History

PIONEERS AND LANDMARKS IN ADULT EDUCATION

Plato and Aristotle EDUCATION AS A LIFELONG PROCESS

• "Pursuits of leisure" to gain for himself ever greater understanding of himself, society, and the world

1727 Benjamin Franklin JUNTO

• Mutual improvement societies
• Earliest adult ed institution in the US
• Club to discuss scientific matters, morals, and political philosophy
• Eventually turned into the Library Company of Philadelphia, first public subscription library
• Valued exchange, discussion/sharing of expertise as an adult ed principle
• Fostered library movement that helped to spread knowledge widely
• Founding father of the University of Pennsylvania
• Helped to increase male literacy from 50% to 66% critical mass

1790's Adult school MECHANICS' INSTITUTE

• Earliest organized adult education program
• at Nottingham, England (in the Industrial Revolution)

1826 1925 Josiah Holbrook LYCEUM

• Published "Associations of Adults for Mutual Education"
• Founded first lyceum in Millbury, MA 1826
• Led to association of 3000 groups with local discussions and association leaders including Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Established libraries and museums and stimulated support for tax supported public schools
• Published "Associations of Adults for Mutual Education"

1833 - Jane Adams HULL HOUSE

• Social reform/adult basic education
• Among the first American adult evening schools classes outside of employment hours
• Precursor to modem Adult Basic Ed and English as a Second Language programs
• Principle of all adults having both the need and the right to be literate
• Principle of society benefiting from better informed and more skilled citizens
• Led to development of modem community college system
• As a social reformer who believed in respecting immigrant traditions, was a precursor for modem multi-culturalism

1842-1854 SHEFFIELD PEOPLE'S COLLEGE

• Literacy to lower income people
• Christian Socialism movement

1856 EVENING HIGH SCHOOL

• Established by Cincinnati Board of Ed to provide citizenship education for adults

1862 Justin Morrill Act LAND GRANT COLLEGES

• Established colleges in each state to meet needs of agricultural and industrial classes

1873 NON DEGREE EXTENSION PROGRAMS

• Starts at Cambridge University
• New opportunities for women who were excluded until then

1874 1920's John Heyl Vincent - CHAUTAUQUAS

• First religious in nature (Methodist Episcopal Church)
• Later included companies of lecturers, musicians and performers who traveled to more than 400 sites
• Supplemented summer classes with home reading courses and correspondence schools
• Promoted self-pace learning
• Served 40 million Americans annually in the 20's
• Included a book-of-the-month club

late 1800's Nikolai F.S. Grundtvig - FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS

• Pioneered in Denmark, residential schools for young adults with some work experience to teach language, history and Biblical literature.
• Once independent, now may have community support
• Exported to other countries - Canada, India, Kenya, and the Netherlands
• Myles Horton's Highlander Folk School in Tennessee to train labor unions and civil rights activists was modeled after it

Early 1900's Frederick W. Taylor TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

• Taylor developed scientific management which developed the field
• Studied the actual process of work
• Key to development of training in the workplace
• Followed by movement to knowledge society after World War 11, making continuing education mandatory to keep up with one's field
• Led to 1950's establishment of training departments and HRD field

1911 Cora Wilson Stewart - MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS

• Eastern Kentucky school to eliminate adult illiteracy

1914 Seaman Knapp AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION

• Land grant Universities in every state offer service programs on farming, home economics, and public affairs to every county in the U. S.
• Promoted education on the basis that people learn better when they have a need to learn

1916 John Dewey DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION

• Wrote Democracy and Education
• Popularized 'learning by doing'
• Importance of role of school in community
• Democracy and education going hand in hand, strong citizenship is a strong democracy, learning problems lead to reflective thinking and then to learning

1917 SMITH-HUGHES ACT, SMITH-BANKHEAD ACT

• First federal funding for Vocational education with provision for instruction of adults

1920 Alvin Johnson NEW SCHOOL OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

• Purpose of school was to help adults learn by exposing them to a wide variety of experts in many fields

1921 DEPARTMENT OF ADULT EDUCATION

• Established by the National Education Association

1926 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ADULT EDUCATION

• First attempt to organization adult educators nationally
• Supported by Carnegie Corporation

1926 Eduard Lindeman ANDRAGOGY

• Wrote "The Meaning Of Adult Education" and "World peace through adult education, 1945"
• Defined adult education as a natural process due to the maturing of adults
• Developed the first four assumptions (self direction, accumulated reservoir of experience, development task of social roles, and immediate application/problem-centered) about adult learners upon which Malcolm Knowles built his work
• First used the name and concept of andragogy.

