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Pragmatism and social action inAmerican adult educationArthur L. Wilson aa Ball State UniversityPublished online: 09 Jul 2006.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFELONG EDUCATION, VOL. 11, NO. 3 (JULY-SEPTEMBER 1992), 181-189

Pragmatism and social action in American adulteducation

ARTHUR L. WILSONBall State University

A pragmatic rationale has been a philosophic foundation for much of 20th-century Americanadult education thought. Evolving from an experience-based perspective, pragmatism proposesa learner-centred and problem-solving focus which places foremost in the educator's mind theneeds and interests of the adult student. It also suggests taking a critical stance towardexperience which can be seen to have ramifications for social change. The purpose of this paperis to trace the historical origins, evolution and current expression of pragmatism in Americanadult education thought. In this paper it is argued that Lindeman, through Dewey, firstdeveloped these ideas for adult education yet failed to articulate clearly what the relationship isbetween adult education and social action. It is further argued that Knowles prefers atechnological emphasis in favour of critical and social change agendas. The current work ofBrookfield, Cervero and Mezirow is seen as revivifying the critical tradition first presented byLindeman. Each, though, has a different perspective on the idea of social action. While certainpragmatic themes such as experience-based and learner-centred education have remainedcentral to adult education thought, the issues around adult education and social action remainproblematic.

Introduction

The full extent of Charles Sanders Peirce's influence on American letters is yet to beknown. He has been referred to as 'the most versatile, profound, and originalphilosopher that the United States has ever produced' (Wiener 1958: vi). At the sametime, he remained always a scientist. In 1891, for example, he prefigured by nearly 30years the principle of indeterminacy of atomic particles which has proved sorevolutionary for 20th-century quantum mechanics (Moore 1972). What is certainabout his influence, though, is that he gave articulation to an important philosophicmovement which continues to have influence in education today. While Peirceproposed pragmatism as an epistemological theory of meaning defined in relation tothe experiencing of specific objects, it was first James and then Dewey who extendedPeirce's ideas into their respective fields of psychology and education (Moore 1972).Dewey took pragmatism and made it the foundation for the progressive movement inAmerican education. And it was through the influence of Dewey's pragmatism that thefield of adult education established one of its first philosophical footings during the early20th century when progressivism was at its zenith.

Moore (1972) maintains that there are at least three interpretations of pragmatism,

Arthur L. Wilson is an assistant professor of adult education in the Department of Educational Leadership atBall State University in Muncie, Indiana. Previously he has worked as a literacy instructor, has developedand instructed literacy staff development projects, and has worked in continuing education for theprofessions. His research interests include adult learning, programme planning in adult education, and thehistory and philosophy of adult education. An oral presentation of this article was made at the 1991 AdultEducation Research Conference.

0260-1370/92 $3.00 © 1992 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

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depending on whether it is philosophic, psychological, or educational interests beingdiscussed. Doubtless there are more. But the point of this essay is not to untangle these.Rather, I will make the assumption that educational pragmatism is articulated wellenough for its influence to be seen when looking at adult education. That Dewey, withhis emphasis on the role of experience, the scientific method and education forcitizenship, was the major articulator is undisputed. What is more important is to lookat how these ideas have been expressed in American adult education. In order to dothat I will first borrow an overview of pragmatism developed by Elias and Merriam(1980) to provide a lens through which to look at the field of adult education. That lenswill then be turned on to the thinking of Lindeman who is arguably the first pragmaticphilosopher of adult education. Using Elias and Merriam as well as Lindeman forillustration should provide a grounding from which to look at pragmatism's historicreach into the present thought of adult education. Along the way we will look at thework of Knowles for its pragmatic influences and then examine more currentpragmatic interests in the work of Brookfield, Cervero and Mezirow.

By tracing the origins, historical development and current expression ofpragmatism's influence in the thought and practice of American adult education, I willtry to exemplify its major themes in various American adult education writers. Whatwill hopefully become clear is that most of the pragmatic tenets have remainedrelatively constant since Lindeman's early conceptions. What is less clear is therelationship between adult education and social action which, as we will see, has beenmore variable. The central thesis is this: while the role of experience, the emergence oflearning from practical application and the individual focus have remained relativelyconsistent in the thought and practice of adult education, it is the view of adulteducation's relationship to social action that has tended to shift over the years.

