Adult Civic Engagement in Adult Learning E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: J-B ACE Single Issue Adult & Continuing Eeducation
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 208

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Take an in-depth look at adult learning and education forcitizenship and civic engagement. This issue presents thefoundational connections between the adult education and civicengagement movements. It's filled with studies on adultlearning for participatory or deliberate democratic change andengagement at the local grassroots level. Contributors considercivic engagement in their areas of research and practice andexplore the formal and informal ways that citizens come to learn,to deliberate, and to act on the social issues they find importantlocally and globally. As a result, the volume offers broad examplesof different types of formal and informal adult learning for civicengagement. This is 135th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterlyreport series New Directions for Adult and ContinuingEducation. Noted for its depth of coverage, it explores issuesof common interest to instructors, administrators, counselors, andpolicymakers in a broad range of adult and continuing educationsettings, such as colleges and universities, extension programs,businesses, libraries, and museums.

Leseprobe

Contents

Editors’ Notes

Chapter 1: Civic Engagement in the United States: Roots and Branches

Roots of Civic Engagement

Foundations of the Modern Movement

Branches of Adult Civic Education

Conclusion

References

Chapter 2: Deliberative Democracy and Adult Civic Education

Wicked Problems

The Limits of Adversarial and Expert Forms of Politics

Implications for Adult Civic Education

Democratic Engagement Through Deliberative Politics

Deliberative Democracy and Adult Civic Education

Conclusion

References

Chapter 3: Dimensions of Immigrant Integration and Civic Engagement: Issues and Exemplary Programs

What Do We Mean by Immigrant Integration?

Dimensions of Immigrant Integration

National, State, and Municipal Efforts to Support Civic Integration of Immigrants

Exceptional Programs in Immigrant Integration, Adult Education, and Civic Engagement

Conclusion

References

Chapter 4: Exploring the Meaning of Civic Engagement in the United States: Mexican Immigrants in Central Texas

Civic Engagement and the Practice of Adult Education

Civic Engagement Among Immigrants in the United States

Study Participants

Civic Engagement and U.S. Naturalization

Civic Responsibility: Following the Rules, Improving Lives, and Higher Self-Worth

Conclusion

References

Chapter 5: Civic Engagement and Environmental Literacy

The Convergence of Moments

Civic Engagement

Environmental Literacy

Creating Socially Responsive Knowledge

The Rise of the Ecolate Citizen

From Ecolacy to Earth Pedagogy

Activism as a Necessary Component of Environmental Literacy

Confronting Techno-empiricist/Positivist Knowledge

Thwarting Environmental Literacy, Assassinating Civic Engagement

Environmental Literacy: Hope for the Future

References

Chapter 6: Learning from the Grassroots: Exploring Democratic Adult Learning Opportunities Connected to Grassroots Organizations

Learning and Grassroots Organizations

Overview of Research

Research Questions

Findings

Critical Feminist Theory

Conclusion

References

Chapter 7: Critically Minded Shopping as a Process of Adult Learning and Civic Engagement

Key Concepts

Shopping-as-Learning: A Research Project

Critical Shoppers as Engaged Learners

References

Chapter 8: Blog, Chat, Edit, Text, or Tweet? Using Online Tools to Advance Adult Civic Engagement

Tools for Engagement

Conclusion

References

Chapter 9: The Varieties of Adult Civic Engagement in Adult Learning

Governance and Communities of Practice

Immigrant Integration and Civic Engagement

Methods of Engagement

Conclusion

References

Index

Other Titles Available

The Handbook of Transformative Learning

Adult Civic Engagement in Adult Learning

Linda Muñoz, Heide Spruck Wrigley (eds.)

