Adult Education

Adult Education in Canada is both a field of practice and (since the 1960s) a field of study. According to UNESCO, as a field of practice adult education denotes the entire body of organized educational processes, whatever the content, level or method, whether formal or informal, and whether the processes prolong or replace initial education in schools, colleges, universities or apprenticeship systems. The term "adult" usually means someone beyond the legal school-leaving age. Other than that, there is no upper age limit for learning.

Adult education as a field of study was originally interdisciplinary, borrowing from psychology, sociology, history, philosophy and the medical sciences. Like other fields of study, it has a particular body of knowledge and areas of specialization. University academic programs in adult education are concerned with teaching as well as research. At present, 8 universities in Canada offer a master's degree in adult education, and 3 (the universities of BC, Montréal and Toronto) offer a doctorate. These courses and programs prepare people as instructors, counsellors, community workers, administrators, evaluators, trainers and as professional development coordinators. Adult education is therefore really a generic term, variously used to mean a program, a movement, a subject matter, and sometimes a method. In particular, it reflects a specific philosophy about learning and teaching based on the assumption that adults can and want to learn, that they are able and willing to take responsibility for that learning, and that the learning itself should respond to their needs.

Origins
Adults have always been engaged in learning, whether for survival, creativity, communal and individual interaction, or personal growth. In the 1800s the MECHANICS' INSTITUTES in Ontario, Québec and Nova Scotia provided information and learning opportunities to workers. Before Confederation, 1867, Queen's University was involved in extramural or extension work by offering public lectures, and the YMCA offered night classes for adults and educational programs for the military. Farmers' Institutes were established, and by the late 1800s the National Council of Women had been founded; home and school associations had expanded; public lectures were being given in many communities; Women's Institutes had been established, and educational programs were being organized by religious and other groups. All these programs were developed in response to adult needs and interests.

Where organizations offering appropriate programs did not already exist, new organizations were created or existing ones changed their mandate of responsibility. An important related development was the establishment of and the rapid increase in publicly supported libraries.

In 1899 Frontier College was established by Alfred Fitzpatrick to extend learning opportunities to those adults (mostly men) who lived and worked in remote communities in areas of work such as logging, mining and in railway camps (see LITERACY). Much later, Frontier College and other organizations extended educational services to people in prisons, factories and farm kitchens, and to fishermen, rural people and immigrants.

From 1900 to 1925 programs for adults continued to expand. KHAKI UNIVERSITY was organized in England for Canadian military personnel returning to Canada after WWI. During this time the Workers' Education Association, which provided opportunities for working people, was introduced to Canada from the UK. With the development of the West, universities extended their educational services to rural and remote communities by means of lectures, debating competitions, musical concerts and motion pictures. Indeed, University of Alberta and University of Saskatchewan were originally set up to offer extension courses. In the mid-1920s the University of Alberta used radio for EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING and in the early 1930s established the BANFF CENTRE.

The efforts of ST FRANCIS XAVIER UNIVERSITY in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, were especially effective in helping people stricken by the Great Depression, culminating in the establishment of an extensive cooperative movement (see ANTIGONISH MOVEMENT). Later the International Coady Institute was established to conduct training courses in the philosophy and practice of cooperation for representatives from developing countries. In 1946 Nova Scotia was the first province in Canada to institute an Adult Education Division as a unit of its Department of Education. The division's first director was Guy Henson.

Experimental work in public broadcasting, the formation of the Canadian Institute on Public Affairs (see COUCHICHING CONFERENCE), the founding of the NATIONAL FILM BOARD (1939), and 2 national radio forums in the 1940s - Citizens' Forum (1943) and FARM RADIO FORUM(1941) - all made use of media technology for learning and educating. Later developments included the use of satellite and television.

In 1935, the Canadian Association for Adult Education was established, with E.A. CORBETT as its first executive director. Prior to taking up this position, Corbett was director of University of Alberta's extension division and was the person responsible for Citizens' Forum, Farm Radio Forum and the Banff Centre.

In 1958 the establishment of the Quetico Residential Conference and Training Centre in northwestern Ontario provided adults with further opportunities for learning. From the 1930s to the 1960s, educational programs were initiated by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce; the Labour College of Canada was established in Montréal (1962); and there was increased government support for training and education, eg, the Technical and Vocational Training Assistance Act in 1960 and the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act in 1961 (see EDUCATION, HIGHER; EDUCATION, TECHNICAL).

Internationally, Canadians contributed to the development of adult education through such organizations as the International Congress of University Continuing Education, and UNESCO. With support of participants from the UNESCO conference in Tokyo (1972), and under the leadership of a Canadian adult educator, Dr J. Robbins KIDD, the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE) was established in 1973. After Dr Kidd died in 1982, the ICAE established an annual Roby Kidd Award for significant and innovative work in Adult Education. Convergence, the journal of the ICAE (begun in 1968), is now published in 4 languages and circulated to over 100 countries from its Toronto headquarters.