Pragmatism

Elias and Merriam (1980) effectively suggest with their work that there are severalprominent philosophic influences in adult education, not the least of which arehumanism and behaviourism. But it is also just as clear that the pragmatism of Deweyhas had a profound influence on the goals, methods and consequences of adulteducation; Elias and Merriam claim it 'has had a greater impact on the adult educationmovement in the United States than any other single school of thought' (1980:45).Elias and Merriam go on to argue that many of the basic principles of adult educationoriginated in pragmatic thought: a pedagogy focused on the needs and interests ofstudents, a problem-solving rather than subject-centred focus, the centrality ofexperience in curriculum, its utilitarian goals and its ideas about social responsibility.Dewey (1938) articulated the progressive educational emphasis on experience as a focusfor learning as a reaction to the subject-based authoritarianism of liberal educationalthought. Rather than seeing schooling as preparation for life, progressive thought sawlife as constant learning and chose people and their needs as the focus, not thetransmission of culturally significant knowledge. Elias and Merriam outline the majorpositions of educational pragmatic thought:

It accepts the methods of science for understanding the human person andsolving human problems.. . . Pragmatism accepts both the relativism andpluralism of world views. This attitude is most in keeping with the nature ofhuman persons and the evolving world. The centrality of human experience is

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another dimension of pragmatic thought. Experience is placed in opposition to allauthoritarian ways of arriving at knowledge. Pragmatism emphasizes theconsequences of action in the determination of truth or goodness. Thus, there areno absolutes in knowledge or morality. A final concern is its emphasis on socialreform as a legitimate concern of philosophers. (1980:47-48)

Given this overview, Elias and Merriam enumerate several themes which characterizepragmatic educational thinking. It contains a broadened view of education, one notrestricted to traditional subject-centredness. Learning is thus seen in socialization,lifelong, practical and experiential contexts. Pragmatism is focused on personal needs,which leads to a psychology of individualism and self-direction. Methodologically, it isfocused on experimentation and problem solving. The traditional authoritarianrelationship between teacher and student is replaced by an interactive one in whichlearning is based in the experience of the student and the teacher acts as a guide inarranging educational conditions. Finally, within the progressive tradition, educationis seen as an instrument of social change. Dewey (1916, 1938) argues for a pedagogywhere students are taught to be critical thinkers. The logic thus suggests that 'inliberating the learner, a potential was released for the improvement of society andculture' (Elias and Merriam 1980: 47). The next section will take a look at how many ofthese themes are first illustrated in the thinking of Lindeman.

Lindeman

It takes but a few moments to sketch the congruency between Lindeman's (1926) ideasabout adult education and pragmatist educational philosophy, at least as far as some ofthe more explicit tenets are concerned. For example, Lindeman is a staunch anti-traditionalist: 'the approach to adult education will be via the route of situations, notsubjects . . . . In conventional education the student is required to adjust himself [sic] toan established curriculum; in adult education the curriculum is built around thestudent's needs and interest' (1926: 8). Much of Lindeman's thought is structured bythis notion of 'adjustment'. Whereas traditional education forced the student to adjustto its needs, Lindeman sees adult education as aiding the adjustment of adults:

Every adult finds himself [sic] in specific situations... which call foradjustments . . . . Texts and teachers play a new and secondary role in this type ofeducation; they must give way to the primary importance of the learner. . . theresource of highest value is the learner's experience. (1926:9)

Lindeman ties meaning to experience, thought, and action: 'experience i s . . . doingsomething. . . doing something that makes a difference. . . [and] knowing whatdifference it makes' (1926: 138). For the pragmatists, knowledge emerges fromexperience. This is both a philosophical and practical viewpoint which is still much inevidence in current adult education thought and practice.

Lindeman's ideas are not so simply arrayed, however, for they are intertwined withtwo rather amorphous concepts: ideas about psychological growth and development aswell as the nature of social collectivism. Underlying his thinking is the idea, followingapparently from Dewey, that if individuals are provided the opportunities to criticallyengage their thinking and action, then somehow society will be the better for it.Individual growth is 'a process of integrating emotions with thought, an evolvingcapacity for feeling more deeply and thinking more clearly' (1926:172). This is a

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process of being critical: 'the first step toward liberation is taken when an individualbegins to understand what inhibits, frustrates, subjugates him [sic]. . . most of thebarriers to freedom have been self-constructed, self-induced' (1926: 71). But Lindemandoes not ignore 'the fact that many of the forces which enslave us areenvironmental.. . [therefore we] need more knowledge concerning those externalfactors of which our behaviour is a constant function' (1926: 74). Lindeman tries toresolve this tension by arguing that 'a sense of freedom arrives when we becomesufficiently intelligent [intelligence for him is a developed rather than inheritedcharacteristic] to face both ourselves and our environments critically . . . freedom is acreative relatedness between personality and the manageable aspects of the universe'(1926: 78). While Lindeman stops short of being prescriptive of how to achieve this, henone the less attempts to array the complexity of these factors.

What Lindeman does not do is directly relate an individual criticalness for growthand development to the complicated issue of social reform. What he does do, however,is introduce notions of power and its connection to social relationships. Afterdeveloping the odd argument that control over nature is a reasonable measure ofhumankind's success in using knowledge, Lindeman then argues that 'we know how togovern people by coercion. But we have thus far failed completely in devisingprocedures for socializing power' (1926:41). Coercion in this sense means that socialrelationships are inequitably negotiated. The closest Lindeman comes to describing the'socializing' of power is when he says that 'no human can safely be trusted with poweruntil he has learned to exercise power over himself [sic]' (1926: 41). Ostensibly, this hassomething to do with being critical, but Lindeman does not develop the connection.Nor does he make any attempt to understand the relational nature of society and poweras, for example, Apple (1979) and other sociologists (see Whitty 1985) of schoolknowledge have done.

