Self-Education: The Founding of Adult Education--Part I.

Overview & Synopsis

Based on the assumption that something is fundamentally wrong at its definitional roots about the concept of adult education upon which the profession is organized, this paper identifies seven troubling characteristics of the profession. These characteristics, which stem from failure to root the definition in philosophical foundations, are (1) the claim that adult education preexists its formation as a profession; (2) use of an existing tacit definition of adult education; (3) giving power to third parties with roots outside the profession; (4) loss of social ethics; (5) loss of focus on the person and failure to achieve universality; (6) continuing use of the terms of children's education; and (7) explanations and theories that become ideological and distanced from the concept of education. It then offers a theory to account for these characteristics and describes a design problem for the invention of a new concept of adult education. The paper suggests a definition of adult education as "self-education" as an appropriate response to the design problem, one on which a more substantial profession could be founded. (Author/KC)