Search

The profession of adult education provides many excellent opportunities to enhance global understanding. One way for adult educators to become involved in international activities is through the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE). As a federation of adult education organizations that are organized in seven regions throughout the world, the ICAE maintains a series of international networks that are currently focusing on four high priority issues: the education of women, the environment, literacy, and peace and human rights. Adult educators can participate in ICAE activities through its institutional members, including the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) and Coalition of Adult Education Organizations. Among the many ways in which adult educators can become involved in international activities are the following: reading information on international programs available in publications of the ICAE, United Nations, and adult educational organizations in foreign countries; corresponding with foreign pen pals; joining volunteer organizations that sponsor international activities; receiving/housing foreign guests; applying to a foreign exchange program; joining the Peace Corps; and consulting. (This conference presentation also includes detailed information about the history of the author's involvement in the ICAE and her own international activities.) (MN)

This paper is a three-part narrative report of a study in which structured interviews were conducted with 30 professional women in higher education in West Berlin to determine their career attitudes and aspirations. Background information includes an account of the author's preparation for conducting the study and her concern for semantics in translating interview questions from English to German. The description of the method, which incorporates a view of the subjects' and the culture's attitudes toward females as professionals in higher education, is presented in four steps: Gaining an understanding of the administrative structure of the four institutions in West Berlin which were included in the study; gathering information on the comparative numbers of men and women at each rank of the professorial ladder at these institutions; selection of the 30 women to be interviewed; and conducting the actual interviews. Major conclusions discuss implications for the future of women professionals in higher education in West Germany, with two of the findings revealing that (1) most of the women feel that the bias against women in academia is so entrenched that they must not only perform exceptionally, but they must have great courage and strength to persist and advance, and (2) as far as choice of career was concerned, only 11 of the women ended up in their first choice. Of the other 19, at least half cited specific reasons related to discrimination against women for having to choose their second or third career option. (SH)

A growing trend in social science research is to reject those modes that treat individuals as objects of research and to accept the role of catalyst in helping the people to do their own research. Also, there is an increasing demand that results of social research must serve in a timely way to improve the situation of those involved. Participatory research meets these two requirements. Its basic premise is the democratic principle that oppressed and marginalized people can transform their social realities through education, research, and action. The facilitator does not choose the problem, the study method, or persons to carry out the study. The people set priorities and choose a problem, explore the roots of the problem, and research alternatives for correcting root conditions. The solution to one problem makes evident the next problem. Documentation is important but it need not be written. The cases of a group of indigenous women in India and a group of women in a city housing project in the District of Columbia, demonstrate participatory research's applicability in developing and industrialized countries. Adult education graduate students should learn this methodology because social science research is changing. Students need to be taught the following principles: people have to do it themselves; their values and not those of the students must prevail; people must choose their own methodology; people must choose their action priority; people must evaluate their own successes or failures; and what people learn will be the basis for further learning. (YLB)

About 30 years ago, Betty Friedan published "The Feminine Mystique" and changed the lives of millions of women forever. The education of women, the prime vehicle to bring about change, has passed through many phases. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, many kinds of special programs for women blossomed in colleges and universities, continuing education, and training programs. The backlash from men, who felt discriminated against, led to their entrance into these programs and women's entrance into traditionally male programs. In the 1990s, as more women are employed and providing economic support for families, more women participate in continuing education, but do so on a part-time basis. Fortunately, part-time opportunities exist. A major problem that remains is the case of underserved low-income and minority women. The biggest barrier that keeps women from participating in publicly sponsored programs is their sense of hopelessness. One example of a successful method for working with these women prepares graduate students for working in a low-income housing project. These principles are discussed with the students: (1) the community women deserve and must be accorded respect; (2) no agenda, no specific program or project must be planned; (3) success comes in small steps or small things; and (4) fund raising must be done by working with the women. As the women develop and start to consider themselves worthy individuals, their children also begin to see themselves differently. (YLB)

