Karen Lloyd
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Commented On
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Katherine Cope
|
|
Maureen Chavez-Reda
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History
of Adult Education
The
1960s
Karen
Lloyd
Ball
State University
EDAC
631 Fall 2019
Introduction
The
1960s kicked-off with a presidential election that would see John F. Kennedy
seated at the 35th president of the United States; meanwhile the US
was dealing with the current recession. The recession was marked with high unemployment
rates, high inflation, and the stock market losing a quarter of its value (Recession
of 1960, n.d.). During this election, “Kennedy told the convention delegates
that he would get the nation moving again,” (Campaign of 1960, para. 4).
Kennedy’s hope was to make reform that would help “eliminate injustice and
inequality in the United States,” (The 1960s History, para. 2). However, three
years into his term, Kennedy was assassinated and this led to Lyndon B. Johnson
taking over the presidency and ushering in his own reforms.
While
the election of Kennedy had instilled some optimism, by the end of the decade, things were not looking as though they would turn out as many Americans had
hoped. The war in Vietnam had escalated and young men were being drafted into
service. The fight for civil rights was in full swing and some blacks, students,
and women were becoming more unsettled and taking a radical approach to addressing
their respective issues. Meanwhile, others removed themselves from politics and
joined the hippie sub-culture.
Despite
all of the political and social uncertainty in the United States during the
1960s, we do have some high points for adult education that we will examine
further in this paper.
Highlights
In
1960, the federal government was getting more involved in adult education. According
to Federal Adult Education A Legislative History 1964-2013, “the legislation
also heightened national consciousness concerning the need to improve economic
and educational conditions of disadvantaged adults,” (2013, p. 5). The Montreal
Conference on Adult Education themed their conference “Adult Education in a
Changing World,” (Lowe, 1972). The first item they focused their attention on
was “the enlarged aims of adult education” (Lowe, 1972, p.8) and stated that “nothing
less will suffice than that people everywhere should come to accept adult
education as a norm, and that governments should treat it as a necessary part
of the educational provision of every country,” (Lowe, 1972, p. 9).
In
2013, the U.S. Department of Education released a legislative history of
federal adult education. This report saw, in the 1960s, “three broad program
categories emerge:
- ·
Education for government employees, both
civilian and military
- ·
Manpower development and training programs
- ·
Programs to develop literacy and basic
skills,” (An American Heritage Federal
Adult Education A Legislative History 1964-2013, 2013, p. 5).
Some
of the federal policies that emerged during the 1960s are the Manpower
Development and Training Act of 1962, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and
the Adult Education Act of 1966. The Manpower and Training Act “endeavored to
train and retrain thousands of workers unemployed because of automation and
technological change,” (Kremen, 1974, para. 1).
The Economic Opportunity
Act brought about the Adult Basic Education Program detailed below.
This program sought to remedy inequalities of educational disadvantaged by offering
persons 18 years of age . . . and older the opportunity to develop reading,
writing, language, and arithmetic skills to enable them to obtain or retain
employment and otherwise participate more fully as productive and responsible
citizens. (An American Heritage Federal
Adult Education A Legislative History 1964-2013, 2013, p. 9)
Then, in 1966, the Adult
Education Act moved the Adult Basic Education Program to the U.S. Office of
Education. It was at this time that the focus on vocational education was
shifted to more project- and development-based education.
Influential Factors
We can look back
over the 1960s and see that many of the influential factors in adult education
fell within the political realm of education. Both Kennedy and Johnson worked
towards the federal government taking a stance on adult education and
implementing new federal policies to encourage growth in the field.
It has been hard to pinpoint specific people as
influential adult educators in the 1960s, as adult education was just taking
shape as the government asserted more influence over the field. However, many
of the influential educators, we will see emerge in the 1970s were completing
their scholarship and would help start shaping adult education into what it is
today.
Some of the emerging influential people in adult
education would include David Kolb, with his development of the Experiential
Learning Model; Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences; and
Malcolm Knowles, whose theory of andragogy is well known in the field of adult
education (Flanagan, 2018).
The Adult Education Association should also be mentioned
when talking about influential factors in adult education. According to the
Adult Education Association, “the purpose of the organization was to unite all
professional and non-professional adult educators in a single national
organization to facilitate communication in the emerging field of adult
education,” (Adult Education Association, n.d., para. 1). While this
organization was formed before the 1960s, it is important to note that they did
move their national headquarters to Washington D.C. in 1964. This was the same
year the Economic Opportunity Act was approved and two years before the Adult
Education Act of 1966. This put the organization in a better position to work
toward its goals in regard to government changes in policy and to help guide
the outcomes of those policies.
Implications
As
we look back on the advances to adult education, the main things we can take
away are that in the 1960s there was a push to educate adults, whether to get
them basic skills, to increase their skills in a more technological society, or
to build more advanced skills to promote and retain employability.
The 1960s saw a recession, a war, and a push towards equality that enabled the
federal government to set up new policies and programs to promote the education
of its adult population. This support at the federal level meant education
could be better funded and could work towards growth and move in new
directions. Adult education was being used as a springboard to help Americans
flee poverty, reduce unemployment, and help build a better society.
On
a final note, as a result of the changing climate of the government’s stance on
adult education and the sociopolitical background and outcomes from the decade,
we can see the influence the 1960s had on the continued study of adult
education by emerging scholars, who have since continued to grow adult
education, as we will see as the following decades, are explored.
Summary
Table
Areas
|
Summary
|
Social
Background
|
Economic
recession, Vietnam War, draft, civil rights movement, hippie sub-culture.
|
Highlights
|
Manpower
Development and Training Act of 1962, Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Adult
Education Act of 1966
|
Influential
factors
|
War
on Poverty, civil rights movement, unemployment, government policies
|
Implications
|
New
sources of funding, new direction, growth
|
References
Campaign of 1960. (n.d.). John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved September 13, 2019, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/campaign-of-1960
Recession of 1960. (n.d.). GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved September 15, 2019, from https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/usa/history/recession-of-1960.htm
Lowe, J. (1972). A retrospective international survey of adult education: (Montreal 1960 to Tokyo 1972). Survey, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris France. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED068760.pdf
Rose, A.D. (1991). Ends or means: an overview of the history of the Adult Education Act. Information series no. 346. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED341875.pdf
An American Heritage Federal Adult Education A Legislative History 1964-2013 (2013). Retrieved from https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/Adult_Ed_History_Report.pdf
The 1960s Education: Overview. (2003). Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved September 12, 2019, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1960s-education-overview
The 1960s History. (2010). History.com. Retrieved September 12, 2019, from https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/1960s-history
Kremen, G.R. (1974). MDTA: The origins of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962. Retrieved September 13, 2019, from https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/mono-mdtatext
Flanagan, S. (2018). Langevin Learning Services. Retrieved September 14, 2019, from http://blog.langevin.com/5-major-contributors-to-adult-learning
Adult Education Association. (n.d.). Adult Education Association (AEA-USA)/American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) Records. Retrieved on September 14, 2019, from, https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/a/aaace.htm
