EBroyles, ALarrison, EMcCune, NMorris, NValdez -- Perspective Paper: Group 4

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Perspective Paper: Group 4

Ellie Broyles, Abigail Larrison, Elizabeth McCune, Natalie Morris, Nathan Valdez

Department of Adult and Community Education: Ball State University

EDAC 631: Adult and Community Education

Dr. Bo Chang

March 22, 2021

 

Group Member:	Role:	Commented On:
Abigail Larrison	Paper Intro, Interview 1 Intro,   Discussion, and Implications	Group 2 and Hayden Rawlins & Sherry Prince
Beth McCune	Leader, Combining Content, Creating Smooth Transitions For Paper, Inserting Edits, Review All Interviews, Posting Final Version.	Cheryl Anderson and Group 3
Ellie Broyles	Co-Lead, Combining Content, Interview 2 Intro, Discussion, and Implications	Hayden Rawlins & Sherry Prince and Group 3
Natalie Morris	Interview 4 Intro, Discussion, and Implications	Mona Patterson
Nathan Valdez	Interview 3 Intro, Discussion, and Implications

There are two big items learned from these interviews. First, it is important to understand that your own background, experiences, and interests are going to influence how you see adult education and adult learners. For example, a teacher is going to view adult education from a different perspective than a lawyer. It is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses associated with viewing adult education from a different lens. Without this understanding, you could make decisions about adult education that are skewed and not in the best interests of all invested in adult education. Second, it is valuable to remember that adult education does not solely equal higher education. As brought up in one of the interviews, any search for adult education might give few results. Instead, ‘adult education’ changed to vocational training, military training and development, staff professional development, etc., and has since moved on past adult literacy training as it started in the 1950’s. There are many programs, organizations, and opportunities for adult education. In addition, adult education continues throughout life and is ever-evolving, regardless of the age bracket. By understanding the diversity of adult education, someone can create potential and possibilities for an endless list of adults.

Introduction

The main point of the first interview: Adult Education with Different Hats (Merriam, 2019) is that adult education, especially older adult education, is expanding. The interview discussed how programs, like a lifelong learners institute in Florida, are creating courses for seniors to expand their learning and skills.

In the brief audio clip from interview two, Dr. John Boulmetis explains how the federal government utilizes tax payer dollars to support adult education in ways that will explicitly turn people into productive citizens. Federal funding supports efforts towards adult literacy, vocational training, higher education, and post secondary educational programs. Dr. Boulmetis states that such funding will not support social justice, community education, and personal development because there is no direct benefit in such initiatives for the federal government.

Interview 3 definitely had some interesting information about the trends of federal support towards adult education, with a heavy focus on the 1980’s and 1990’s. In this time period, the trend of federal funding slowly started to decline as the term ‘lifelong learning’ became the new stigma and gained popularity amongst the people and the workforce throughout the 1980’s. The 1990’s reached the low point for federal funding with a wane in the large government handout of student financial aid. On top of financial aid, vocational training and trade schools now peaked more than ever, and ads and outreach to get people to enroll in these programs were at an all-time high. In lieu of all the open federal funding, it was more or less replaced by private institution funds from organizations and movements that would work to push their agendas separately, much like the Kellogg Foundation mentioned in the interview. By the end of the 1990’s, the federal government didn’t entirely stop adult education funding – it simply changed names.

When looking at interview number four with Carol E. Kasworm, I heard an abundance of feelings and information. This interview specifically focused on adult education on the macro level. Carol Kasworm had many strong opinions on adult education when she started in the field compared to now.

Discussion

The educational opportunities described in interview one provide positive results for many involved in the programs. The aforementioned programs and this interview connect with current research in the field. One research study found that “Continuing engagement in activities and relationships that [older adults] value can help older people focus on wellness rather than illness” (Narushima et al., 2018). Another research study showed “Helping older adults’ stay informed and engaged as they age…is imperative for successful aging and prosperity in later-life” (Grosso, 2018). In addition to the individual benefits of adult education, there is current research to show initiatives, like this lifelong learner institute, can help the larger society as well. “We thus believe that adult education and learning can be ageism preventive and can make a relevant contribution to diminishing ageism” (Fragoso & Fonseca, 2022). Overall, there are research and real-life examples to showcase the benefits of lifelong learning and give reasons to build new opportunities for seniors to expand their knowledge base.

