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2019 Annual Conference

October 8–11, 2019

St. Louis, MO

Where's the engagement: Reflections on creating space for nontraditional learners

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at 5:00 PM–6:30 PM CDT
Grand DE
Select the FIRST area in which your presentation best fits.

Colleges and Universities

Presentation Format Requested

Poster (60-90 minutes)

Session Abstract

Adult learners often describe their higher education experience as "alienating" and feel as though campus engagement does not include them. However, these same learners often choose not to connect with campus spaces created specifically for them, when offered. What factors keep these students from engaging with spaces designed for them? 

Target Audience

Facilitators of adults, particularly educators and academic/student affairs professionals seeking to create inclusive spaces for adult learners, are the target audience of this presentation. Professionals and practitioners from business, law enforcement, health care, and non-profit entitites may also find this session beneficial in informing their practice. 

Learning Outcomes

This session will better enable those who work to engage adults to understand issues that both hinder and encourage adults to participate in activities or spaces designed for them. Participants of this poster session will gain a better understanding of common issues that keep adult learners from engaging with spaces designed to include them. Participants will also learn of methods that have been effective in drawing adult learners to spaces and organizations designed for them.

Session Description

Adult learners comprise a marginalized minority on college campuses. While many campus experiences and organizations are not designed with adult learners in mind, some institutions have worked to create spaces inclusive of, and often exclusive to, this marginalized group. However, even when these spaces exist for adult learners, they remain largely empty and dormant. Why do adult learners elect to not engage with these spaces designed specifically with them in mind? Carol Kasworm asserts that "the adult undergraduate student identity is multi-layered, multi-sourced, evolving, and at times, paradoxical" (Kasworm, 2009). Do these multi-layered identities offer insight into why these learners do not interact with spaces designed for them? This session addresses these questions through the experiences and perspective of a higher education non-traditional student organization and offers the opportunity to discuss issues of engagement and marginalization in the adult learner community with a current graduate student who is an adult learner engaged with campus resources. 

Format & Technique

This poster session will begin with a display of research highlights along with additional reference materials. Participants are encouraged to engage in discussion with the presenter and co-participants regarding their own experiences working with, or as, adult learners who feel marginalized on campus. Presenter and participants will share insights regarding successful, and less-successful methods in engaging adult learners with spaces and campus organizations designed with them in mind. 

Primary Presenter

Liz Tabak, University of Central Oklahoma
Work Title

Graduate Student

Additional Presenters

Dr. Lori Risley, EdD, MSN, RN, University of Central Oklahoma
Work Title

Associate Professor

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