This roundtable aims to present and to create audience discussion of preliminary data categories from an ongoing historical project with implications for contemporary adult education practice. In this case, the researchers analyzed the work of Dr. Margaret Mead, a cultural anthropologist. Dr. Mead was outspoken about the need for all adults to become lifelong learners and of the corresponding responsibility of academics to freely discuss their work and thoughts in public forums in order to stimulate well-informed interest in community, family, and political issues. In fact, in additional to scholarly works, she wrote public essays, editorials, appeared in documentaries, and delivered speeches asking questions about, ―Who is an adult? How do adults learn? How can we create op portunities for everyone who wishes to participate in shaping our communities?‖ Her public addresses frequently raised questions about the issues of difference and inclusion, of civic participation and activism, attitudes towards democracy and public authority, and the pressures of conforming to societal ideas of ̳what is normal‘, ethical applications of scientific advancement, of relationships and family, and of living in a time of international political tensions. (Mead Collection, Boxes I-109, I-209). We chose to focus on upon one segment of her public scholarship: monthly editorial columns published in the 1960s-1970s issues of Redbook magazine