While it would have been beneficial to hear more conversation surrounding the topic discussed during interview two, it was interesting to hear Dr. Boulmetis’ perspective on the federal government’s stance on funding adult education. He consistently stated that the government will only support adult education in ways that will benefit itself. This is incredibly counter intuitive to me because I feel that personal development and growth of individuals will lead to a more productive society overall. While a higher education is beneficial to one’s development, there are many other ways a person could grow and be able to then contribute to society.

Although I don’t exactly agree that only federally beneficial adult education efforts should be funded, I often see the perspective Dr. Boulmetis explains first hand in my position as an academic advisor at a community college. Many of the students I work with utilize the Workforce Ready Grant (2023), which is a grant from the state of Indiana that covers the tuition and fees of a certificate in a high growth, high demand field. In the grant, these fields include but are not limited to: advanced manufacturing, building and construction, health sciences, information technology, and transportation and logistics (2023). While the students earning the certificates are receiving a higher education and earning a certificate that will stick with them for the rest of their lives, the fields in which the certificates are in will reap the benefits of having educated employees. Even though the Workforce Ready Grant is specific to the state of Indiana, there are similar programs, federally, supporting specific fields that positively impact the country as a whole.

The ideas and trends mentioned in interview three, I feel accurately represent the decades proportionately involved with historical events. For funding in adult education, in the years between 1979 and 1993, “enrollment increased by 47%, and grants to states grew from $91 million in 1979 to $255 million in 1993,” (US Dept. of Education, 2013). Outside of individual state grants and funding, US Dept. of Education allocated “$3.9 million for National Programs, $4.9 million for the National Institute for Literacy, $9.6 million for Literacy Training of Homeless Adults, and $19 million for Workplace Literacy Partnerships,” with an additional $4.9 million going towards Literacy Programs for Prisoners, and $7.9 million going towards State Literacy Resource Centers, (2013). Although the direct funding for adult education grew overtime, its total was drastically overtaken by private organizations slowly filling the gap to increase private agendas. Even today, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation operates a private institution donating millions of dollars each year to causes in need. As exampled by this snippet from their site:

“In the 1950s, the Kellogg Foundation focused on key areas of postwar concern: the development of professions and food systems. In the development of professions, there was a need both for more nurses and new kinds of health care personnel – dental hygienists, medical technicians and hospital administrators. In food systems, grantees developed the first extension programs to connect scientific knowledge with farming practices,” (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, n.d.).

It was at this time where institutions started to reach out and help society for a goal other than work; they acknowledged that for a society to truly benefit, people needed to be educated, and to do so, these education programs needed to be set up and put in place, in the United States and abroad. During the 1980s, the Kellogg Foundation even ventured into southern Africa, ‘facing apartheid’, and gave scholarships and other “unprecedented opportunities to Black South Africans,” (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, n.d.).

During this time of all the social movements in the 1970s, the context essentially expanded public education on a broad scale. Protests and strikes for Black, Indigenous, Latin, Woman, and LGBTQ+ rights provided a base public knowledge for tons of inequalities and discrepancies amongst the population, and how a large minority of our country was/has been treated with disrespect. Although not directly related to federal funding, it did, in a way, start a new era of professional development: like Gender and Women’s Studies, or Native American Studies, etc. (University of California, Berkeley, n.d.). Overall, the 1950s to 1990s were areas of large progression of adult education, although federal funding diminished, and private institutions increased.

