| CODE | ACA5064 | ||||||||||||||||
| TITLE | Theoretical Foundations and Issues in Adult Education | ||||||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education | ||||||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This wide ranging study-unit is intended to cover some of the main areas characterising adult continuing education and the discourse surrounding it. The first section centres around the larger encompassing areas. These include the debate around Lifelong Education/Learning. This will start with the old UNESCO discourse on Lifelong Education connected with the effort to provide and valorise different forms of education for everyone, including Formal, Nonformal and Informal education. Emphasis will be placed on the recognition of Indigenous and nonformal forms of popular education. We then discuss in the second session the transition from 'geographical majority world' concerns with a Western propelled transition to Lifelong Learning with special emphasis on the emergence of Neoliberalism and the changing nature of the State. We will discuss how lifelong learning connected with responsibilisation changed the nature of the education discourse reflecting the changing nature of the state. This is the transition from the welfare or social state to the neoliberal state with minimal social intervention. How does the hegemonic dominating doxa of Lifelong Learning suit this scenario and how is it played out in policy documents and incentive driven scenarios? Is Lifelong Learning the trojan horse of Neoliberalism? We then move on to alternative conceptualisations of lifelong learning: rather than for production, competitivity and consumption to people as multidimensional social actors and relational beings. We will take a critical look at lifelong learning and the WEF's so-called 4th Industrial Revolution: who does it favour? We also discuss the UN's Sustainable development goals, posing similar questions. The second half takes us across different themes in adult education such as Adult Education and the world of work, adult education and women, adult education and popular education, adult literacy campaigns, faith based adult education, adult education and older adults, adult education and disability, adult education and communities, including the Danish and other Folk High schools, adult learning and social movements; adult education migration and climate change. All these topics are covered in the set texts for the course unit. Study-Unit Aims: 1, To provide an expansive view of the field; 2. To furnish a global south and global North standpoint regarding this amorphous field; 3. To provide different angles from which adult education, and its major global policies, can be viewed: race, gender, class, age and ability perspectives; 4. To connect these perspectives in what is known as intersectionality; 5. To expose the underlying politics and interests of global and specific national or local policies in the field, e.g the EU Memo on LLL or the UN's SDGs; 6. To contrast the concerns behind the different paradigms: Human Capital Theory, HRD, Popular Education, Independent Working Class Education, Feminism, Anti-racist theory; 7. To expose students to various landmarks in the history of adult education from different contexts and continents; 8. To provide a global view of the field. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. Appraise social theory in adult education well and coherently; 2. List manifest and latent functions of LLL and AE; 3. Interpret issues in adult education using an intersectional perspective; and 4. Identify implications of the different doxa or buzzwords connected to LLL and AE. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. Critically appraise different policy discourses pertinent to AE and LLL; 2. Relate issues in adult education to the vantage points of people located differently in power/politics discourse; 3. Develop innovative approaches to adult education; and 4. Reframe social difference and biodiversity in one's critique and one's dreaming of alternatives. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Set Texts English, Leona and Mayo, Peter (2012) Learning with Adults. A critical Pedagogical Introduction, Leyden,Brill/Sense Lifelong Learning in Later Life. A Handbook Further Reading Abdi, Ali. A and Kapoor, Dip (eds.).(2009). Global perspectives on adult education, London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. English, Leona and Mayo, Peter (2018) Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice and Sustainability, Palgrave- Macmillan. Foley, Griff (ed.) (2004) Dimensions of Adult Learning. Adult Education and Training in a Global Era, Sydney: Allen and Unwin; London: McGraw-Hill./Open University Press. Finsden, brian and Formosa, Marvin (2011) Lifelong Learning in Later life. A Handbook in Older Adult Learning, Brill-Sense. Torres, Carlos Alberto (2013) Political Sociology of Adult Education, Rotterdam, Boston and Taipei: Sense Publishers., peter Lang Wain, Kenneth (2004) The Learning Society in a Postmodern World. The Education Crisis Waugh, Colin (2009). Plebs. The lost legacy of independent working class education. Occasional paper. Sheffield, UK: Post 16 Educator. http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/PSE/Home_files/PSE%20Plebs%20pamphlet.pdf Zafiris, George K and Gravani, Maria N (eds) (2014) Challenging the European Area of Lifelong Learning, Dordrecht Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer UIL (2013) Second Global Report on Adult Learning and Education. Rethinking Literacy (GRALE Report), Hamburg UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002224/222407E.pdf Journals through JSTOR Adult Education Quarterly International Journal of Lifelong Education Studies in the Education of Adults Open access online Convergence. An International Journal of Adult Education https://www.convergencejournal.org/ RELA, Esrea Journal https://rela.ep.liu.se/ |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite Qualification: As with the entire course: undergraduate degree and certified evidence of acquisition of sufficient practice equivalent academically to the practicum of the old face to face MA in Aduult Education offered by the UM or equivalent Co-requisite Study-units: Research methods in this MA course |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Online Learning | ||||||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Maria M. Brown Marvin Formosa Peter Mayo |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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