2019 Annual Conference

Colleges and Universities

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

Adult education policy is sorely lacking but arguably necessary to maximize field-wide effectiveness. This session accentuates the importance of adult education policy and discusses ways forward for policy discussion, development and implementation.

The target audience is as broad as the field of adult education itself and would include anyone in any position or facet of adult education who cares about the direction and effectiveness of the field as a whole. This would include instructors, facilitators, administrators, researchers, advocates, and all manner of staff – theorists and practitioners of all kinds.

Learning outcomes will include the following: (1) raising consciousness of, or at least initiating vigorous discussions concerning, the need for policy development in the field of adult education; (2) identifying effective ways to initiate field-wide policy discussions and development; (3) identifying roles of adult education entities and organizations in policy development and implementation; and (4) creating rudimentary plans for moving forward with policy awareness and development in the field. The overall outcome should be to create an impetus for policy development in adult education.

Policy is an important part of any field or discipline, not only to set directions for moving forward, but to maximize effectiveness in, and impact of, its practice as a whole, and to equip itself to deal with the transient nature of, and forces within, the everchanging political landscape. Unfortunately, the field of adult education seems to have no clear policy, or set of policies, that guide its many facets in these ways. Policy is rarely discussed as evidenced by the extreme sparseness of its mention in the field’s literature. This session enumerates, in presentation fashion, the importance of the need for policy discussions that might lead to clear policy initiatives in adult education and invites input, in workshop fashion, on how to generate such discussions and what roles various adult education entities might play in policy development and implementation. The overall outcome of the session will be to develop rudimentary directions for moving forward with the development of field-wide policy.

The session will begin as a panel presentation on the merits of policy development in adult education, and transition into a panel and audience discussion regarding best ways for field-wide policy development and implementation. Discussion will be guided by the following basic topics: (1) how to structure policy within the field; (2) what processes to use in policy development; (3) the roles of current adult education organizations in policy development and implementation; (4) whether additional organizations and outlets are needed for policy creation, discussion, dissemination and implementation.