http://alx.sagepub.com/Adult Learning

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DOI: 10.1177/104515959700800402 1997 8: 5Adult Learning

Amy D. RoseWorkplace Learning: Adult Education as Solution and Problem

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- Mar 1, 1997Version of Record >>

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D I R E C T I O N S F O R

Workplace Learning: Adult Education as Solution and Problem

w h a t exactly is adult edu- cation for? What should it be for? These seemingly simple ques- tions are really quite complex and belie the sometimes simplis- tic policy issues that pass for debate within adult education circles. The basic premise for much of the research on learning in the workplace is that todays increasingly technical and scientific society demands more complex thinking on the part of the work force. However, as tlie educational needs of tlie work force increase, American workers are sadly under prepared for the workplace. They cannot perform basic tasks because they have not met lniniinuni standards in math and English. Thus, the public school curriculum needs to be upgraded and standardized so that employers will have a stable and qualified work force from which to draw. I n addition, adult education can fill the gap, equipping workers with the kinds of basic skills that the schools are failing to provide.

Additionally, adult education fits in with the newest incama- tion of lifelong learning currently in vogue in the workplace - tlie idea of the learning organi- zation. According to this view, the very idea that learning is preparatory and stops is antithet- ical to the learning organiza- tion. Here, American industry, in order to remain globally com- petitive must constantly reinvent

itself and i t can only do this by having the employees themselves constantly reinventing themselves and their work. Job stagnation leads not only to boredom, but to lack of innovation, and hence, to the lack of professional growth.

Hence, the history of adult education

policy is really a history of a lack of policy,

or at least of a lack of central focus.

Work force projections empha- size the need for more highly skilled workers, calling for both more care in vocational educa- tion, while simultaneously decrying the debased value of the current high school degree. Also frequently cited are studies show- ing an increasing flattening of hierarchical relationships within the American workplace, with each individual worker asserting greater responsibility for his or her output. In direct contrast, to the 1Bylorian model of efficiency,

which was predicated on breaking down each task into the smallest component possible so that each individual would have no direct responsibility for the whole, todays management gurus main- tain that only through the main- tenance of direct responsibility for product can quality improve and output grow. Of course, within this scenario, industrial growth is the key issue and it is perhaps here that adult educators are being at least somewhat naive.

Once again we see education portrayed as the great American panacea. Throughout the twentieth century, education has been por- trayed as the solution to myriad social problems. These have included problems of continuing discrimination and race hatred; drug prevention; the building of self-esteem, and other fads that have been designated as ways of correcting what is wrong with American society. Because educa- tion is traditionally a local com- munity and family concern, educational policy, particularly on the federal level, has consistently needed to perceive a crisis in order to enunciate a legitimate national goal. For adult education, the issue is even more complex. With almost no local base at all, adult education has been at the mercy of almost every passing fad. Adult educators have sought funding from almost anyone willing to provide it. Thus, beginning with tlie Carnegie Corporation in the

l92Os, followed by the Ford Foundation in the 1950s, and the Kellogg Foundation in the 1980s, foundations have dominated much of the academic interest in adult education. In fact, up until about the 1970s, most of these efforts were concerned forth devel- oping adult education as a grass- roots movement within individual localities. When this failed, the federal government took over the funding of basic adult education and interest shifted to those areas deemed most worthy by the gov- ernment. Hence, the history of adult education policy is really a history of a lack of policy, or at least of a lack of central focus.

