Toward a Learning Society Revisited: The Rise and Fall of an Educational Ideal?

This study begins a broad historical dialogue on the movement for lifelong learning and the “learning society” and the ways that many of the innovations were adopted, while the adult students continued to be marginalized both institutionally and conceptually within adult higher education

Adult Education, Assessment and the Beginnings of the GED

This study examines the development and implementation of the General Educational Development (GED) examination in the United States. It examines the ways that the GED was initially conceptualized and how the notion of equivalence was popularized

Searching for Purpose: Mezirow’s Early View of Transformative Learning

This paper discusses the early work of Jack Mezirow in terms of his later writings on transformative learning. In particular, it examines his early interest in the ways individuals change through education and how this related to broader social change. It also posits that his earlier interest was philosophical rather than based in learning theory

Funding Innovative Programs for Adults: Searching for Policy on the Improvement of Higher Education

This paper examines the history of funding policies and grants from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE). It examines these policies in light of the changing and ephemeral sense of purpose of adult education

Making a choice? Vocational Training and Decision-Making for the Undereducated and the Unemployed in Germany and the United States

This paper compares the German and U.S. systems of career decision-making and re-training for the unemployed. Findings indicate similar issues in terms of pedagogy and the emphasis on development of systems, but differences in organizational specifics and the factors deemed to be important

Where Do We Go from Here? The Ebbs and Flows of Professional Adult Education

This paper examines the movement of adult education into the university as an area of study. It also looks at the development of the professoriate and the continual formation and dissolution of programs

Consolidating the Profession? The Professoriate in the 1950s and 1960s

This paper explores the development and growth of an adult education professoriate and adult education programs in higher education from 1945 until 1964. It examines specifically the factors that caused the growth of programs; decisions about curriculum; and the principal sources of funding. Additionally it explores the varying discussions and debates about the nature of the field

Developing Knowledge and Theory in the Field of Adult Education: Research Conferences in the 1960’s

This historical study examines the role of research and the development of adult education research conferences, including the eventual founding and establishment of the Adult Education Research Conference (AERC)

Serving the World or Building a Profession: The Confounding Dilemmas of Mid-Twentieth Century Academic Adult Education

This paper discusses the development and growth of an adult education professoriate and especially the growth and expansion of the CPAE in the 1950s and 1960s

Narrowing Interests: North American Adult Educators’ Discussions on Internationalization in the 1960’s

In examining the history of the field of Adult Education, interesting questions about the development of the knowledge base emerges. This research examines the countervailing strands and how the resulting focus narrowed the field to North America interests in the 1960’s