On Malefic Generosity, Repressive Tolerance and Post-Colonial Condescension: Considerations on White Adult Educators Racializing Adult Education Discourse

When White adult educators engage with the work of authors of color they often mean to treat these respectfully and to ensure these ideas are not marginalized by other Whites. However, in a racist and sexist society the racial group membership and socio-political location of White authors means they can easily end up promoting malefic generosity, repressive tolerance and post-colonial condescension

Negative Thinking and the Denial of Tolerance: The Challenge of Marcuse to Contemporary Adult Education

This paper seeks to insert critical theorist Herbert Marcuse’s concepts of rebellious subjectivity and repressive tolerance into adult educational discourse

Contesting Criticality: Epistemological and Practical Contradictions in Critical Reflection

Being critical is not an unequivocal concept. It is, rather, a contested idea. How the terms critical or criticality are used reflects the ideologies of the users

Radical Questioning on the Long Walk to Freedom: Nelson Mandela and the Practice of Critical Reflection

This paper examines the autobiography of Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom. Using a formulation of critical reflection as the deliberate uncovering and challenging of assumptions concerning power and hegemony, Long Walk to Freedom is subjected to a thematic content analysis using the analytical heuristic of critical reflection

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Basic American Negro Creed: The AAAE, Censorship, and Repressive Tolerance

The authors examine W.E.B. Du Bois Basic American Negro Creed and argue that its exclusion from the Carnegie Corporation funded Bronze Booklets series represents an example of repressive tolerance by the AAAE

Program Planning Principles, Goals, and Evaluation Criteria in the Radical Adult Education Tradition

The purpose of this paper is to present what we consider to be essential principles, goals, and evaluation criteria, for program planning in the radical adult education tradition. The paper is based on historical and philosophical inquiry into the pedagogical practices of numerous social movements and social movement organizations

Race and Racism: A Critical Dialogue

This is a dialogue between Elizabeth Peterson, a black, female adult educator and Stephen Brookfield, a white male. The question was whether or not we could come together and engage in a critical dialogue about race and racism

Engaging Imagination: helping students become creative and reflective thinkers

An educational text on alternative and creative approaches to critical reflection and reflection on learning, informed by pedagogic theory and multidisciplinary practice

Racializing The Discourse of Adult Education

This symposium began in 2002 as a dialogue between Stephen Brookfield, Scipio Colin III and me. The circumstances that brought about the dialogue are indicative of the need for a symposium on race talk among educators and even more specifically among adult educators. At the time, Stephen was at Harvard and because of his work there he was asked to contribute an article to the Harvard Educational Review about racializing the discourse of adult education. As a White male Stephen felt strongly that minority voices should included and proposed inviting several African American academics as well—the topic was important enough to warrant a special issue