Educators and policy makers, too eager to find a niche within corporate America, ignore the broader policy issues related to adult education. But this deliber- ate ignorance leads to a further problem - the embrace of work- place learning as a new innova- tion, while overlooking the vast literature analyzing the nature of the individual and the individ- uals value to the organization. As many economists have pointed out, computing this value is difficult given the inherent con- tradictions of the process. On the one hand, individuals are not commodities, at least not since slavery was eliminated. A basic premise of democratic society is that a person is more than an interchangeable part on the ,%?e Dir&m in Kewrch, p. 7

March/April 1997 A 5 by ursu narcisa on October 29, 2014alx.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Review %aching from the Heart, by Jerold W. Apps. (1996). Malabar, FL: Krieger. 133 pages. $21.50 (hardcover),

u p o n scanning the pages of Appss Teachiug from the Heurt, one might be tempted to conclude prematurely that the book offers little in the way of profound or innovative inforniation and that the ideas within have little to do with adult education. Apps sug- gests that educators today suffer from an over-emphasis on the pragmatics of learning and teaching, a paradigm that he maintains is an artifact of the industrial age, but one that

doesnt serve us well in a chang- ing world. Instead, he says we need new ways of thinking, new ways of incorporating mind, body, and spirit . . . especially in our learning and in our teaching (p. 8). One way, according to Apps, is teaching from the heart.

Apps maintains that all teach- ing and learning benefit from a connection with the heart, and he includes exercises and examples to assist the reader in moving toward heartfelt teaching and learning. These include identify- ing barriers (such as fear, inner turmoil, and time constraints), understanding the importance of relationships, and undertaking self-examination to know better who we are. In partial response to the recognition of heartfelt teach-

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production line. Individuals have inalienable rights, which coin- modities do not. On the other hand, the well-being of the indi- vidual is seen a5 being directly connected to his or her output. The more education a person has, the more potential he or she has for adding to the industrial growth of the country. Hence, within this mindset, while individuals are not commodities, they are resources - resources that must he nur- tured in order to ensure the great- est economic growth. But of course, as economist Kenneth Boulding pointed out over forty years ago, the problem with view- ing people as resources is that this

conception treats the individual as an intermediate good, instead of as an end.

Is the goal of preparing indi- viduals for work the same as the goal of educating them? This question has great importance, not only for adult education, but for childrens education as well. As linkages with industry become the norm for all levels of educa- tion - including elementary schools, it is becoming increas- ingly clear that adult educators in particular, have f.di\ed to explore the ramifications of this issue. To read the current research is to be struck by the absence of debate. I n fact, very often corporate inter- ests are defined so as to embrace the whole individual. The basic

ing as unpredictable, filled with ambiguity, and sometimes even chaotic (p. lll), Apps does offer a teaching credo, techniques for group learning, or suggestions for relaxation, solitude, and journal writing. While learners and teachers alike may identify with the barriers and agree with the value of self-reflection, the reader is left, however, with questions regarding just how to accomplish what Apps advocates.

As with his other works, Apps writing style is straightforward and direct, sprinkled with anec- dotes, metaphors, and personal examples of significant experien- tial learning. His ideas leave the reader convinced of the merit of heartfelt teaching, yet uneasy about its implementation or

consequences. This response is perhaps reflective of the very pragmatic disposition of educa- tors to which Apps refers. Apps himself acknowledges that there are potholes in the road, and the road maps are not clear, but he adds I can think of nothing more important for a teacher to do than to help people become more human, the ultimate goal of teaching from the heart (p. 116). Who can argue with that? A

- by Vivian E Mott East Carolina Univmity. Cremuille. SC

premise being I suppose that a fulfilled worker is a productive one. One of the principal themes of the post-war period has been the idea that education should be a national priority because it affects American productivity and hence American world standing. While American economic health has long been connected to the diffusion of information and particularly of innovations, the post-war era has seen a greater connection than ever before between diffusion and education- al levels. As educators have long recognized, diffusion by itself is not sufficient for innovation. In the same way, the connection between innovation and educa- tion remains to be more fully

explored. As adult educators embrace the

trends laid out along the parame- ters of the learning organization, we might do well to remember that this is just a managerial trend, not an educational goal. To confuse the two, is to ultimately lose sight of the importance of the individual within our highly individualized society. This is the contradiction with which Ameri- can adult educators must grapple, if we are ever to develop a satis- factory policy regarding adult education in the workplace and beyond. A - Amy D. Rose

Northern lllino& University

March/April 1997 A 7

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