Book Review: The Jossey-Bass Reader on Contemporary Issues in Adult Education, by Merriam, S. B., & Grace A. P. (Eds.).

Abstract

Merriam, S. B., & Grace A. P. (Eds.). (2011). The Jossey-Bass Reader on Contemporary Issues in Adult Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 483 pp. ISBN 978-0-470-97356-4 (hardcover). The Jossey-Bass Reader on Contemporary Issues in Adult Education, edited by S. B. Merriam and A. P. Grace, is a collection of previously published writings covering a broad spectrum of adult education issues with a decided emphasis on the role that adult education should play in instigating meaningful social reform. The selections are a combination of theoretical and research-based articles first published between 1925 and 2009. This book has broad appeal, as the editors explain in the preface: [It is] a stand-alone reader for those self-directed adult educators who want to sample some of the thinking about adult education, and a reader that surveys an array of historical and contemporary issues important to study and critique in undergraduate or graduate courses in adult education, (p. viii) The book explores multiple aspects of adult education today. Divided into five parts, each part contains an introduction written by the editors and five to seven chapters, with one reading selection per chapter. The chapters were selected with an emphasis on the potentially socially transformative aspects of adult education. These themes are echoed and amplified in the each section's introduction. The editors do an excellent job in each section's introduction by providing a solid organizational rationale for the section along with brief summaries of each work. At the end of each section, thought-provoking and engaging Questions for Reflections and Discussion require the reader to reflect on the concepts and themes across the section's chapters. Part 1, Defining a Field of Practice: The Foundations of Adult Education, focuses on the history of the field of adult education. The selections' authors explore what the editors posit as two competing viewpoints on the primary purpose of adult education: social education (defined as consciousness-raising, community-building endeavors) and more immediately practical vocational preparation. This section contains the oldest selections, including classic works on adult education's potential for social improvement by Eduard C. Lindeman, Alain Locke, and Paulo Freire. The second part, Positioning Adult Education in a Global Context, focuses on how the dichotomous purposes of adult education introduced in the first part are realized in developing countries. As the editors explain in Part 2's introduction, The authors call for a return to traditional forms of adult learning and education that emphasize social education for diverse learners. …