Lorilee R. Sandmann

Review: Challenge and Change: Creating a New Era of Collaboration in Adult Continuing EducationChallenge and Change: Creating a New Era of Collaboration in Adult Continuing Education, edited by MasonRobert C. and YoungWilliam H.. (1993). LEPS Press, Northern Illinois University, Gabel 200B, DeKalb, IL 60115. (815) 752-9362. 124 pages.

M n Pittman, associate kean of continuing education at the University of Iowa and author of one of the chaptels in this edited volume, summarizes the current problematic situation in the adult education field: Profmrs of adult education and practitioners of collegiate-level continuing education have separate htorical mts, differing ideologies, and widely divergent vim of the p u p and realities of American education. While they share the same physical and bureaucratic environment4e universitythe realitis of their existence are remarkably different. Each group has developed critical vim of the other. (p. 55) It is this long-standing tension between academics and practitioners that serves as the basis for CMlenge and Change: C r a g a New Era of(lxMwr& in

18.95 (softcover).

In Australia, the two principal streams of emancipatory adult education have been focused on the liberal tradition of freedom from traditional social and religious constraints through learning and on having su,?pressed groups understand and overthrow the conditions of their oppression. Australians appear to be having difficulty coping with the 1990s--a period of radical social, cultural, political, economic, and technological change. The movement of adult education toward an ethos of personal growth has been hindered by a strong developing governmental view that education should meet government priorities for an educated work force and reduced unemployment figures. The view that suggests that education for disadvantaged people should be the only priority for spending in adult education ignores some important elements that are becoming apparent in the postmodern world. Two of those are that this is a high risk society and that the essential means of understanding the self are now changing dramatically. The vocational world is becoming inherently unstable and not only new skills but new attitudes are required to sustain coherence and stability. To price adults out of education is shortsighted and risks being highly discriminatory. Social life is also inherently unstable. Adult education gives people opportunities through which they can create and recreate their futures. Life planning is a good example of the construction of meaning through adult education. It suggests that life is about options and choices; it is about providing ones own