This paper describes the results of a study concerning the cultural identity of adult learners in... more This paper describes the results of a study concerning the cultural identity of adult learners in graduate programs at the University of Georgia. Employing analytic induction research design the research team, itself a culturally diverse group of graduate students and professors, analyzes focus group transcript data. The conclusion is reached that verbal statements aside, cultural identity is complex and manifested situationally. Adult educators are advised to adopt sophisticated tools to assess learner identity issues in order to challenge learners to think more critically about their assumptions and biases toward those who are culturally different.
W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the brightest lights in African American history, wrote a sparkling crit... more W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the brightest lights in African American history, wrote a sparkling critique of the American social and economic system originally planned as part of the Bronze Booklets series, edited and published by Alain Locke and the Associates in Negro Folk Education. The piece was never published and has, until now, been lost to the annals of adult education history. Using historical evidence, the authors examine Du Bois’s Basic American Negro Creed and the circumstances that led to its exclusion from the series. It is argued that the Creed was far too radical for the liberal minded Carnegie Corporation and its leaders who were only interested in accommodat-ing adult education for Blacks through the AAAE funded Bronze Booklets. The exclu-sion of the Creed represents an example of repressive tolerance by the AAAE.
Alain Leroy Locke was born in 1886 during the post-reconstruction era and died a month before the... more Alain Leroy Locke was born in 1886 during the post-reconstruction era and died a month before the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. An intellectual steeped in the realities of color in 20th Century America, Locke possessed a range of interests that makes chronicling and interpreting his career in adult education challenging. Nevertheless, he is most commonly known for his leadership in the New Negro movement of the 1920s. However, he was a leading African American figure in the adult education movement of the 1930s. In 1947 he became president of the American Associate for Adult Education. This paper fills in the gaps in knowledge regarding Alain Locke the adult educator. Particular attention is paid to Locke\u27s philosophy of cultural pluralism and adult education
Adult education historical narratives tend to reflect a majoritarian view in which the theoretica... more Adult education historical narratives tend to reflect a majoritarian view in which the theoretical formulations of African American and other persons of color tend to be minimized or forgotten. Drawing on the concept of counter narrative and Ricoeur’s concept of “happy forgetting”, we argue that selectivity in constructing adult education historical knowledge overlooks scholarship in the past 20 years that highlight the theoretical and programmatic contributions to adult education of African American adult educators. We offer two examples for discussion and propose that challenging majoritarian narratives involves conscious and critical reflection on historical method and the re-telling of counter narratives as a step toward reconstructing adult education historical knowledge. Adult education historians, with rare exception, have found themselves on the margin of adult educational discourse and debate (e.g., Carlson, 1980; Stubblefield, 1991). Apart from a flurry of scholarship in t...
Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogi... more Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogically useful to analyze and interpret racialized narrative in order to reveal and challenge racial injustice. Implications for classroom practice are offered as a means to assist adult educators and learners to meaningfully learn across racial boundaries while acknowledging the way in which power and privilege shape epistemology. Introduction In the wake of the election of Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States of America, and a turn toward a transcendent ideology of race, some proclaimed that America was ushered into a post-racial era an era when race is insignificant as a signifier and neither racial difference nor race matters as an important social category (e.g., Lum, 2005; McWhorter , 2005). There are two important consequences to post-racialism. On the one hand, racialized discourses (Brookfield, 2003) are suppressed and marginalized in favor of a ...
have been engaged in adult educational work for over 40 years and for the past 23 years I have be... more have been engaged in adult educational work for over 40 years and for the past 23 years I have been fortunate to serve on the faculty at the University of Georgia (UGA). This privilege has been something of a process to close a circle. You see, my mother’s family is from Augusta, Georgia. They were part of the great northern migration that began in the early decades of the 20th century. My grandparents, Louis and Ellen Carter, raised a family at a time when neither they nor their children could attend UGA. Jim Crow segregation foreclosed the opportunity to attend the state's premiere institution of higher education. All but one of my mother's brothers and sisters left Georgia seeking a better life because they just could not imagine one living in Georgia. It was some 50 years later in 1961 that UGA was finally desegregated---well beyond my grandparents’ lifetimes. My grandparents were fiercely committed to education and instilled that value in all of their children. My mothe...
The purpose of this study is to understand the diffusion and adoption of lifelong learning policy... more The purpose of this study is to understand the diffusion and adoption of lifelong learning policy discourses at the global and national levels by examining the policies of recognition of learning outcomes across 35 countries in Europe, employing content analysis and statistical analysis. Findings, conclusions and limitations are discussed. Introduction Lifelong learning is being highlighted and discussed by policy makers around the world. International organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Commission (EC) have played critical roles in propagating lifelong education and lifelong learning policies to their member states since the early 1970s. A growing number of states have begun to appreciate the idea and attempted to adopt the policy idea of lifelong learning in national education policy since the late 1990s (UNESCO, 2012). The concept of ...