The topics that were brought up in interview four were the differences in adult education over the last couple decades and the view of adult education being specialized vs common knowledge. When looking at adult education Carol discussed how adult education has become ordinary and so common throughout the years that we no longer see it as necessary. Previously, adult literacy was so low that the department of education was involved and threw funding at these programs in order to solve this issue. Now however, high education is so common, the urgency to fund or have these programs is not there. During the interview Carol also brought up that adult education (and education in general) is no longer seen as a program that needs a specialized teacher. Education is changing in the sense that more and more families are home schooled. Teachers are underpaid and underappreciated so they are forcing parents to do more educating at home. This causes a false sense of specialty with parents that do not have the training for the correct curriculum.

Implications

The information presented in the first interview and the research on adult learning is beneficial in my work within higher education. I work for a community college that is dedicated to helping all ages expand on their skill and knowledge base. Currently, there are research studies being done to determine if community learning programs are financially feasible to reinstate within the college. Prior to COVID, the college offered classes for those interested in learning new skills, including baking and computer programs. In addition, the college is discovering new ways to work within the community to offer classes for seniors interested in improving in an academic discipline. Though I currently work at a community college, I also have experience in other college settings. A former employer (four-year institution) offers foreign language, arts, and computer classes throughout the year; these are specifically targeted towards retired individuals to help them learn something new. Essentially, this interview showed that my community college has the potential to help seniors and produce positivity within the community. If I utilized my position and experience, I could be a part of growing the older adult education initiatives within my college.

Based on the information in Interview 2, if the government continues to refuse funding of what they deem to be “non-essential” streams of adult education, I fear many adult learners will not be able to continue their educational journey due to lack of financial support. In order for such programs to receive funding, the federal government needs to recognize the importance of the other avenues adult education practitioners utilize. Social justice and community education programs are just as important and vital to a society's success as a traditional higher education is. If the government fails to do so, adult learners will be tasked with finding financial support from other resources which could lead to higher student debt and ultimately hurt the economy the government is supposedly trying so hard to protect.

Although the federal government has cut community education spending, there is one area it continually invests in, as discussed in Interview 3: trade, vocational, and military training. Personally, with a technology and engineering education degree, my main goal is to get students to consider the possibility of education outside of a college standpoint. Afterall, the average age for most tradesmen is between mid-40’s to late 50’s (Blue Recruit, n.d.) which doesn’t necessarily inspire hope. If logic is applied, these people acquired their job training during the early 90’s and late 2000’s, which is on par with the federal government's open push for vocational training during that time period. As individuals have now gone back towards a lifelong learning trend, this means that most individuals who are going into post-secondary education are doing so for intellectual careers, not so much for vocational demands. In our current economy, we have not found the ideal mix of vocational and collegiate representation, with most seeing college as the next logical step post-high school, with almost 16 million students enrolled in ‘degree-granting colleges and universities’ across the US (Welding, 2022). Overall, even with private industries now adding up to a large portion of adult education, I feel as though funding has generally always been consistent. I do agree that federal funding has lowered over time, because private institutions pick up this extra gap and make the academic funding differences almost negligible.

The way I see the implications in the fourth and final interview is that the accessibility of adult education has made a shift in power and caused parents to become educators without any training. Why the shift? Because of changes in family dynamics (Thompson, 2015), more educated parents (Bialik and Fry, 2019), and a rise in the lack of safety in school (Morundan and Arundel, 2022). This could cause the quality of education to lower significantly in the next decade if the trend continues. I agree with many of the points in this interview. This way of thinking is definitely a trend that may continue to break the “need” for formal adult education. We have learned in this course that there are still obvious formal ways for adults to get education, but what will the implications of this change be? I currently work with young adults that are leaving child protective services. These young adults are being tossed into adulthood sometimes without any formal or informal education because of circumstances out of their control. In Delaware county alone only half of all foster students who should be enrolled in highschool actually are (Foster Success). How will this change in adult education affect them? I would predict we will see an increase in crime, drugs, homelessness, mental health issues, and a recurrence of low adult literacy. Without these supports we are leaving certain population groups without the resources they desperately need.