New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 135

Susan Imel, Jovita M. Ross-Gordon, Coeditors-in-Chief

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Editors’ Notes

In this New Directions, the editors bring together a series of essays on adult learning for citizenship and civic engagement. Boggs (1991) writes that it is at the local level that individuals learn to engage with those issues that influence their lives and that “engender excitement and commitment” (p. 114). However, just as individuals at a local level make decisions that influence how they want to live their everyday lives (for example, buying local produce or deciding to boycott a product or store), their choices are part of a greater network of conditions and influences (Brodie, Cowling, and Nissen, 2009). Similarly, as individuals and local communities participate in face-to-face or online forums to discuss public policy and governance affecting their lives, adult learning and democratic deliberation cross back and forth from local to global issues. The foundational connections between adult education movement and civic engagement and more recent studies on adult learning for participatory or deliberate democratic change and engagement at the local grassroots level are represented in each of the chapters in the book.

Susan Imel grounds Chapter One with a history of the intersection of adult civic education and adult education movements, recognizing the activities prior to the formal beginning of the field of adult education in the 1920s and moving on to the changes in the form and character of the movements through the 1950s. Although she recognizes that the two movements, adult education and civic engagement, are not interchangeable, their goals, purposes, and designs throughout the years have complemented each other. The underlying theme in adult civic engagement (regardless of the changes in the means and methods of communication and dissemination) remains the need of citizens and communities to continue to work out solutions to problems that arise in democratic societies.

In the second chapter, Martin Carcasson and Leah Sprain argue that the problems of the twenty-first century cannot be adequately deliberated or addressed in current civic education programs. They introduce the concept of “wicked problems,” or those problems that resist solutions and require systemic changes—change that can only be achieved through a deliberative process of communication and debate. In their discussion, they look at adversarial and expert politics and suggest that neither form can adequately address the social issues that entail sets of problems that are complex and interdependent. The authors suggest alternative ways, describing how the deliberative democracy movement can provide the tools to build the civic capacity of citizens and communities.

In Chapter Three, Heide Spruck Wrigley offers a look at exemplary immigrant integration efforts that engage both long-term residents and newcomers on issues relevant to civic life. In these programs, groups collaborate to provide educational opportunities for different groups (including the use of language access), find ways to contribute to community life and extend equitable access to services, including those that offer English and training for jobs that offer family sustaining wages. In her article, she maintains that successful immigrant integration efforts can function at all levels of the national sphere, federal, state, and local but points out that in the United States there is no explicit policy framework that knits disparate policies into a coherent whole. She suggests that successful immigrant integration involves a shared vision of how newcomers and existing communities might work together to build a healthy society in which groups of different colors and cultural backgrounds can put down roots and thrive. Dynamic adult learning and civic engagement that link different groups can contribute to this vision.

In Chapter Four, Linda Muñoz introduces the voices of six Mexican immigrants in central Texas. She recounts how these immigrants—some naturalized citizens, some legal permanent residents—understand their roles and responsibilities in the United States. Through their experiences learning to live in the United States as new immigrants, all six believed that it was their responsibility to engage in some way in their communities. Several named voting as one of their responsibilities as citizens, and all six stressed the importance for immigrants to be workers and taxpayers, to have goals, to follow the laws of the country, and to learn English. The parents among the six thought it was their responsibility to teach their children to be bilingual and bicultural and to help immigrant newcomers to the United States. Muñoz sets these stories in a larger framework of immigrant integration and the experiences that taught these six about being active participants in the lives of their children and their communities.

In Chapter Five, Robert J. Hill looks at civic engagement through the lens of environmental literacy, deconstructing the term and contrasting it with environmental education. Hill emphasizes the need for social action, which he sees as inherent in the definition. He sees the profit motives of larger corporations and globalization as enemies of rapid progress of social movements. He cites concrete examples of actions that have subverted and sabotaged efforts to save the environment. Hill sees some hope in the manifesto of the 99 percent movement that calls not only for social and economic justice but for environmental justice as well.

