Rosemary B. Closson

Critical Race Theory and Adult Education.

Critical race theory (CRT) was developed to examine the persistence of racism. This literature review attempts to understand CRT as it has been applied in related fields such as higher education and possible reasons for its limited application in adult education theorizing about race and racism. This analysis of CRT is framed against a backdrop of the evolution of an adult education discourse on race and racism over several decades and distinguishes CRT from other racial theories that have been used in the field. CRT tenets are discussed using examples that demonstrate how CRT reveals areas of racism left untouched by other forms of theorizing. The author provides a critique of CRT, caveats for those adult educators who might choose to use it, and examples of areas within the field of adult education that might benefit from a CRT lens.

Toward a Race Pedagogy for Black Faculty

Educators are consciously or unconsciously guided by pedagogy and make critical decisions about praxis—content, strategy, structure—based on their pedagogical beliefs. The intentional use of pedagogy is often advanced as a key to being an effective educator. A wealth of literature is directed toward helping White educators develop a race pedagogy, but the authors argue Black educators who teach courses about race face unique challenges and should develop a pedagogical stance consistent with that reality. In this article, the authors analyze different strategies as evidence that Black faculty struggle to develop a pedagogy for teaching race. The authors argue for a purposeful, engaged pedagogy, and contextually informed pedagogy that sets conditions wherein both the educator and student take risks in exposing their authentic self and positionality.

Reflections on a positively deviant course on race and racism

Sociocultural theory and its intersection with Boud and Walker’s model of reflection is used as a framework to understand a surprisingly positive teaching and learning experience in a course on critical race theory. Classroom climate, learner expectations, and cognitive and emotional learner outcomes seem to have played key roles in the success of the course. All learners could point to direct and indirect experiences with racism which seems to support sociocultural theory’s emphasis on the consideration of learners’ personal, cultural context and its influence on the teaching–learning transaction. The authors write this reflection to push their own understanding of what they, and the participants, considered a unique environment.

Book Review: Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts: Promises and ContradictionsHessM. E.BrookfieldS. D. (Eds.) (2008). Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts: Promises and Contradictions. Malabar, FL: Krieger. 278 pp.

that occurs outside of college; and (c) using transfer policies that consistently discount earned credit from other qualified sources, which, consequently, adds time, costs, and frustration to degree attainment. The last chapters describe a new paradigm that uses technology and online tools to maximize the learning capacity for every student, personalizing education to meet their individual needs. This new ecology of learning transforms adult learners from powerless petitioners to careful consumers in their relationships with higher education institutions. These learners shop for the degrees and the learning policies that best align with their circumstances, interests, strengths, and needs. In sum, learning’s emerging new ecology reflects a profound change in relationships among learners, their learning, the workplace, and the colleges and universities that support them. The author successfully accomplishes his objectives throughout the book by relying on research, trend analysis, professional experience, and stories of personal learning in America. However, using the adult learner lens in higher education, it is surprising that Malcolm Knowles, who developed a distinctive conceptual basis for adult education and learning called andragogy, is not mentioned in this book. Smith mostly referred to Allen Tough’s seminal research on Adult’s Learning Projects. I full heartedly recommend this much needed resource to higher education learners, administrators and faculty, employees, business leaders, and policy makers. Focusing on higher education and adult lifelong learning, Smith’s truth is that millions of perfectly capable and intelligent people with the ability to learn are kept away from higher education’s table of opportunity. The book emphasizes three overarching quality indicators important to adult education practice: personalization, customization, and mobility. They ensure that the learning experience is adapted to the needs of the learner without lowering standards. Smith’s statement, “It embraces the learner and learning, reexamines the causes and future consequences of academic failure and rethinks how to create more chances for success in higher education in the years ahead” (p. xvi), says it best. Peter Smith’s book offers a comprehensive road map for institutions to assist learners in finding success in today’s knowledge-driven economy, thereby decreasing the amount of wasted talent in America.

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I became interested in international adult education as a result of being in a doctoral program at Florida State University, where the adult education doctorate was very closely aligned with the International Intercultural Development Education ODE) program. Both programs were housed within the Educational Foundations Department in the College of Education; many of the IIDE students included adult education courses as a part of their curriculum. Additionally, both IIDE and the Adult Education and the Instructional Systems Design program (housed in the Educational Psychology Department) enrolled a significant number of international students from Korea, Latin America, and Africa. I originally intended my graduate focus to be in human resource development. However, not long after engaging in class discussions with international classmates and hearing their quite distinct perspectives, questioning both what they often perceived as very American approaches to learning as well as the value of American ideals and culture, I became attracted to adult education in developing countries. African Countries as the Context for My International Work I have taught in university settings in both Nigeria and Kenya. In both countries, I was fortunate to have not only the opportunity to teach in formal educational environments, but also to design and deliver two nonformal educational programs. In Nigeria, all my students were Nigerian graduate students in an adult education masters program. Most of them worked in adult education agencies and were either on leave or working part-time in order to obtain their masters degrees (not so different from student circumstances in the United States). In Kenya, I was selected to teach in the American-based branch of United States International University (USIU). My charge in both cases was to teach teachers using participatory and learner-centered techniques. Since both Nigerian and Kenyan schooling systems were heavily influenced by British colonialism in the early 1900s, learner-centered approaches do not typically prevail in the schools. However, in Kenya, the state-funded university where the College of Education was housed was on strike, so I taught Introduction to Management and an ethics course in an MBA program at the Kenyan branch of an American university--USIU. At USIU, my students were predominantly middle- to upper-class Kenyans, with a scattering of students from various other countries, such as Norway, Brazil, and Uganda. Some of these students were the children of ambassadors to Kenya. In Nigeria, I initiated a relationship with the Agency for Mass Education (AME) which was responsible for adult literacy programs throughout Borno State. Borno, one of 36 Nigerian states, had a population of approximately 3 million people in 1994 when I was there. I was granted an opportunity to visit several of these programs around Maidugnri (the state capital)--two programs for women and a program for tradespersons. Additionally, I had many conversations with Bintu, my friend and our cook, who experienced multiple frustrations in learning to read through adult literacy programs in Maiduguri. Based on my observations of the visited programs and Bintuss tales of woe, I asked if I could conduct a needs assessment of literacy program supervisors and program directors to ascertain if a professional development program for supervisors might be beneficial. Based on the results, I wrote a proposal to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to fund a program consisting of three components: low- or no-cost materials; supervisory practices; and teaching tips. After the UNDP granted funding, we added skills training for women, which included how to purify water and how to store vegetables. I had two goals: a) provide the needed training and b) model a collaborative planning process between the AME and the university adult education faculty. …