Journey to International Adult Education

Abstract

My journey to international adult education started with my graduate study in the program of international and comparative education at Beijing Normal University (BNU) in the late 1980s, when the reform of the Chinese opening to the outside world had gone broader and deeper under Deng Xiaoping's administration. Modern economic construction was a priority, and education was seen ms a practical instrument for producing a varied and qualified workforce for the nation. Thus, special attention was given to learning from others and borrowing useful educational experiences from developed countries. Consequently, universities were highly involved in exchange programs with foreign educational institutions. Being the leading institute of tile international and comparative education program of the nation, the Scientific Research Institute of International and Comparative Education [SRIICE] of BNU specialized in comparative research on several foreign countries, namely Russia (and some Eastern European countries), France, Germany, Japan, United States, United Kingdom, and other English-speaking countries, such as Canada and Australia. Faculty were not only knowledgeable of those countries' cultural and educational systems, they were also fluent in these languages and had good connections with their educational institutions from which they received their education. Further, one of the competency requirements for admission into SRIICE was that applicants must be fluent in one of the foreign languages. Having such advantages, almost every semester, the Institute either invited international scholars to offer workshops and seminars, or held (or co-sponsored) international conferences that brought many foreign scholars. As a master's degree student, I benefited greatly from participating in these activities and, more importantly, they provided great learning opportunities for me as I voluntarily worked as an interpreter for those foreign scholars. They offered workshops and seminars to Chinese graduate students, faculty, and practitioners, and gave speeches and presentations at conferences. Working with them was a priceless bonus to my classroom learning and made my international experience exceptional. One adult educator particularly influenced me and led me into the field of adult education, changing my career path. His name is Dr. Dusan Savicevic, a well known Yugoslavian adult educator. Dr. Savicevic, a dissertation director of one of our faculty, was invited to and visited Beijing, China, in the summer of 1990. He offered seminars to graduate students, adult educators, practitioners, and administrators. I was honored to work closely for weeks with Dr. Savicevic, and that experience enabled me to see a larger world that adult education plays in fulfilling various roles with different purposes and goals for diverse adult learners. Dr. Savicevic particularly introduced the concept of andragogy. In fact, he is the person who introduced andragogy to Malcolm S. Knowles in the late 1960s, and Knowles (1980) further developed the concept and made it applicable in the practice of adult education for North America. I was so interested in adult education that I changed my thesis topic to adult education. This transition changed my career path. While I worked with Dr. Savicevic, I moved forward and graduated. I received two employment offers; one was an administrative position at the Department of Adult Education, Ministry of Education of the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC). The other employment offer was an editorship of the People's Education Publisher of China. Both were decent jobs and matched my career goals. Dr. Savicevic recommended taking the administrator position, because, among other things, it would provide me with more opportunities to continue my international and comparative inquiry. Following my heart to the international adult education journey, I accepted the offer, and in July of 1990, I became an administrator of the Department of Adult Education of the Ministry of Education of China. …