Four major national adult education associations have been founded in Canada: the Canadian Association for Adult Education (CAAE, 1935); the Institut canadien d'education des adultes (ICEA, 1952), which primarily serves the French-language sectors of adult education in Canada; the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE, 1954); and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE, 1981).

Structures and Agencies
Continuing education has become a way of life for many adults in Canada. Organized nonformal learning exists at all levels of government and within trade unions, cooperatives, industrial and commercial enterprises, hospitals, prisons, religious as well as cultural organizations, and health and fitness programs. Adult education takes place in factories, offices, gymnasiums, lecture halls, classrooms, libraries, museums, residential centres and churches, through a wide variety of teaching and learning methods.

Adult education also takes place in formal settings, as part of credited programs within schools, colleges and universities. Such agencies also engage in adult education nonformally through their departments of continuing education and extension. For example, the rapid expansion of the COMMUNITY COLLEGE and CEGEP systems in the 1960s and 1970s added greatly to the educational resources available to adults. Usually the structure of adult education is the responsibility of an instructor or a planner, or in the case of industry and government, a person in charge of professional development. Increasingly, these persons are seeing themselves as adult educators.

Participation
The first national survey of adult education in Canada (1934) revealed the wide variety of activities and the large numbers of people who were involved in some kind of purposeful learning. Research by TVOntario indicated that 75% or more of the adults surveyed were or wished to be involved in further learning. A 1982 Gallup study for CAAE and ICEA of Canadians 18 years and over revealed that 34% were involved in some kind of formal or nonformal educational program. A 1984 national survey gave comparable figures on participation. However, most surveys document the participation of adult learners in visible and publicly supported institutions such as schools and colleges, but a large number of adults are involved in some form of purposeful learning outside these institutions. Nevertheless, many adult Canadians do not participate in any available education programs. The implications of this are especially important to Canada, which has one of the highest levels of functionally illiterate adults of any industrialized country. Greater efforts are being made to extend the educational opportunities of this group of adults.

Issues and Implications
The attempts to develop government and institutional legislation that will economically support adult education parallel the increasing involvement of adults in educational programs. Also, many barriers, such as geographical distances and physical handicaps, prevent certain groups (eg, the handicapped, the isolated, the elderly, the undereducated, certain cultural groups, and women with small children) from participating in these programs (see DISTANCE LEARNING).

As adult education develops as a field of practice and a medium for research and study, participation and support will also have to increase. Within the context of adult education itself, the varied ways of learning that have been developed have blurred the formerly rigid roles of teacher and student, a fact that has been held up as proof that all adults, whether teachers or students, have something to teach (from life experience or from training) as well as something to learn from each other. Adult education as a field of practice and study has made an indelible contribution to society through its expression of respect for adults as responsible learners, as instigators of their own learning processes, and as valuable resources.

Author JAMES A. DRAPER

Suggested Reading
D.H. Brundage and D. MacKeracher, Adult Learning Principles and Their Application to Program Planning (1980); J.R. Kidd, How Adults Learn (1976); Secretary of State and Statistics Canada, One in Every Five: A Survey of Adult Education in Canada (1984).

Links to Other Sites
Historica Minutes: Frontier College
The Historica Minutes are dramatic 60-second “mini-movies” where exciting and important stories from Canada’s past are presented to Canadians.

Frontier College
The Frontier College website offers an overview of the organization’s innovative literacy and training programs. Be sure to check out the Stories by Learners.

Canadian Network for Innovation in Education
The Canadian Network for Innovation in Education supports research and professional development initiatives in educational communications, media, and technology. Their site offers articles from the “Journal of Learning and Technology.”

The Movement for Canadian Literacy
The MCL website offers resources and links of interest to Canadian teachers and organizations involved in adult literacy education.

Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness
Find out about research in the field of historical consciousness. Excellent site for students and educators interested in history and history education. From the University of British Columbia.

What is a Learning Disability?
A concise overview of learning disabilities with a focus on post-secondary students. From the Disability Resource Centre at the University of Calgary.

National Farm Radio Forum fonds
Information about the National Farm Radio Forum fonds at Library and Archives Canada. Includes a brief history of this radio broadcast and adult education program.

Edward Annand Corbett: Innovator and Educator
A 1991 profile of Edward Annand Corbett, one of the creative forces behind the “National Farm Radio Forum” and other Canadian adult education programs. From “New Trial,” the University of Alberta’s alumni magazine.

LearnNowBC
Check out the LearnNowBC Course Finder, a comprehensive database of all the distributed learning opportunities for students from Grades K-12 in British Columbia.