Envisioning an Adult Learning Graduate Program for the Early 21st Century A Developmental Action Inquiry Study

an article by Leanne Dzubinski, Katherine L. Davis and Aliki Nicolaides (University of Georgia, Storrs) and Brian Hentz (University of Connecticut, Storrs) published in Adult Learning Volume 23 Number 3 (August 2012)

Abstract

The rapid pace of social and technological change in the early 21st century leaves many adults scrambling to meet the complexities that characterize their daily lives. Adult learners are faced with multiple, often competing, demands from work, education, family, and leisure, which requires adult education graduate programs to carefully consider how best to meet these changing needs of today’s students.

Using a developmental action inquiry approach, the authors collected data using multiple rounds of mutual inquiry from diverse groups of stakeholders in adult education.

We asked each group to explore the question, “ How does adult education as a profession, field, and practice help adults, organizations, and society meet the demands of 21st century life?”

The combined results indicate that responsive, dynamic graduate programs in adult education for the 21st century should support the cultivation of critical and timely reflection, create online learning environments predicated on intentional community and mutuality, and foreground the relationship between adult learning and developmental capacity to prepare adult education facilitators who stand confidently in the face of complexity and ambiguity.

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