1936 COMMUNITY EDUCATION & Charles Stewart Mott and Manley

• Mott Foundation initiated support for Flint, Michigan Community Schools program

Late 1930's John Studebaker PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDED ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAM

• As a Des Moines superintendent he started the first public school funded adult education program
• His forums promoted democracy
• He realized adults have lives outside school and maintained the importance of flexible scheduling
• Became Franklin Roosevelt's commissioner of education

1942-47 GED TEST

• Developed to assess educational proficiency of draftees
• Later used for returning veterans then civilian adults

1947 GROUP PROCESS AND GROUP DEVELOPMENT

• National Training Laboratory
• Focus on analysis of how adults in groups act
• Popularized principle of interactive learning or processing through groups
• Basis for participative learning
• Spread the principle through business and industry and educational institutions to give it wide acceptance and credibility

1960's MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING ACT AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION ACT, COMPREHENSIVE EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ACT

• Economic development
• Response to economic recession, War On Poverty, and civil rights movement
• Implemented education specifically aimed to increase economic opportunity by providing employment skills for adults
• Recognized knowledge and skill development as tools for improved work performance
• Recognized importance of job skills to give poor people options and to address social and racial unrest

1960 MOTT FOUNDATION OUTREACH

• Funded community education in all 50 states

1961 Cyril Houle MOTIVATION OF ADULT LEARNERS

• Wrote the Inquiring Mind, 1961
• First significant study in motivation of adult learners
• Revealed three separate learning orientations goal-oriented, activity-oriented, learning-oriented
• Basis for future topologies, aided understanding of the widely varied applications of adult education

1965 TITLE II, PART B, ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT (TITLE III, ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION AMENDMENTS)

• Federally funds Adult Basic Education for elementary education skills at the adult level

1965 U.N. EXPERIMENTAL WORLD LITERACY PROGRAM

• Carries out adult education literacy programs in underdeveloped nations - Algeria, Ecuador, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Madagascar, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania
• Uses radio and TV programs as well as local study and lecture
• Early part of distance ed movement

1970 OPEN UNIVERSITY

• founded in Great Britain
• Widespread electronic distance education

1970 Paulo Friere PRAXIS

• Wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed
• Activity, reflection, analysis, application, activity etc.
• Radical philosophy of adult ed for social change
• Critical consciousness-if the oppressed are allowed to learn through praxis they will make changes in the social order

1970 Malcolm Knowles POPULARIZED ANDRAGOGY

• Wrote The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Andragogy to Pedagogy
• Based upon Lindemann's work which was influenced by Dewey's work

1971 Jurgen Habermas PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORMATION

• Identified generic domains of adult learning (technical, practical, and emancipatory)
• Developed critical reflection and perspective transformation (through learning, adults will challenge their own current perspectives and change their own paradigms)

SOURCES:

Stubblefield and Keane, Handbook of Adult & Continuing Ed., 1989

C.H. Grattan, In quest of knowledge: A historical perspective on adult education, 1971

America Online, Adult Education page, 7 15 95

Moreland, Willis D. & Goldenstein, Erwin H. (1985). Pioneers in Adult Education. Chicago: Nelson Hall.

Pioneers And Landmarks In Adult Education

A Brief History of Community Education in the US

1932-35

• Flint, Michigan. A physical education teacher called Frank Manley met up with industrialist and philanthropist Charles Stewart Mott to create an after-hours program in local schools. Program emphasized health, recreation, and adult education. These first “lighted schools” became focal points for how to improve the neighborhoods around them.
  “Lighted” or Community school – a school within easy access of local residents, open most days of the year, and with educational programs designed for, and in cooperation with, the residents. (Hiemstra, 1991)

1935

• Mott Foundation program initiated with a $6,000 grant to the board of education from C.S. Mott. Five elementary schools opened for after-school and Saturday activities

1945

• Opening of the first Interracial Community Center in Flint

1952

• Freeman Community School, the first school designed specifically for community education, opened in Flint

1973

• Death of CS Mott

1974

• Community Schools Act passed. Provided funding for research, special projects , and local program development
• Mott internship program discontinued

1984

• Mott Leadership Center became a not-for profit run by the National Center for Community Education http://www.nccenet.org

1997

• US Congress passed legislation: 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. (Federal after-school bill”) giving grants to Community Learning Centers. Community Learning Center defined as
  “An entity within a public elementary, middle or secondary school building that provides
  1. educational, recreational, health and social services programs for all ages within a local community
  2. Is operated by a Local educational agency”
  The legislation was intended to encourage and train communities and schools to work together to address community needs and student achievement

1994

• Full-service schools – the Dryfoos model. A school based health and social services center; space set aside in a school building where services are brought in by outside community agencies (Dryfoos, 1994)

October 9, 2003

• National Community Education day. Lights on after school to emphasize the importance of lifelong learning

References

Decker, L.(1999). The evolution of the community school concept. National Community Education Publication Series.

Kerensky, V. (2002). The Ernest O Melby papers. Ernest O Melby Center for Community Education.

The national center for community education combines schools with communities. (Spring, 2000). The Kitchen Table: Newsletter of the Community Based Renewal Movement.

A new era for community education. (Summer, 1997). Mott Exchange Newsletter, 12(2), Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Smith, M. (1996). Community Schools, what is a community school? Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/schooling/b-comsch.htm