Beyond Price Comparisons: Towards a More Critical Consumer Education for Adults Through Informal Sites of Learning

Abstract

Over decade ago, Oduran (1993) argued that was an emerging frontier of adult While the Adult Performance Level (APL) project in the 1970s sparked some interest in and within adult basic and English as second language (Lankshear, 1993; Levine, 1986; Sandlin, 2000), and while this push has been seen more recently in welfare-to-work and job preparation programs, the broader field of adult has been almost silent on this issue. A review of adult journals and conference proceedings over the past decade reveals very little interest in among adult researchers. In this article, I argue that in addition to the recognized practice of in formal classroom settings (including some adult literacy programs, county extension, and welfare- to -work programs), for adults is happening in wide variety of places outside the formal classroom. These informal sites of for adults mostly have gone unnoticed by the field of adult or are not recognized or named as consumer education. I believe adult educators should be aware of these informal sites of adult education, especially because some of these sites have the potential to move outside of its traditional technical focus, and into more critical realms where learners develop a different relationship to the marketplace in which they identify unquestioned assumptions and challenge the status of existing structures [such as capitalism] as natural (Ozanne & Murray, 1995, p. 522). Consumer is an important and exciting arena that adult educators in variety of settings could incorporate into their existing curricula. In addition, adult educators could become aware of and more involved in these more informal sites, thus bringing recognition to these sites as legitimate arenas of adult learning. In what follows, I briefly discuss traditional forms of and examine taking place in more informal arenas, focusing on sites of critical where consumers are learning and practicing ways to cut down on their overall consumption. This movement has several different trajectories, including the voluntary simplicity movement that urges consumers to cut back on consumption or to consume in more environmentally-friendly way, and the jammers movement that uses various acts of public and private resistance to challenge and undermine the culture in which we live. Just The Facts, Please! Traditional Consumer Education in Formal Settings The term consumer education conjures up images of learning how to perform price comparisons, make budgets, and balance checking account. These are often the types of taught in life skills segments of adult literacy, ESL, and employment preparation programs (Auerbach & Burgess, 1985; Griffith & Cervero, 1977; Lankshear, 1993; Sandlin, 2000). Consumer has been defined as the process of gaining knowledge and to manage personal resources and to participate in social, political, and decisions that affect individual well-being and the public good (Bannister, 1996, p. 1). Consumer has long history in the United States, beginning formally in the early 20th century, but having its roots in the 1700s, with Thomas Jefferson's advocacy of democracy and public (Bannister). Throughout this history, practitioners have been concerned with improving the economic level of living for all citizens (Bannister, p. 5), and have focused on three broad areas of education: choice and decision making, personal resource management, and citizen participation (Bannister & Monsma, 1980). The dominant message in traditional literature and practice stresses the positive benefits of education, and the majority of empirical research on has tried to determine how behaviors change after participating in programs. …