9413
What’s in a word? Education for adults
Eileen Fitzgerald Daggett, University of Southampton
This paper is written against a strong personal belief in the value of opening up the Higher Education system to all. The introduction of the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) is a big step towards this and as such I find it an exciting and worthwhile development. One result of the shift in practice which the introduction of CATS involves, is that those of us working in Adult Education must enquire into and reflect upon what motivates our students and ourselves: what happens when a group of adults meets to discuss, in my case, a literary text written in English? What effect will the introduction of assessment have on those students who currently attend classes in English Literature?
With this in mind, I carried out a survey of people attending non-award bearing Literature classes in the Wessex area in Week 9 of the Spring term of 1994. I asked what were their reasons for undertaking this current course of study and their opinions on the possible introduction of assessment and award into such courses. The findings brought into focus vitally problematic areas for future developments to which I will return at the end of this paper. For the most part however, I wish to explore the language we use when dealing with these issues and question its impact upon current thinking in Adult Education.
‘Adult Education’, ‘Continuing Education’, ‘Lifelong Learning’: such are the phrases which have formed in response to attempts to describe what it is that happens in our study groups. However, these phrases, along with such terms as ‘adult returners’, ‘mature students’ or ‘non-standard students’ are never entirely satisfactory, they assume too much, exclude too much and I would argue that it is the education metaphor itself which lies at the root of the difficulty in terms of explaining what those of us engaged in this business, students, researchers and tutors alike, do. Once the question of the language which we habitually use is brought into focus, none of our terminology is safe. Are ‘we’ teachers, tutors, lecturers? Are ‘they’ students, group-members, customers? Do we meet in classes, in discussion groups, or on courses?
The Second Edition of The Compact Oxford English Dictionary[1] gives four definitions for the word ‘education’:
1.The process of nourishing or rearing a child or young person or animal
2.the process of bringing up young persons
3....the systematic instruction, schooling or training given to the young in preparation for the work of life; by extension, similar instruction or training obtained in adult age
4....[from sense 3 influenced by sense 2, sometimes influenced by the quasi-etymological notion ‘drawing out’] Culture of development of powers, formation of character, as contrasted with the imparting of mere knowledge or skill. Often with limiting word such as intellectual, moral or physical.
Interestingly, the first example given by the dictionary of the usage of the word ‘education’ in its fourth, broader sense comes from John Stuart Mill writing in Considerations on Representative Government in 1861:
Among the foremost benefits of free government is the education of the intelligence and of the sentiments.
Many things happened to the word ‘education’ in nineteenth century Britain; two are of interest here. Firstly, rather than being perceived as something belonging to the elite, something which divided them from the masses, a basic education became, for political thinkers such as Mill, essential for all citizens as a pre-requisite for the beneficial government of free societies: a necessary step to prevent chaos[2]. The second shift is hinted at above by the use of the phrase ‘quasi etymological notion of ‘drawing out’,’ which over determined the word with added connotations based on the meaning and usage of the Latin word ‘educare’. As with many things happening at that time in the study of language, a didactic paternalism can be sensed behind expressly liberal claims. The Latin roots of the word ‘educate’ were assiduously traced, and an extra dimension to the English term was added as a consequence. However, the common usage of the English word has never fully adjusted to its newly elevated status and educational processes remain in the minds of most native speakers the absorption of facts and the learning of skills rather than the nurturing of innate, latent abilities. This slippage between exegesis and comprehension largely accounts for the easy acceptance of the utilitarian rhetoric surrounding the purposes of Adult Education in the ‘classless society’ of Nineties Britain.
The pity of all this is that both aspects of education are as important to today’s society (albeit for different reasons) as they were when Mill was writing in 1861. Society has moved on; what it needs from and demands of its citizens, if good representative government of a free society is to flourish, are a complex set of critical powers and informed responses which University Adult Education Departments are currently well situated to sustain and develop. But the confusion of terminologies around the concept of education has willed a legacy to those of us working in the Adult field in the last years of the twentieth century. The proposed introduction of accredited courses has led me to think that we must break down what now goes by the name of Adult Education in order to reveal the causes of the current stresses within the system.
The dictionary’s first two definitions relate to children and are of no concern here. Accredited courses would fit well under the third definition of education given above, allowing the phrase ‘by extension similar instruction or training obtained in adult age’ to stand, since under the CAT Scheme, a high level of academic guidance and fixed course requirements will mean that the culture of that type of Adult Education must necessarily reflect activities in Higher Education institutions across the country.
It is the fourth definition: ‘Culture of development of powers, formation of character, as contrasted with the imparting of mere knowledge or skill’ which is under threat and in danger of being lost. This danger exists because these processes of development and formation, whilst contained within and contributing to education are not exclusive to it. Indeed it could be argued that one main purpose of education is to assist an individual to acquire and continually refine such developmental, formative powers. Education in the sense of the acquisition of knowledge could be regarded as a step on the way to this fourth, higher, state.
