Establishing conceptual boundaries: What is an adult education project, promise and practice?

Abstract

In a movement toward workforce development as an academic entity, the identity of adult education as projects for inquiry is troubled. In some academic programs, adult education has been termed adult learning in the service of promoting teaching and learning for the workplace. However, adult education's inquiry, its projects, might be more than just teaching adults or researching how adults’ learn. This paper presents an argument that adult education projects might have a social justice focus. Adult education might serve as a critique of social, educational, and political policies concerning work and the workplace.