 

 

Summary of Interviews
Introduction	Interview 1: There are specific adult education programs being implemented with senior citizens as the target audience. Interview 2: Federal government will only support adult education that will directly benefit itself. Interview 3: Overtime, federal funding decreased as private funding became more popular. Interview 4: The interview with Carol E Kasworm focuses on adult education at a macro level and the changes it has faced in the previous decades.
Discussion	Interview 1: Agree- Research studies confirm what the interviewee discussed: adult education programs are proven to benefit older adults. Interview 2: Disagree- While I can recognize why the government would want to support adult education that benefits itself, and have experience with federally supported programs that ultimately benefit I fear how this impacts adult learners seeking other avenues of adult education Interview 3: Agree- Vocational schools and private organizations became offering incentives and promoting large scholarships to get adults to continue education, with none of that coming from the federal government. Interview 4: Agree- Education is starting to be seen as commonplace and non-specialized which is hurting the profession.
Implications	Interview 1: There is an opportunity to apply adult and community education programs within my higher education institution. Interview 2: Without support for all forms of adult education, adult learners will have to turn to other methods of financing their education which could actually have a negative impact on society and decrease adult education and the economy overall. Interview 3: The federal government continues to develop and fund adult education, but mainly for trade, vocational, and military training, with private institutions covering everything else, mainly on a social standpoint. Interview 4: Because adult education is shifting to be seen as non-specialized, the profession of teaching is losing practical appreciation in the form of pay, while also outsourcing the work to parents, who are not trained to handle the technical demands of education.

 

References

Bialik, K & Fry, R. (2019). Millennial life: How young adulthood today compares with prior generations. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/14/millennial-life-how-young-adulthood-today-compares-with-prior-generations-2/

Blue Recruit. (n.d.). Plumber jobs in the USA: Duties, growth, salary and everything you need to know! https://bluerecruit.us/plumber-jobs-in-usa/#:~:text=Plumber%20Job%20Openings,plumbers%20are%20nearing%20retirement%20age

Fragoso, A., & Fonseca, J. (2022). Combating ageism through adult education and learning. Social Sciences, 11(3), 110. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/3/110

Grosso, T. (2018). Lifelong learning: The key to successful aging. Journal of Educational Leadership in Action, 5(2), 10. https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=ela

Indiana Commission for Higher Education. (2023). Workforce Ready Grant. https://www.in.gov/che/state-financial-aid/state-financial-aid-by-program/workforce-ready-grant/

Modan, N. & Arundel, K. (2022). School shootings reach unprecedented high in 2022. IndustryDive. https://www.k12dive.com/news/2022-worst-year-for-school-shootings/639313/

Narushima, M., Liu, J., & Diestelkamp, N. (2018). Lifelong learning in active ageing discourse: Its conserving effect on wellbeing, health and vulnerability. Ageing and Society, 38(4), 651-675. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5848758

Thompson, K. (2015). The postmodern perspective on the family. ReviseSociology. https://revisesociology.com/2015/04/03/postmodern-perspective-family/#:~:text=Postmodernists%20argue%20that%20recent%20social,more%20unstable%20and%20more%20diverse.

U.S. Department of Education. (2013). An American heritage | Federal adult education: A legislative history 1964-2013. Washington, DC; U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Division of Adult Education and Literacy. https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/Adult_Ed_History_Report.pdf

University of California, Berkley. (n.d.). Department of Gender and Women’s Studies: A History. https://gws.berkeley.edu/about/history/.

Welding, Lyss. (2022). College enrollment statistics in the U.S.. Best Colleges, Red Ventures. https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/college-enrollment-statistics/#:~:text=References-,Total%20U.S.%20College,In%20Spring%202022%3A&text=15.9%20million%20students%20were%20enrolled%20at%20a%20postsecondary%20institution.&text=About%2011.6%20million%20students%2C%20or,in%20a%20graduate%2Dlevel%20program.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation. (n.d.) History and Legacy.  https://www.wkkf.org/who-we-are/history-legacy