The murky waters of neoliberal marketization and commodification on the education of adults in the United States

We approach marketization and commodification of adult education from multiple lenses including our personal narratives and neoliberalism juxtaposed against the educational philosophy of the Progressive Period. We argue that adult education occurs in many arenas including the public spaces found in social movements, community-based organizations, and government sponsored programs designed to engage and give voice to all citizens toward building a stronger civil society. We conclude that only when adult education is viewed from the university lens, where it focuses on the individual and not the public good, does it succumb to neoliberal forces. (DIPF/Orig.

The Power of Cliques, Friendships, and Social Networks in Strengthening Adult Basic Education Student Persistence and Retention

This issue of student persistence and retention continues to plague most adult learning centers. This paper develops a theoretical perspective that uses social capital and network theory to explain why some students succeed in an ABE/GED program and go on to pursue post-secondary education and why some do not

The Pedagogy of Play: The Joy of Living, Learning, and Riding Motorcycles

This research explores how the theoretical construct of lifelong learning is enriched through play, and proposes that the pedagogy of play might be an important new adult learning theory

Conflict as a Form of Capital in Controversial Community Development Projects

Without conflict there would be little passion and interest in most community initiatives. Conflict within controversial community development projects is capital that can be reinvested and serve as a positive source of energy that benefits the project. To illustrate this point, this article looks at a composite of three actual sub-watershed projects in Iowa\u27s Maquoketa River Basin and analyzes how the different levels of conflict affected these projects

The Democratic Ideal vs. Luhmann’s Autopoietic Systems in Adult Education

This paper analyzes the democratic ideal and its historical importance to adult education, and then analyzes how adult education today fits Niklas Luhmann’s autopoietic systems at the expense of the democratic ideal

Musical timbre: bridging perception with semantics

Musical timbre is a complex and multidimensional entity which provides information regarding the properties of a sound source (size, material, etc.). When it comes to music, however, timbre does not merely carry environmental information, but it also conveys aesthetic meaning. In this sense, semantic description of musical tones is used to express perceptual concepts related to artistic intention. Recent advances in sound processing and synthesis technology have enabled the production of unique timbral qualities which cannot be easily associated with a familiar musical instrument. Therefore, verbal description of these qualities facilitates communication between musicians, composers, producers, audio engineers etc. The development of a common semantic framework for musical timbre description could be exploited by intuitive sound synthesis and processing systems and could even influence the way in which music is being consumed. This work investigates the relationship between musical timbre perception and its semantics. A set of listening experiments in which participants from two different language groups (Greek and English) rated isolated musical tones on semantic scales has tested semantic universality of musical timbre. The results suggested that the salient semantic dimensions of timbre, namely: luminance, texture and mass, are indeed largely common between these two languages. The relationship between semantics and perception was further examined by comparing the previously identified semantic space with a perceptual timbre space (resulting from pairwise dissimilarity rating of the same stimuli). The two spaces featured a substantial amount of common variance suggesting that semantic description can largely capture timbre perception. Additionally, the acoustic correlates of the semantic and perceptual dimensions were investigated. This work concludes by introducing the concept of partial timbre through a listening experiment that demonstrates the influence of background white noise on the perception of musical tones. The results show that timbre is a relative percept which is influenced by the auditory environment

A Preliminary Investigation of Complexity Theory’s Potential to Redefine and Reinvigorate the Field of Adult Education

Complex adaptive systems inherently fill niches, as one niche is filled another niche is created, hence these systems are never stable. This roundtable explores utilizing complexity theory to reimagine the future of adult education graduate programs

In Conversation with John Ohliger and Ivan Illich—April 8-10, 1978

In April, 1978, John Ohliger left Madison, Wisconsin, for Cuernavaca, Mexico, to assist Ivan Illich and Valentina Borremans with annotated bibliographies of Illich’s writings. During this trip Ohliger used a tape recorder to audiotape his experience so he could share it with his future wife Christina Wagner upon his return to Wisconsin. These audiotapes are entirely from Ohliger’s point of view. He decided when to turn on the recorder and when to it off. This essay is based almost entirely from these audiotapes, and therefore represents Ohliger’s view of his relationship with Illich, and more importantly it provides a brief glimpse into Ohliger’s humanity and humanness