Ethnic minorities are underserved in adult education in the United States. Reasons for the lack of a national education initiative actively promoting education equity for ethnic minorities include the low status of adult education, discrimination, and lack of financial support. Programs of English as a Second Language are examples of good programs that prepare students for employment. However, after program completion, no one supplies cultural nurture to encourage the student to continue with education. Good multicultural programs are operating in the United States, but examples show the ephemeral nature of many programs. The first challenge is to realize that the melting pot concept must be replaced by a concept of cultural pluralism based on the idea that persons from many cultures can live together without forfeiting their cultural heritage. Much cross-cultural education is necessary for the adults in the dominant group to develop this realization. A second challenge is to develop a national policy to provide necessary, relevant, and accessible educational opportunities to minority adults to empower them to make educational decisions based on equity. The third challenge is the question of financing in a time of economic crisis. A fourth challenge is for adult education researchers and writers to exert their efforts in this direction. (YLB)

The International Taskforce on Literacy, which is composed of nongovernmental organizations, has carried the literacy message to people everywhere. Two particularly noteworthy activities of the Taskforce are the People's Launch of International Literacy Year at the International Council for Adult Education conference in Thailand in January 1990 and the Book Launch. The theory, methodology, and practice of the literacy movement has evolved considerably and for the better over the past 2 decades. The first stage was the equating of nonformal education with literacy training in developing countries. The next stage, primarily in developing countries, involved an attempt to tie literacy and numeracy training to specific work situations to keep learners motivated. Problems that arose in this stage included the issue of empowerment and the language question, that is, teaching the native language or English. In a possible third stage, illiteracy was seen as a problem for the developed as well as developing countries. A new development emerged, a thrust to involve learners in assessing their own needs. This involvement would allow learners to participate in program planning, design, and implementation. One more stage in the literacy movement is the illiteracy that all share in a developing world. Even educated people are illiterate in many aspects of life, such as technology, health, human communications, social reform, or spirituality. (YLB)

International adult education can be defined as training and development of insights and values for the purpose of professional action. The frame of reference for international adult education is international understanding. Adult educators can help their students understand why they need to become literate as they examine literacy efforts in other countries and the reasons why literacy matters in various cultures. They can help adults to know themselves and the world so that they may play a responsible part. Courses in international adult education include a review and discussion of the various philosophies of adult education, the history of adult education internationally beginning with the Folk High Schools of Denmark, contributions of individual adult educators like Roby Kidd and George Aker, human geography, and educational practices of various countries. Career opportunities for international adult education graduates include training positions with the World Bank, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and other international organizations; grant writing positions with nonprofit organizations; evaluation positions with philanthropic organizations; development jobs in developing nations; and study group leadership in the United States. Adult educators can fill a great many roles while collaborating with others around the world and helping to promote a peaceful global community. (KC)

Women in development refers to the needs and problems of women in developing countries and the responsibility of industrialized countries to ensure that aid programs serve the best interests of these women. A concern of adult educators is the relationship between adult education and the challenges facing women in the development of their countries. In addition, men and women in the United States must be educated as to ways in which they can be of optimal assistance. Illiteracy and lack of education and training of women contribute to a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, low productivity, and poor conditions of health and welfare. Girls get less schooling than boys; adult women have some opportunities to go to literacy classes, but have difficulty finding the time and energy. Current international activity relating to literacy promotion puts pressure on governments. Some of the most effective literacy work is done by women in nongovernmental organizations. The literacy movement has progressed from its beginnings as a skill taught in nonformal situations to a phase in which learning was connected to carrying out women's responsibilities. Now women require training for productivity. One obvious training opportunity could be provided by agricultural extension workers. Education of women is also the key factor in the area of family health. The only successful way to help women is to help them work toward their own empowerment. (YLB)

The Highlander Folk School was founded as an alternative kind of education with no academic admission requirements, no examinations or grades, and no set curriculum. Hard times were caused by lack of funds and the radical nature of its purpose--to help poor people know their rights and stand up for them. As an undergraduate, Myles Horton, its founder, gained two insights that influenced his future--the negative effect of the isolation of knowledge from practice in the development of democratic principle and an interest in unions. After college, Horton went to Denmark to learn about the Folk High School movement. On November 1, 1932, he established his school in Monteagle, Tennessee. The curriculum grew from needs of the county residents. Four main projects were local community development, training union leadership, organizing farm/labor groups, and civil rights. The school's efforts in union leadership training ended when the unions grew powerful. Highlander's next effort in civil rights grew naturally out of union leadership training, for blacks needed help to organize. This phase of the school's work and consequent legal troubles brought the close of the original Highlander School. Highlander then moved to its present site in New Market, Tennessee. Today the Highlander Research and Education Center has the same educational policy to help people take the lead in solving their current problems: establishment of rural health clinics; stopping the dumping of toxic waste, strip mining and absentee landlords; tax reform; and land use reform. (YLB)