In Chapter Six, Patricia A. Gouthro explains what we can learn from grassroots organizations. She defines these organizations as places in which people work collectively to make change and help create the kind of society they want to live in. These organizations are places of adult learning for those who run them as well as the volunteers who contribute their time. They provide important opportunities to be involved in governance and active citizenship. Based on research conducted in six community-based organizations, Gouthro shows both the opportunities that are part of the working at the grassroots level (for example, working collectively on a common vision) and the challenges that programs confront: unreasonable government requirement, inadequate funding, competition among agencies, and a shrinking pool of available volunteers. Gouthro frames these issues through a feminine lens, showing how neoliberalism and its increased attention to corporate profits tends to limit the funds available for the civic work that small nongovernmental agencies are able to do while also devaluing the contributions that women outside of the formal workforce make to the well-being of a society.

Kaela Jubas, in Chapter Seven, uses neoliberalism and its focus on consumerism as a starting point for critical reflection on what counts in people’s lives. She uses the points of view, behaviors, and reflections of adults in Vancouver who think critically about the food and goods they buy as a way to illustrate how personal civic engagement is often linked to larger social movements in both action and philosophies. Her interviews with people who shop at farmers’ markets and co-ops and who critically examine the origins of the goods they buy, show them connected to a much wider group of “critical shoppers” who act locally and think globally. Jubas points out that these active shoppers cannot naively assume that every good shopping choice they make is a link in a chain that then limits the exploitation of people and the environment or ensures sustainability. Instead, she points out that consumers still need ballot boxes and legislatures. She illustrates the importance of conversations and discussions about community life and civic values—conversations held among citizens who make conscious choices about shopping and who walk the talk on a daily basis.

In Chapter Eight, Laura W. Black discusses how, over the past 20 years, the Internet has evolved from a largely one-way information-sharing network to a far more participatory social network. This change has vastly increased opportunities for civic engagement. She points out that online digital tools have played an important role in educating and mobilizing community action and global social movements. She identifies and provides a short description of key technologies used on the Internet. These include blogs and websites, social media, mobile devices, online discussion boards, Web conferencing and chat, wikis and other collaborative documents, serious games and virtual worlds. In each of the descriptions Black reviews specific benefits, provides specific examples, and, where appropriate, discusses potential pitfalls of the technology. In her conclusion, Black states that while “there is a great deal of potential for civic engagement online,” “there does not seem to be a magic bullet for engaging everyday citizens in civic action.” Issues of access and how to best combine different features of the Internet to best meet the needs for civic engagement are key questions yet to be answered.

In Chapter Nine, the editors look back at civic engagement in the different areas of adult learning and adult education practice discussed in the volume and reflect on the common themes throughout the essays. We did not want to draw hard lines between adult education and adult learning or civic education and civic engagement in this volume. We wanted the contributors to consider civic engagement in their areas of research and practice and explore the formal and informal ways that citizens come to learn, to deliberate, and to act on the social issues they find important locally and globally. As a result, the volume offers broad examples of different types of formal and informal adult learning for civic engagement. In an early chapter, the authors argue for the effective implementation of deliberative democracy into adult civic education programs within the practice of adult education, while in later chapters, the authors illustrate exemplary programs of immigrant integration, calls for activism centered on environmental literacy that are coupled with scientific awareness, civic engagement, and sustainable development.

Linda Muñoz, Heide Spruck Wrigley

Editors

References

Boggs, D. L. Adult Civic Education. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1991.

Brodie, E., Cowling, E., and Nissen, N. “Understanding Participation: A Literature Review.” Pathways to Participation. May 20, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2011, from http://pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk/resources/.

Linda Muñoz is senior program director of Adult and Developmental Education at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Heide Spruck Wrigley is a researcher with Literacywork International in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and a nonresident fellow with the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy in Washington, D.C.

1

Civic Engagement in the United States: Roots and Branches

Susan Imel

The adult education and civic education movements are not synonymous, but the two were intertwined during the early years of adult education’s formation as a field in the United States.