Independent of education this ‘development of powers, formation of character’ constitutes a completely different set of human abilities and desires to those which lead us to acquire ‘mere knowledge or skill’. What is referred to here is a still, reflective process which may have neither temporal continuity nor linear progression. The need for reflection and growth becomes urgent or falls away, following no calendar other than a responsive attending to the individual patterns which constitute a life. This is not a finite process which can be worked at for three years, examined and certified. It is the continuous process of responsive growth which society needs from its citizens throughout their lives. It is precisely the quality of reflective development which provided the theme for the 1993 SCUTREA conference.
This gathering, formation, fashioning of the Self within life and society must be separately identified as an integral but also an independently valuable part of what currently goes by the term Adult Education. Perhaps the German word ‘bildung’ might be appropriate here. The English sense of education is contained within the term ‘bildung’, but comes in fourth place behind such words as ‘to form, shape, fashion, mould, create, make’ The primary English sense ‘the process of nourishing or rearing a child’ is ranked far behind its other meanings: the reverse of the English definition of the word 'education’.
In addition, there is also the reflexive form of the verb, ‘sich bildung’ meaning ‘to educate oneself; to cultivate, improve, one’s mind.’ This is no solitary activity but can happen to all members of a group discussing a text as well as when each individual reads that text alone. This denotes an active participation rather than passive absorption. I would argue that this process is the highly prized, culturally based ‘drawing out’ to which the term ‘education’ lays claim but is proving entirely inadequate to describe. This is the ‘Liberal’ side of Adult Education, (another term which ought to be interrogated), the side which is becoming increasingly marginalised and starved. This aspect of our work must be independently, thoroughly analysed, assessed, prized and protected.
Critical techniques are culturally based, the ‘market forces’ metaphor is no exception. It is simply a part of the cultural and political ‘here and now’. It is not a final truth. Culture does not ‘progress’, it operates its own dynamic laws which may be said to be no laws at all. Its protean responsiveness means that it constantly re-adapts itself to the feelings of the changing body of humanity which constitutes society at any given time and which is, in turn, influenced by culture. This dialogic relationship between a society and its culture must be recognised for the ephemeral entity it is. T S Eliot, writing in The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism said ‘our criticism, from age to age, will reflect the things that the age demands.’[3]
The strange malaise which has had Britain in its grip for a decade or more is a mild disorder which will pass. Our care must be to ensure that the patient remains fundamentally well and that no irrevocable damage is done to any vital organs whilst the infection lasts. I would maintain that one such vital organ is the current Adult Education structure, which, for the most part, has continued its underlying healthy development in spite of the initial shock to its immune system.
I write as one who began by attending a Liberal Adult Education class in 1985 with many partially formed, vague desires. I have been guided into and through Higher Education. During my journey, I have seen many paths of opportunity close up behind me as supports such as subsidised child-care, a reasonable mandatory grant and good employment prospects have slipped away. Yet at the moment, through the introduction of the CAT Scheme, I can also see alternative pathways opening up. The concern must be to maintain the quality of what we already have so that the fresh cohort of students who will be attracted into the Universities by this initiative will find a well developed system waiting for them and one which will respond to their distinctive demands.
The system as it now stands in mainstream Higher Education does not cater well for mature students, continuing to perceive its main role as being the education of young adults[4]. Currently in place in Departments of Adult Education are courses which cater for all levels of learning ability and competence. This brings me back to the survey of Literature classes mentioned at the beginning of the paper which prompted me to analyse what is meant by Adult Education.
Attending Literature classes on that day were people of widely varying academic abilities. One woman had returned to Literature after decades away from study, prompted by a desire to write. Another woman had two degrees and three postgraduate qualifications. These women were in the same group, working competently together, certainly acquiring knowledge and skill but at the same time, and for my current purposes, more importantly, engaging with each other, with the group and with their tutor in a process of reflective growth. The woman with no academic qualifications did not want any, she wished to spend her time writing creatively. Clearly the other woman had no need of CATS credits.
Liberal courses as they now stand are places where people go before, during and after work in traditional Higher Education. One member of the Poetry class on that day was a full-time doctoral student working in Physics.
Our students join our classes because of a desire to continue their personal development in a chosen direction. Not needing or wanting an academic qualification should not disqualify them from access to this vitally important aspect of modern society. The CAT Scheme will hopefully draw people into reflective learning who would not otherwise come to it. What must be safeguarded, however, are courses which help to prepare students for work at degree level and help them to choose an appropriate direction. Of equal importance is that the already educated, (and this will, a few years from now, include today’s newcomers) are not disenfranchised and excluded from a vital community resource.
[1] J A Simpson and E S C Weiner (1991) The compact Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition).