Adult Civic Education Research Articles

Participatory approaches in adult civic education: new practices based on lessons learned

Aus der Disziplin

Revisiting Highlander and Its Theoretical Origins for Civic Education

Adult educators and scholars have long recognized the Highlander Education and Research Center in Tennessee as a model for adult civic education that is transformative for individuals and society. In 2004, researchers at Harvard University identified Highlander as one of the most successful initiatives worldwide with long-term impact on societal transformation. It is important for current scholars interested in adult and civic education to understand Highlander’s theoretical and practical contributions to adult learning and civic action, and how it shares many of the same theoretical streams of thought that influenced the development of transformative adult education. This article will provide an in-depth review of how Highlander’s theoretical origins, depicted through one of its founder’s intellectual discoveries, were forerunners to contemporary transformative educational theory and became a catalyst for a decades-long enterprise of transformative education. Highlander and its approach may be unfamiliar to contemporaries in adult education, but its theoretical and practical approach remains highly relevant as we seek nontraditional models and educational practices to promote civic engagement for a more socially and economically just society.

What Drives Choice of Coping Strategies Against Ex-Post Weather and Climate Shocks Among Smallholder Fish Farmers in Malawi?

The research was funded by the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence (ACE II) project. Abstract The study was conducted in Dowa and Mchinji districts of central Malawi to understand how fish farmers make choice of village savings and loans, income generating activities and insurance to deal with weather and climate shocks. A multivariate probit model was used to analyse the drivers of farmers’ choice so that we know if the strategies are complements or substitutes. Data from 353 fish farmers was collected. The study has shown that education level, age of the farmer, farming experience and the hypothetical insurance bid are significant drivers of fish farmers’ choice. We recommend promotion of adult literacy, civic education and enhancement of extension services on the coping strategies as a proxy to formal education which has proved so crucial in the adoption of coping strategies. Keywords : fish farmers, weather and climate shocks, coping strategies, multivariate probit model DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-4-02

“These Grandmas Drove Me Mad. It Was Brilliant!”—Promising Starting Points to Support Citizen Competence for Sustainable Consumption in Adults

The article addresses citizen competence for sustainable consumption in adults. It discusses whether it is possible to develop educational offerings for adults (being by nature short and isolated) that effectively promote this competence and whether it makes a difference if sustainable consumption is approached by focusing on good life (quality of life) and justice or by focusing on natural resources and environment (as is suggested by, e.g., environmental literacy approaches). Taking the case of energy policy, it presents an educational intervention (EdIn) developed, implemented, and investigated by the authors. In data-analysis, three approaches were adopted (methodological triangulation), one analysing the deliberations’ cognitive structure, one analysing the participants’ perception, one analysing the participants’ reaction (in terms of the knowledge/concepts and values/concerns they voiced). The results show, firstly, that the didactical design of EdIn was successful with a view to supporting citizen competence in participants. Secondly, they show that in adult civic education sustainable consumption should be approached by focusing on good life and justice. Thirdly, they indicate that people do not necessarily perceive themselves to be part of societal decision-making, leading from the question of the design and content of civic educational activities to the question of their necessity.

Edukacja obywatelska dorosłych w Warszawie – w stronę lokalności i aktywności

The article presents an initial analysis of Warsaw’s adult civic education based on legal documents, strategies, programs, and information materials concerning participatory budgeting and community centers. Results show that the concept of adult civic education in Warsaw is rooted in local communities’ learning traditions and the tenets of active citizenship. In our opinion such an approach is exclusive because its main recipients are already civically active residents, and such educational efforts do not reach disadvantaged groups. Our analysis also proves that the educational process is used as a tool to implement social change.

Deliberative democracy and adult civic education

AbstractAdult education programs should turn to the deliberative democracy movement in order to help their communities better address the “wicked problems” they face.

Educational Forums of the 1930s: An Experiment in Adult Civic Education

Through an exploration of deliberative forums during the Great Depression, this article considers how Americans have turned to civic education in times of national crisis. The 1930s were a deeply threatening time for democracy, and the forum movement sought to counter revolutionary rhetoric and action with a vision of citizenship based on informed, objective analysis. The many tensions inherent in the forming of citizens—such as critical thinking and patriotism, deliberation and zeal—continue to demand our attention, and navigating those tensions is essential to the ongoing challenge of choosing our way.

Adult Civic Education Through the National Issues Forums: Developing Democratic Habits and Dispositions Through Public Deliberation

Adult educators stress the importance of civic education, but few studies have theorized and measured the impact of such educational programs. This study presents a social cognitive model of political participation that posits connections among deliberative education, civic dispositions, and political conversations. The validity of this model was tested using two field studies of National Issues Forums participants, and the results provided partial support for the model. The first investigation indicated that deliberative civic education had a negative relationship with participants’ group efficacy and conversation dominance and positive associations with the ideological and demographic diversity of participants’ conversation networks. A second study demonstrated that civic dispositions and behaviors were positively associated with forum experiences that involved higher levels of reading, listening, observing, and enactment. These findings suggest the potential value of deliberative forums as a means of civic education, but they also demonstrate that forums vary considerably in their educational impact.

