ADULT EDUCATION IN THE POST 9/11 WORLD: REFLECTIONS ONE YEAR LATER

Poster PresentationPoster Session-What is our place in the global community? For many, the tragedies of September 11, 2001 have elevated this question to a level of seriousness that goes well beyond a simple intellectual exercise. Issues of politics, power, and power relations have reached a heightened sense of saliency among adult educators and learners alike. A sense of interconnectedness with others in the world seems to be increasing. At the same time, some of the anger, suffering, and pain experienced in the wake of 9/11 has resulted in calls for retaliation against targeted groups and increased expressions of intolerance for diversity, different beliefs and different voices. Indeed, there have been many public responses to the events of 9/11 from the leaders of prominent organizations of higher education. They all speak to the important role that adult educators and learners have to contribute to a greater understanding of our collective place in the global community. Yet, it is important to ask how has 9/11 shown up in the classroom and other learning environments. Has it been like the elephant in the living room that no one wants to mention because feelings of loss and grief are too intense? Is it so present that it has to be included as part of the process, regardless of the content of a course? Has the nature of learning changed? Has the impact shifted as time has passed? It would make sense that the range of responses varies greatly. Little has been published to date, whether as anecdotal accounts or planned research, about how 9/11 has affected the day-to-day practice of adult educators. This poster presentation will contribute to this area by exploring the impact that the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001 have had on the work of the authors, both of whom are adult educators. We have reflected on how the actual events, our learners' and our own responses to the 9/11 tragedies have affected our specific educational practices. In this poster presentation, we will share the questions that have emerged for us, while identifying dilemmas and issues that we have encountered as we support student learning. We, the authors, hope to foster dialogue about how to utilize the emotional, cognitive, spiritual, and other types of responses to 9/11as a catalyst for learning larger lessons that can support transformative educational practice

Editorial: water governance in a climate change world: appraising systemic and adaptive effectiveness

and other research outputs Editorial: water governance in a climate change world: appraising systemic and adaptive effectivenes

Exploring ways of promoting an equality discourse using non-text/creative approaches for learning in the everyday lives of adult literacy learners

The chapter looks at the relationship between literacy, equality and creativity and the relavance of these concepts for literacy practice. Drawing on the experience of an action research project ,it looks at how learners can develop their literacies through improving their understand of inequalities using non- text methods of delivery

How does one become spiritual? The Spiritual Modeling Inventory of Life Environments (SMILE)

We report psychometric properties, correlates and underlying theory of the Spiritual Modeling Index of Life Environments (SMILE), a measure of perceptions of spiritual models, defined as everyday and prominent people who have functioned for respondents as exemplars of spiritual qualities, such as compassion, self-control, or faith. Demographic, spiritual, and personality correlates were examined in an ethnically diverse sample of college students from California, Connecticut, and Tennessee (N=1010). A summary measure of model influence was constructed from perceived models within family, school, religious organization, and among prominent individuals from both tradition and media. The SMILE, based on concepts from Bandura\u27s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory, was well-received by respondents. The summary measure demonstrated good 7-week test/retest reliability (r=.83); patterns of correlation supporting convergent, divergent, and criterion-related validity; demographic differences in expected directions; and substantial individual heterogeneity. Implications are discussed for further research and for pastoral, educational, and health-focused interventions