The adult education literature is clearly lacking as a source of knowledge about learning among A... more The adult education literature is clearly lacking as a source of knowledge about learning among African Americans. This study examined the motivations for learning among African Ameri-can adults in three church-based adult education programs. A survey was developed to identify learners ’ motivations. A seven-factor structure was selected as the most conceptually mean-ingful in explaining their motivations. Four factors were identified that are consistent with find-ings of prior research, and three factors appear to contribute new insights into adults ’ motiva-tions to learn. The African American church as a site for learning is discussed in light of these motivations. Due to social segregation and racism, the church has served a unique role in the African American community, often functioning as a social agency providing mul-tiple services including education. Historically, many African Americans turned to the church as a site for learning. The church not only served as a place of s...
The purpose of the study is to understand the process of professional learning of Chief Diversity... more The purpose of the study is to understand the process of professional learning of Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) who work in higher education. Professionals who become CDOs come from a variety of backgrounds and rely on professional experiences, along with “on-the-job” learning rather than pre-service education to navigate the role of a diversity executive. Cervero (2001) stated the importance of continued professional education to continue learning so that individuals develop and enhance their practice. Professional learning is important for diversity executives who are in higher education because there is no pre-service formal education program, and the profession is still developing a common body of knowledge. For this study, professional learning is framed as a combination of continuing professional education, the context of work, and individual experiences. Daley (2000) supports the combination of the three areas to have optimal learning in professions. This roundtable discuss...
In this paper I argue that adult education history has maintained a racialist as well as sexist b... more In this paper I argue that adult education history has maintained a racialist as well as sexist bias in the provenance of historical knowledge about the field. Drawing on critical race theory and critical educational history scholarship, I review selected adult education histories and query their absence in dominant narratives about adult education theory and practice. Based on this analysis I draw several conclusions about the construction of the adult education knowledge.
... of an Africentric phi-losophy of adult education espousing many of the principles contained i... more ... of an Africentric phi-losophy of adult education espousing many of the principles contained in the Ki-swahili Nguzo Saba, an indigenous ... investigations in the area of so-cial identity development of Blacks include the works of Cross (1991), and Cross, Parham, and Helms (1991 ...
Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogi... more Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogically useful to analyze and interpret racialized narrative in order to reveal and challenge racial injustice. Implications for classroom practice are offered as a means to assist adult educators and learners to meaningfully learn across racial boundaries while acknowledging the way in which power and privilege shape epistemology.
This paper describes the results of a study concerning the cultural identity of adult learners in... more This paper describes the results of a study concerning the cultural identity of adult learners in graduate programs at the University of Georgia. Employing analytic induction research design the research team, itself a culturally diverse group of graduate students and professors, analyzes focus group transcript data. The conclusion is reached that verbal statements aside, cultural identity is complex and manifested situationally. Adult educators are advised to adopt sophisticated tools to assess learner identity issues in order to challenge learners to think more critically about their assumptions and biases toward those who are culturally different.
W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the brightest lights in African American history, wrote a sparkling crit... more W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the brightest lights in African American history, wrote a sparkling critique of the American social and economic system originally planned as part of the Bronze Booklets series, edited and published by Alain Locke and the Associates in Negro Folk Education. The piece was never published and has, until now, been lost to the annals of adult education history. Using historical evidence, the authors examine Du Bois’s Basic American Negro Creed and the circumstances that led to its exclusion from the series. It is argued that the Creed was far too radical for the liberal minded Carnegie Corporation and its leaders who were only interested in accommodat-ing adult education for Blacks through the AAAE funded Bronze Booklets. The exclu-sion of the Creed represents an example of repressive tolerance by the AAAE.
Alain Leroy Locke was born in 1886 during the post-reconstruction era and died a month before the... more Alain Leroy Locke was born in 1886 during the post-reconstruction era and died a month before the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. An intellectual steeped in the realities of color in 20th Century America, Locke possessed a range of interests that makes chronicling and interpreting his career in adult education challenging. Nevertheless, he is most commonly known for his leadership in the New Negro movement of the 1920s. However, he was a leading African American figure in the adult education movement of the 1930s. In 1947 he became president of the American Associate for Adult Education. This paper fills in the gaps in knowledge regarding Alain Locke the adult educator. Particular attention is paid to Locke\u27s philosophy of cultural pluralism and adult education
Adult education historical narratives tend to reflect a majoritarian view in which the theoretica... more Adult education historical narratives tend to reflect a majoritarian view in which the theoretical formulations of African American and other persons of color tend to be minimized or forgotten. Drawing on the concept of counter narrative and Ricoeur’s concept of “happy forgetting”, we argue that selectivity in constructing adult education historical knowledge overlooks scholarship in the past 20 years that highlight the theoretical and programmatic contributions to adult education of African American adult educators. We offer two examples for discussion and propose that challenging majoritarian narratives involves conscious and critical reflection on historical method and the re-telling of counter narratives as a step toward reconstructing adult education historical knowledge. Adult education historians, with rare exception, have found themselves on the margin of adult educational discourse and debate (e.g., Carlson, 1980; Stubblefield, 1991). Apart from a flurry of scholarship in t...
Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogi... more Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogically useful to analyze and interpret racialized narrative in order to reveal and challenge racial injustice. Implications for classroom practice are offered as a means to assist adult educators and learners to meaningfully learn across racial boundaries while acknowledging the way in which power and privilege shape epistemology. Introduction In the wake of the election of Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States of America, and a turn toward a transcendent ideology of race, some proclaimed that America was ushered into a post-racial era an era when race is insignificant as a signifier and neither racial difference nor race matters as an important social category (e.g., Lum, 2005; McWhorter , 2005). There are two important consequences to post-racialism. On the one hand, racialized discourses (Brookfield, 2003) are suppressed and marginalized in favor of a ...
have been engaged in adult educational work for over 40 years and for the past 23 years I have be... more have been engaged in adult educational work for over 40 years and for the past 23 years I have been fortunate to serve on the faculty at the University of Georgia (UGA). This privilege has been something of a process to close a circle. You see, my mother’s family is from Augusta, Georgia. They were part of the great northern migration that began in the early decades of the 20th century. My grandparents, Louis and Ellen Carter, raised a family at a time when neither they nor their children could attend UGA. Jim Crow segregation foreclosed the opportunity to attend the state's premiere institution of higher education. All but one of my mother's brothers and sisters left Georgia seeking a better life because they just could not imagine one living in Georgia. It was some 50 years later in 1961 that UGA was finally desegregated---well beyond my grandparents’ lifetimes. My grandparents were fiercely committed to education and instilled that value in all of their children. My mothe...
The purpose of this study is to understand the diffusion and adoption of lifelong learning policy... more The purpose of this study is to understand the diffusion and adoption of lifelong learning policy discourses at the global and national levels by examining the policies of recognition of learning outcomes across 35 countries in Europe, employing content analysis and statistical analysis. Findings, conclusions and limitations are discussed. Introduction Lifelong learning is being highlighted and discussed by policy makers around the world. International organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Commission (EC) have played critical roles in propagating lifelong education and lifelong learning policies to their member states since the early 1970s. A growing number of states have begun to appreciate the idea and attempted to adopt the policy idea of lifelong learning in national education policy since the late 1990s (UNESCO, 2012). The concept of ...
The adult education literature is clearly lacking as a source of knowledge about learning among A... more The adult education literature is clearly lacking as a source of knowledge about learning among African Americans. This study examined the motivations for learning among African Ameri-can adults in three church-based adult education programs. A survey was developed to identify learners ’ motivations. A seven-factor structure was selected as the most conceptually mean-ingful in explaining their motivations. Four factors were identified that are consistent with find-ings of prior research, and three factors appear to contribute new insights into adults ’ motiva-tions to learn. The African American church as a site for learning is discussed in light of these motivations. Due to social segregation and racism, the church has served a unique role in the African American community, often functioning as a social agency providing mul-tiple services including education. Historically, many African Americans turned to the church as a site for learning. The church not only served as a place of s...
The purpose of the study is to understand the process of professional learning of Chief Diversity... more The purpose of the study is to understand the process of professional learning of Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) who work in higher education. Professionals who become CDOs come from a variety of backgrounds and rely on professional experiences, along with “on-the-job” learning rather than pre-service education to navigate the role of a diversity executive. Cervero (2001) stated the importance of continued professional education to continue learning so that individuals develop and enhance their practice. Professional learning is important for diversity executives who are in higher education because there is no pre-service formal education program, and the profession is still developing a common body of knowledge. For this study, professional learning is framed as a combination of continuing professional education, the context of work, and individual experiences. Daley (2000) supports the combination of the three areas to have optimal learning in professions. This roundtable discuss...
In this paper I argue that adult education history has maintained a racialist as well as sexist b... more In this paper I argue that adult education history has maintained a racialist as well as sexist bias in the provenance of historical knowledge about the field. Drawing on critical race theory and critical educational history scholarship, I review selected adult education histories and query their absence in dominant narratives about adult education theory and practice. Based on this analysis I draw several conclusions about the construction of the adult education knowledge.
... of an Africentric phi-losophy of adult education espousing many of the principles contained i... more ... of an Africentric phi-losophy of adult education espousing many of the principles contained in the Ki-swahili Nguzo Saba, an indigenous ... investigations in the area of so-cial identity development of Blacks include the works of Cross (1991), and Cross, Parham, and Helms (1991 ...
Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogi... more Synoptic judgment, understood as the act of seeing diverse perspectives, is presented as pedagogically useful to analyze and interpret racialized narrative in order to reveal and challenge racial injustice. Implications for classroom practice are offered as a means to assist adult educators and learners to meaningfully learn across racial boundaries while acknowledging the way in which power and privilege shape epistemology.
Uploads
Papers by Talmadge Guy