Tom Nesbit et al. Roundtable
Contexts of adult education in Canada
Tom Nesbit
SimonFraserUniversity, Canada
Tara Fenwick
University of Alberta, Canada
Bruce Spencer
Athabasca University, Canada
Roundtable paper presented at the 36th Annual SCUTREA Conference, 4-6 July 2006, Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds
This roundtable provides an opportunity for reflection and discussion on the process, politics and power dynamics of developing a text on the contemporary contexts of adult education. The presenters provide a summary of their recently-compiled book of readings about Canadian adult education that highlights its key aspects, identifies some parallels between different areas of adult education practice, and points out its major trends and developments. They also identify some broader influences on Canadian adult education, its links with civil society, and its involvement with social partners. They explore questions about the contexts of adult education, the spaces between them, and the broad practice of adult education within Canadian society.
Background
During the 2003 conference of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education/l’Association Canadienne pour l’Étude de l’Éducation des Adultes [CASAE/ACÉÉA], two of us (Tara Fenwick and Tom Nesbit) fell into a conversation about the rapid changes in Canadian adult education and how difficult it was for our students to simultaneously gain a perspective on the breadth of our field, its historical development, and the pace at which it was changing. Despite the recent plethora of general introductions to the policies and practices of adult education, we felt that none fully acknowledged the contribution of Canadian adult educators or Canada’s unique participation in the international practice of adult education. During our conversation, we speculated about possibly updating Learning for Life, an earlier edited collection of readings on Canadian adult education published in 1998 (Scott, Spencer & Thomas, 1998). As CASAE/ACÉÉA celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2006, we thought producing such a work in time for that year’s conference would be a fitting tribute to our professional organization. The three of us agreed to take on the task of producing a second edition: keeping some of the original chapters, updating others, and commissioning new chapters for areas and concerns that we thought missing or under-acknowledged.
Aware that our responsibilities as editors included representing the diversity of opinions about and approaches within adult education, we undertook some initial consultations. During the latter part of 2004, we polled the CASAE/ACÉÉA professoriate, the authors in Learning for Life, members of the CASAE/ACÉÉA email network and others involved in the practice of Canadian adult education for a candid assessment of the earlier text and what they would like to see altered. These consultations produced an outline list of some 40+ chapters, expressions of interest from 50 prospective authors, and a clear set of issues and themes that our academic and professional colleagues across Canada would like to see addressed in a 2nd edition. While gratified at the quantity and eagerness of the responses, we clearly had much more than would fit in the space the publisher had allotted. So, after several discussions, we undertook to produce not a 2nd edition but a separate and distinct book; one that could be read in tandem with, Learning for Life and its companion texts. Over the next few months, we carefully narrowed down our list, discussed potential authors, and developed a coherent structure.
The authors we subsequently chose are all experienced Canadian adult education academics and practitioners. Given Canada’s geographic and cultural diversity, we deliberately sought authors from each region of the country and attempted to balance both gender and background. We also deliberately sought authors across a range of experience: some are our field’s most respected and senior intellectuals, others more emergent researchers and scholars. Practical difficulties and author availability prevented the inclusion of some of the topics identified and the publication of the comprehensive InternationalEncyclopedia of Adult Education (English, 2005), relieved us of the responsibility of producing a glossary of term and definitions. Finally, 18 months after our first discussions, we were able to contract with prospective authors and begin the long process of soliciting, drafting and editing of chapters. You are seeing the finished product.
Discussion
Not surprisingly, the authors point to issues in adult education discerned from distinctly Canadian eyes. As a middle-sized power increasingly integrated with but trying to remain distinct from US corporate interests, foreign policies, popular culture and patterns of social service provision, Canada has struggled with issues of national identity and global positioning. We are a country of immigrants that has tried to sustain a policy of benign liberal multiculturalism. Our history is divided by simmering tensions between our ‘two solitudes’ of French and English Canada, and our shameful oppression and erasure of aboriginal peoples. All of these currents configure Canada’s educational landscapes. The tradition of adult education in Canada has been communitarian and community-based, marked by important historical moments of radical confrontation and strong social and labour movements. But since the recessions of the 1990s, Canada’s neo-liberal policies have radically cut social services, literacy and post-secondary education, privatized vocational education, and attempted to neutralize discourses of equity and social justice. At the same time, difference and diversity have become the primary agenda in adult education. We have seen aboriginal education forge a dramatic new presence and critique of Eurocentric educational theories with the increase of aboriginal teachers and scholars. Queer pedagogies and LGBTQ movements have become so influential that they have changed teacher education policies in some provinces. Arts-based adult education and research has surged to a new importance, often partnered with the popular education movement which has remained strong in Canada. Growing research and education is focused on transnational migration, anti-racism, and recognition of immigrant credentials. National government-funded centers for research in adult learning in areas such as health, work, and literacy have been recently established. On these and other issues, Canadian adult educators remain loudly critical as they reach forward for new languages and visions of adult education, new understandings of community and new forms of democratic participation that can be encouraged amidst global capitalism.
References
English L M (ed) (2005) International encyclopedia of adult education, New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
Fenwick T, Nesbit T, & Spencer B (eds) (2006) Contexts of adult education: Canadian readings, Toronto,Thompson Educational Publishing.
Scott S M, Spencer B, & Thomas A M (eds) (1998) Learning for life: Canadian readings in adult education, Toronto, Thompson Educational Publishing.
36th Annual SCUTREA Conference Proceedings 2006
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