and the section of the chapter on philosophical matters is hopefully the beginning of a new process. For those readers engaged in the terminology debate it may have been useful in this section to refer to the recent attempts to redefine andragogy as opposed to replying solely on Knowles' earlier formulations. Each page of chapter 3 "The Canadian Movement in Context" colourfully describes the connection between Canada's historical experience as a nation and the form and content of adult education practice. After tracing the British and American influences on adult education in Canada, the authors outline a number of features of the Canadian experience and how outstanding Canadians responded to these challenges as a people by devising educational responses which met not only their own needs but in many instances had useful application abroad. If the message of the chapter is to leave the reader with a sense that adult education is a reactive enterprise the authors have made their point. One of the central ideas of chapters 4 and 5 relates to the concept of participation in adult learning as a cornerstone in the development of both the field and the discipline. In advancing this argument and promoting the fact that participation must be seen from more than one viewpoint, the authors intertwined the results of the Statistics Canada Adult Education Survey and Tough's efforts at quantifying participation in adult education. Although chapter 4 provides a concise overview of the motivational work of many respected adult educator's such as Verner, Houle, Knowles, Boshier, Cross and Rubenson, there is a mere mention of the methodological shortcomings of their contributions. For a discipline in development such as adult education, this type of information is crucial for both researchers and front-line workers for the advancement of new knowledge and innovative practice. In chapter 5 the authors creatively sketch out a selection of design elements in actual programs to illustrate how practitioners can learn from a developed program as well as the theoretical conception of program planning. A characteristic common to both chapters is the dynamic and purposeful quality of the adult education enterprise. |