Although educating adults “for citizenship and for participation in a democratic society” has long been a concern of both adult educators and community leaders, the modern era of adult education for civic engagement is generally associated with the founding of the field of adult education in the 1920s (Heaney, 1996; Stubblefield, 1974, p. 227). This chapter traces the development of adult civic education in the United States, focusing on the 1920s through the 1950s. First, the roots of civic education prior to the 1920s are explored. This is followed by a discussion of the early years of the adult education field, paying particular attention to the influence of Eduard Lindeman. Next, forms of adult civic education from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s are discussed. A final section highlights some key ideas and characteristics of adult civic education during the period.

Roots of Civic Engagement

The formation of adult education as an organized field began in the 1920s (Heaney, 1996; Knowles, 1955). Prior to the 1920s, however, there had been many examples of civic engagement programs for adults, three of which are described following.

Lyceums. One of the most widespread early programs was the lyceum, a type of lecture developed under the leadership of Josiah Holbrook in the 1830s. The lectures provided a platform “for free discussion of subjects of the day and for the expression of ideas in philosophical and scientific fields,” and in the early 1840s, they were part of more than 3,000 communities (Cartwright, 1945, p. 285). By 1845 the lyceum movement was in decline; it was, however, responsible for the development of the lecture-discussion method, a format that would be used widely in future efforts encouraging civic engagement (Knowles, 1955).

Chautauqua. Chautauqua was another nineteenth-century example of adult education that promoted civic engagement. Started in 1874 by John Hey Vincent as a means of training Methodist Sunday School teachers, Chautauqua combined “the spirit of the old camp meeting with an earlier institution in American history: the Lyceum” (Feinman, 2010, p. 84). From its origins on Chautauqua Lake in New York, Chautauqua grew into a national movement, moving beyond its original purpose to include arts, education, religion, and recreation. Chautauquas grew up in many communities throughout the United States and sometimes attracted as many as 100,000 participants in a summer season (Feinman, 2010). Like the lyceum, the lecture platform was a main component of Chautauqua, with many lecture topics encouraging civic engagement (Strother, 1912). The Chautauqua movement, however, was broader than the lyceum movement because, among other components, it included a home study program of book discussions known as the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC), resulting in nearly 10,000 local reading circles (Feinman, 2010; Scott, 1999). Years before the formation of the field, Vincent’s ideas about programming for adults had many of “the basic elements of modern adult education theory” (Scott, 1999, p. 391).

Programs for Immigrants. Programs developed for the more than 25 million immigrants who entered the United States between 1880 and 1924 were another early form of adult education that promoted civic engagement (Barrett, 1992). Unions, settlement houses, churches, and other community organizations prepared immigrant adults for their civic responsibilities through both formal and informal means (Barrett, 1992; Powrie, 2008; Seller, 1978). Programs offered a variety of classes, including English and preparation for the citizenship test (Powrie, 2008). Within immigrant communities, many immigrant institutions offered programs (Seller, 1978). Programs with the intent to assist participants to assimilate into American life and culture were sometimes referred to as “Americanization” (Barrett, 1992; Seller, 1978); when the primary goal of the programming was to help participants “to acculturate into existing social order,” it was known as “top down” (Powrie, 2008, p. 256). Other programs, known as “bottom up,” were designed to help participants understand how they could be involved in working for social justice and challenge the status quo or worldview that was presented by Americanization programs (Barrett, 1992; Powrie, 2008). Alternative views to those presented by Americanization programs frequently came from immigrants’ own ethnic communities (Barrett, 1992).

The programs discussed in this section—lyceums, Chautauqua, and programs for immigrants—are only three examples of the type of programs that encouraged civic engagement by adults prior to the organization of adult education as a field. They were formed out of different motivations but all had an interest in promoting a democratic society.

Foundations of the Modern Movement

In the 1920s, when the Carnegie Foundation provided funds for adult education, the stage was set for the emergence of the modern era of programs promoting civic engagement. After touring European nations, where he saw adult education movements that were national in scope, Fredrick Keppel, the new president of the Carnegie Corporation, returned to the United States with a goal of establishing a more integrated movement in this country. After a series of conferences, the American Association for Adult Education (AAAE) was founded in 1926 with funds from the Carnegie Foundation (Cartwright, 1945; Knowles, 1955).