Can Democracy Be Taught?

This paper examines the effects of adult civic education programs on political participation, civic competence, and support for democratic values in three developing democracies, the Dominican Republic, Poland and South Africa. I show that participation in civic education programs conducted by NGOs in each country had meaningful impact on local-level political participation in all three countries, and modest impact on individuals' knowledge, efficacy and support for values such as political tolerance. The effects of the programs were sharply increased when individuals were trained more frequently and with more active, participatory teaching methods. The results have important implications regarding the extent to which democratic political orientations can be "engineered" through civics training conducted by civil society groups, as well as important policy implications regarding how such programs should best be structured and implemented in practice.

Jump-Starting Democracy: Adult Civic Education and Democratic Participation in Three Countries

In countries emerging from authoritarianism into democracy, citizens have little preparation for participating in the new political dispensations they face. Adult civic education promises a way to jump-start the lifelong socialization experience that their counterparts in the long-established democracies enjoy. But do these brief crash-courses in democracy really have any impact? Recent surveys of civic education efforts sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development in the Dominican Republic, Poland and South Africa find that those taking part in the programmes do participate significantly more in local level politics and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in politics more generally as well. There is also evidence that non-elites can benefit more from such programmes and begin to close the participation gap that separates them from traditional elites. The overall gains in participation are, however, modest. But given that political participation in absolute terms has been quite low in both old and new democracies, it can be argued that even modest gains are important and make investment in civic education worthwhile.

Civic Education and the Mobilization of Political Participation in Developing Democracies

This article examines the effect of adult civic education programs on political participation in two developing democracies, the Dominican Republic and South Africa. I first develop hypotheses about the effects of civic education on participation from theories of political culture and recent work on recruitment and group mobilization. Using survey data collected on participants in numerous civic education programs as well as control groups in both countries, I then show that civic education has significant and substantively meaningful effects on local-level political participation in four of the seven programs studied in South Africa and the Dominican Republic and that the results hold after controlling for potential biases related to the individual's self-selection into the programs. The effects of civic education on participation are largely conditional in nature, dependent on the frequency and nature of the civic education treatment, and the individual's store of prior political and participatory res...

Civic learning and action among older citizens

The purposes of this article are first, to consider the role of senior citizens as advocates, both in matters of specific concern to their fellow age cohorts and in issues of general interest to the community; and, second, to examine the relationship of self-education and learning to advocacy in civic affairs. Literature on sociological and political theory as well as adult civic education provides a conceptual base from which to explain the involvement of persons in their later years in advocacy efforts and in learning activities designed to enhance civic involvement. Citizens have banded together to advocate their vision of a desired future throughout history. Citizen participation in political and civic affairs is generally age-integrated and intergenerational, thus affording opportunities to dispel negative age stereotypes. Participation in civic affairs invokes ageless values, creates meaning in life, and allows elderly participants to transcend themselves and their limitations.

Adult Civic Education

Adult Civic Education

Adult Civic Education.

Adult Civic Education.

Review: Adult Civic Education

Review: Adult Civic Education

Adult civic education

Adult civic education

Civic Education: An Adult Education Imperative

The proposition is argued that the primal contribution of adult education in a democracy, before all other purposes it serves, is civic education. A corollary position is that reluctance to facilitate citizen understanding of civic problems and skillful participation in solutions leaves adult education agencies on the sidelines in this most important sphere of adult life and furthers the current American retreat to privatism. Conditions affecting the substance of adult civic education are described. The possibilities for advocacy on the part of adult educators are also discussed.

Adult Education for Civic Intelligence in the Post World War I Period

Adult education literature in the 1920's, 1930's, and early 1940's was examined to identify conceptions of and approaches to adult civic education held by leaders of the American adult edu cation movement. Adult education advocates and theorists began in the mid 1920's to distinguish between "adult education" and other forms of "education for adults." In this conception, adult education was a "study" and "learn" approach to life. Adult edu cators gave mixed answers to the questions of whether adult edu cation should have a program proinoting specific kinds of social action and what should comprise the content to adult civic educa tion. Several experimental approaches to adult education for civic intelligence were undertaken. Discussion as a method for coopera tive learning emerged as the educational method most congruent with the purposes of adult civic education.

Adult Civic Education in the Post-World War Ii Period

Adult civic education assists adults to acquire the compe tencies necessary for participation in civic life. After World War II, adult civic education sought to promote citizen participation, individual development, and the creation of an aware and informed citizenry. These efforts were accomplished through liberal educa tion, public affairs education, political education, human relations, leadership, and participation training, and community develop ment. Both the community development study and action approach and forms of group learning were used extensively in developing adult citizens. The ultimate purpose of adult civic education was to create a public opinion able to assess critically the accomplish ment of government and citizens able to identify and solve com mon social problems.

Adult Civic Education--A State Program

Adult Civic Education--A State Program