On Social Policies in the Unites States, and the Sociology of Adult Education

"I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. All reforms which rest simply upon the law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile…. But through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move…. Education thus conceived marks the most perfect and intimate union of science and art conceivable in human experience."

John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed, 1897

A couple of weeks ago, I learnt about public policy in its relation to adult learning and education. There is a lot of information which shows the great bias in policy making in regards to adult education, but there is also a lot that highlights the necessary and very important steps to take in order to achieve a fair and inclusive set of policies to implement adult education as it should be. 

The first problem, as Birkland (2005) expresses it, has to do with the fact that public policy is made by the governing body, on behalf of the public, and it is implemented in all public and private spheres of life. This is a problem in my eyes because those in the governing bodies often lack real honest knowledge of how the majority of society live, and experience their everyday life. Most government officials are more worried about economic development, and the global market than their own people (Prinsloo, 2005). 

Specifically, the definition of adult education by the U.S. government, 

        (1) assist adults to become literate and obtain the knowledge
      and skills necessary for employment and self-sufficiency;
        (2) assist adults who are parents to obtain the educational
      skills necessary to become full partners in the educational
      development of their children; and
        (3) assist adults in the completion of a secondary school
      education.

seems to be a description of an ESL class for adults who lack a high school diploma, rather than an actual policy representative of what adult education is about (pp. 105, 106).This definition hasn't changed since it was written in 2007, and in my opinion, it needs to be revised. Today, the government is more focused of administration of k-12 and basic college education for young people, which is also very important, than on adult education. Actually it feels like adult education has been completely left out, and is not receiving the necessary amount of credit to be what it intends to be: A platform for educating all adults, in what they need in order to fulfill their needs of growing and maintaining a better world for all. I understand that education for young people is necessary, however, without the right education for adults, I don't think a country can prosper.

Bouchard (1998) asks us a very important question: after accepting the limitations of education as a mithridate for both economic and social inequity, are we to abandon our activities? My answer is NO. If anything, understanding the limitations should allow us to fight harder to make it the basis for economic and social equity. Complementing this idea, is Zuboff (1988) who stated that learning IS the new form of labor (p. 107). Fay stated a very important notion a long time ago, in 1972. regarding the need for adult educators being able to move between policy making and academia, which still has to become a reality, in order for policy making to reflect the world of adult education for what it is. Another quite important problem is that today, most adult educational policies and practices are tied with business, and the field of adult education has become the engine of capitalist development. On the bright side, there are a few enlightened who are critical of this notion, and choose to refute it, and work towards a solution. 

To switch from policy making to the social aspect of adult education, lets take a look at the Sociology of Adult and Continuing Education, as a field of social relations and social action. In order to get rid of the oppression and lack of possibilities tied with adult education today, several scholars agree on the fact that sociological theory can help us understand and therefore put to use sociological approaches to make adult education more fair and better implemented. In order to be able to do so, we first must understand the structural and social relations of oppression and domination that have been a great part of society, and are being fought against all over the world in the form of social revolutions. In the words of Young (1990) oppression has five faces: Exploitation, Marginalization, Powerlessness, Cultural imperialism, and Systematic Violence. The first three refer to socioeconomic injustice, while the latter 2 are the results of cultural injustice. The main problem I see is that those in power positions although they are aware of this, have no interest in social and cultural justice, because it doesn’t fit with their view of an economic capitalist society. Razack (1998) advocates for social justice, and calls for educators to mainly develop critical consciousness. Bourdieu, explores the notion that we are a product of our surroundings, and wherever in society we are born, thats were we stay. This is not necessarily true, but it is the norm. It is very hard to get out of a bad socioeconomic situation, but not impossible. Hard work and critical thinking are very important if we wish to move out of a bad place, but society has (and still is) created barriers which hinder the education of those who need it the most. Equal access is necessary to break through this barriers and allow for adults to attain the education they need and deserve to fulfill lifelong learning practices. 

In conclusion, in order to achieve what we aim to achieve as educators of adults, That is social equity, we must be part of the policy making sphere. We should keep on working towards a fair brighter future in which we not only instill the notions of equality into our students, but we ourselves also fight to achieve this. It is a long road, and as they said, Rome wasn't built in one day, but if we dont't work for progress, we will never advance.

Kasworm, C., Rose, A., & Ross-Gordon, J. (2010) Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education (2010 ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Chapters 9,10.