This position paper presents the resolution that adult educators develop and better utilize cable TV as a medium for serving the educational needs of the community. Research into the use of cable technology and special training in cable television for educational purposes are presented as areas of concern for adult educators. (MW)

Participatory research began as a reaction to traditional social science research methodology, which tended to make persons into objects of study. It had its beginnings in Tanzania around 1970, when a group of farmers participated in research to assess and solve the problem of losses of grain harvests. The process grew out of the philosophy of Paulo Freire, which placed the locus of research with the people themselves in any situation where social transformation was the ultimate goal. It included a combination of research, education, and action. A facilitator must be with the people on an ongoing basis, have patience, and provide education in very informal ways. Documentation can occur without any written process. An illustrative case is that of a group of women in India who improved their situation through popular theater. The process was as follows: the women designed productions to initiate discussion, reworked them to portray the problem realistically, and then showed possible scenarios for correcting the problem. Another project in Appalachia shows how indigenous leaders representing a number of groups were trained to solve the problem of a low tax base associated with strip-mined land. Participatory research has been used in many ways to promote primary health care. Results are slow, however, and success may have to be redefined. (YLB)

In large and small countries alike, adult educators can no longer be content with educating adults as though they live in a vacuum but must instead become international adult educators to some extent. This is not to say that adult educators must teach an international subject every day. What it does mean is that they must make international understanding the perimeter or frame of reference for all their professional work. International adult educators live very consciously in the world, not only in their own cities or countries, and they try to see their own countries in a world context and be aware of their own national shortcomings. This in turn brings a perspective into their classrooms that opens the minds of adults to see themselves as responsible actors on the stage of the entire planet. The rapid growth of the International Council for Adult Education is proof that adult educators all over the world have a need and an interest in knowing each other and working together in a shared vision of the role of adult education in enhancing the quality of life on a global scale. As the council's founder, Dr. Roby Kidd was aware that the vast differences between adult education in industrialized and developing nations demand more than comparison of programs in different areas. What is really needed is a commitment among adult educators to mutual understanding and the sharing of personal insights to help others solve their problems. George Aker, Helena Kekkonen, and Adolfo Perez Esquivel are other prominent internationalists in the field of adult education. They have understood the need for and worked for international cooperation in the field of adult education despite the many political, cultural, and religious differences that sometimes make cooperative efforts difficult to develop. (MN)

These proceedings contain the following 12 papers on comparative adult education: "Adult Education as Concept and Structure: An Agenda for Research" (Colin Titmus); "Report on the Context and State of Comparative Adult Education and on Four Publications" (Alexander N. Charters); "Comparative Adult Education Research: Methods and Materials" (Dilnawaz A. Siddiqui); "Adult Education and Social Change: A Comparison of Canada and Sweden" (Kjell Rubenson); "Comparative Study of Adult Education Institutions and Organizations between the United States and Japan by the Use of Characteristics Mirroring Analyses" (Alexander N. Charters and Seiichiro Miura); "Andragogy and China: Cross-Cultural Considerations" (Daniel D. Pratt); "Participatory Research: Are Adult Education Graduate Programs Ready for It?" (Beverly Benner Cassara); "A Comparative Analysis of Recent North American Research on Women and Minorities" (Jovita Martin Ross); "Agricultural Extension Worldwide: Socio-Political, Organizational and Programmatic Characteristics" (William M. Rivera); "A Comparative Study of Andragogy (Adult Education) as a Field of Academic Study in the World" (Claude Touchette); "The Adult Education Center in Germany as a Case of Social Change and Cross-Cultural Comparison" (Klaus Harney); and "Adult Education World-Wide--Revisited" (Jost Reischmann). (KC)