Keppel’s actions coincided with a period of changing conditions in the United States that had started before World War I and continued after, including weakened economic conditions. The period was also one in which totalitarian governments began to rise in Europe (Stubblefield, 1976). Adult education was seen as a means of helping adults adapt to and address changing conditions and develop their capacities for the common good (Brown, 1936).

Beginning in the 1920s and continuing throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Eduard Lindeman was a primary actor in the formation of the field of adult education in the United States, including its definition and philosophical foundations (Brookfield, 1984; Heaney, 1996; Stewart, 1987). In 1924, Lindeman was one of seven men appointed to the Carnegie Corporation’s advisory board on adult education and was involved in many of the conversations that led to AAAE’s founding (Stewart, 1987). Lindeman’s book The Meaning of Adult Education (1926) laid out his initial thinking about adult education and represented one of the first efforts to define the field (Heaney, 1996).

Lindeman’s ideas about adult education continued to develop during the 1930s and 1940s (Brookfield, 1984; Stewart, 1987). Borrowing from his colleague John Dewey, Lindeman’s ideas about adult education were progressive in nature (Heaney, 1996; Stewart, 1987). As a progressive, Lindeman felt that adults should be able to participate in decisions that affected them, and thus adult education was essential for a democratic society (Heaney, 1996). Lindeman thought that “discussion was the method unique to adult education” (Brookfield, 1984, p. 192) because he believed that adults need to discuss the situations in which they find themselves (Lindeman, 1926).

Other leaders in adult education during this period expressed similar sentiments about adult education and its relationship to maintaining a democratic society. Dorothy Hewitt, who founded the Boston Center for Adult Education in 1933, wrote that “to strengthen and invigorate the dynamic for democracy is therefore an inescapable part of the task of education in this second third of the twentieth century” (Hewitt and Mather, 1937, p. 3). Lucy Wilcox Adams proposed the development of a national civic education movement that would prepare adults for their role in a democratic society (Adams, 1933). John Studebaker (1935) maintained that forum discussions were essential to successful democracy, believing that free and impartial discussion allowed adults to become informed and active citizens.

How did the belief that there was a connection between adult education and democracy reveal itself in practice? Several programs designed to promote adult civic education are described in the next section.

Branches of Adult Civic Education

In the post–World War I era, a number of terms were used to describe the prevailing idea of “intelligent citizen,” including “political competence, political intelligence, social intelligence, civic intelligence, and adult civic literacy” (Stubblefield, 1976, pp. 265–266). The adult education programs that were developed to help adults achieve this image were frequently based on the ideas of Lindeman, with many making extensive use of the discussion method. Although the forum was probably the best known of the adult education programs, it is only one of many types that flourished during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

California Discussion Groups. In 1929, the Carnegie Foundation provided a grant to establish the California Association for Adult Education (CAAE) with Lyman Bryson as its director. The goal of the association was to provide adults with opportunities to discuss public issues under trained leadership (personal communication with E. Adams, 2008). Branch libraries were used as sites for discussions. In the Los Angeles area, a series of discussions titled “Modern Political Experiments and Their Leaders” was held, drawing a group of about 25 persons from every section of the community. “The presentation of the political and economic significance of Bolshevism and fascism as attempts to solve the problems of the industrial era aroused considerable heat, but it led to a freer and more impersonal estimate of American institutions and policies than had seemed possible among so mixed a group” (Adams, 1932, p. 61). Initially, funding for the group leaders had been provided by CAAE, but when leadership did not emerge from the groups, it became difficult to keep them going due to limited library budgets (Adams, 1932). Over a five-year period from 1929 to 1934, the discussion groups changed as the experiences of the participants changed; in the early period, participants could use talk as a means of making sense of their experiences during the Depression. Later groups became more diverse in terms of participant socioeconomic status, and they became less about education and more about places where prejudice and propaganda were on display (Adams, 1935).

Forums