Philosophy, Role of Adult Educators, and Learning

Abstract

This article argues that adult educators need to adapt their philosophy and roles to fa-cilitate adult learners’ transformative learning and proposes a model that illustrates this process. The most common purposes of adult education reflect six underlying philosophies as fully discussed by Elias and Merriam. Adult learners possess different needs, interests, and experiences. As teachers modify their roles and methods in re-sponse to their students’ diverse individual characteristics, they must also adapt their underlying philosophical perspective. The authors maintain that in this context, the role of adult educators as facilitators of transformational learning must be redefined and their prevalent humanistic and progressive philosophies must be reexamined.