Abstract
Drawing on an autoethnographic approach, we offer a retrospective and current reflection on the Adult Education Professoriate within the Canadian university system. Through our autographic texts as professors within the field of adult education, as well as a review of relevant adult education literature, we consider the historical and current societal and academic trends that informed the growth and associated struggles in this academic program over the past six decades, including the launch of the Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education. Reflecting on lessons from the past, we argue that we need to remain vigilant as professors within Canadian universities and realize that the programs we promote and offer will only thrive if we continue to survive as a valued and visible field of scholarship and practice. We further assert that our survival is contingent upon ramping up our engagement with and educating of colleagues from other disciplines, as well as work and learning contexts.
Highlights
For the past 30 years, the Commission of Canadian Adult Education Professors has hosted an annual meeting as part of the yearly Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE)
Stories of retirements and hires, budget cutbacks, and other resource allocations, program expansions or reductions, and tensions and opportunities regarding being located within faculties of education or other faculties and departments, constitute some of what is shared, debated, and reflected upon. This is a space for dialogue, where we commiserate, brainstorm ideas, seek a deeper understanding, and ponder the shifts and challenges that our field of scholarship and practice will likely undergo over the decade. While this meeting may appear, at first glance, to be less significant or productive than one designed to address a roster of more structured agenda items, we are all drawn to this gathering—one that has evolved over many years out of a thoughtful, purposeful, and mindful energy devoted to the growth and ongoing development of adult education in Canada
When we narrow our focus to the emergence of Canadian university programs, we owe a debt of gratitude to our colleagues who had the impetus, more than half a century ago, to advocate for and build these programs and to those who initiated the creation of CASAE in 1981
Summary
For the past 30 years, the Commission of Canadian Adult Education Professors has hosted an annual meeting as part of the yearly Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE). Stories of retirements and hires, budget cutbacks, and other resource allocations, program expansions or reductions, and tensions and opportunities regarding being located within faculties of education or other faculties and departments, constitute some of what is shared, debated, and reflected upon This is a space for dialogue, where we commiserate, brainstorm ideas, seek a deeper understanding, and ponder the shifts and challenges that our field of scholarship and practice will likely undergo over the decade. We begin by offering autoethnographic texts of our respective journeys from new academic hires to our current positions as professors in Adult Learning at the University of Calgary, Canada This journey includes taking up various formal and informal leadership roles as service, within our own university and in CASAE. Our focus for this autoethnographic study is to consider the following: Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing academic context, how does the adult education professoriate in Canada maintain relevancy and continue to live out the values of community engagement and action, as well as social justice
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