Adult Education for Civic Intelligence in the Post World War I Period

Abstract

Adult education literature in the 1920's, 1930's, and early 1940's was examined to identify conceptions of and approaches to adult civic education held by leaders of the American adult edu cation movement. Adult education advocates and theorists began in the mid 1920's to distinguish between "adult education" and other forms of "education for adults." In this conception, adult education was a "study" and "learn" approach to life. Adult edu cators gave mixed answers to the questions of whether adult edu cation should have a program proinoting specific kinds of social action and what should comprise the content to adult civic educa tion. Several experimental approaches to adult education for civic intelligence were undertaken. Discussion as a method for coopera tive learning emerged as the educational method most congruent with the purposes of adult civic education.