While much of Lindeman's argument is made in terms of an individual psychologyand its significance for the meaning of adult education, he says finally 'that evolvingpersonalities follow the path of learning in an attempt to adjust themselves to a world inwhich knowledge leads to power . . . . We must now recognize the fact that thesequalities. . . become meaningful only when seen in social contexts' (1926:147). Fromthis position Lindeman sets up his argument for adult education's relation to socialchange. First he argues that individual interests must be aggregated in collective actionor 'suffer the defeat of those interests. Collectivism is the road to power, thepredominant reality of modern life' (1926: 153). Recognizing that competing interestsamong groups are a source of social conflict, Lindeman argues that adult education 'isan agitating instrumentality for changing life' (1926: 165). Although he makes thiscomment in reference to individual change, he goes on to position individual change ina social context: 'Adult education will become an agency of progress if its short-timegoal of self-improvement can be made compatible with a long-time, experimental butresolute policy of changing the social order' (1926:166). The nature of that changingsocial order is not clear. But Lindeman's entire argument can be seen as a critique ofthe scientific specialization and industrialization of modernism. While Lindeman sawthe necessity of what he termed vocational education (a reference to instrumental andtechnical improvement), his hopes lay in a more libratory educational force. In thishope he reveals an essential pragmatic issue which is still a source of conflict in thethought and practice of adult education today: just what is the relationship betweenadult education and collective social action?

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Knowles and 'the modern practice'

Two points can be quickly made about Knowles's relation to the pragmatic tradition.He has resolutely incorporated its individual and experiential focus while largely failingto address much of education's potential for social reform or even its relation toparticular contexts. The influence of pragmatism can be most clearly seen in Knowles'sprinciples of andragogy (1962/77, 1970, 1980, 1984, 1989) where his emphasis onlearner-centred needs, the role of experience and the value of self-direction reflect thepragmatic tradition. Knowles begins to work toward the social context of educationwith his readiness to learn principle. In that he argues that adults' inclinations tolearning are engendered by the demands of their social roles which in turn aredependent on developmental life stages. But this effectively keeps education in apsychological frame by focusing on individuals relating to developmental roles. InLindeman's sense, education then becomes an adjustment. But in Knowles's terms,even the connections with social reform that Lindeman suggests are lost in theemphasis on the individual (for a more detailed analysis of the relationship betweenLindeman and Knowles, see Fisher and Podeschi 1989). It remains the individuals'responsibility to adjust to the world and the purpose of education is to assist thatadjustment.

Perhaps the closest Knowles comes to considering the social reform tradition ofpragmatism is in his view of adult education as a response to helping adults adjust to anever-increasing change in a technological world (Knowles 1962/77, 1970, 1980, 1989).What Knowles has steadfastly maintained for nearly 30 years is that the major adultexperience is one of an 'accelerating pace of change, one consequence of which is thequickening rate of obsolescence of human beings' (1989:131; original emphasis). It isimportant to note in this respect the language Knowles uses to describe the mission ofadult education and its consequences. Knowles views a changing world in whichhumans are 'lagging farther and farther behind' and 'the only hope now seems to be acrash program to retool the present generation of adults with the competencies required tofunction adequately in a condition of perpetual change' (1980: 36; this is verbatim fromthe 1970 edition; emphasis added). Knowles sees adult education as developing the'kind of citizen visualized to be required for the maintenance and progress of thatsociety' (1980: 36). It is perhaps not accidental that Knowles refers to his views ofpractice as 'modern', for, like all of us, Knowles is very much a product of his time,even though he claims to be 'free of any single ideological dogma' (1989:112). Thisperiod, running essentially from the 1920s to the 1960s is often referred to as the'modern' or machine age; it is a time when a dominant ideology suggestedtechnological answers to all problems. So, in a sense, Knowles remains consistent withhis perhaps unintended metaphor: humans in contest with the sweep of the machineage. As Fisher and Podeschi (1989: 347) describe it, 'Knowles' approach is moreindividually and less socially oriented: preparing individuals to adapt to technologicalchange'.

With technological issues as his major concern, there is virtually no recognition ofinequitable power relationships characteristic of social situations. Nor is the issue beingraised regarding whose society is being maintained (see Apple 1979, Griffin 1983).Certainly Knowles celebrates cultural diversity, but he naively assumes a social parityfor all groups, at least as far as his technical view of adult education is articulated. Themission for adult education remains more psychologically focused: 'to develop a totalenvironment conducive to human growth and self-actualization' (1980:38). Thus,

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while Knowles is able to see the force of society on the individual, he prefers to viewthose forces in technological terms and technological obsolescence becomes thenemesis. But no matter how he defines it, the force of society itself is not criticallyexamined, nor is education seen as a vehicle for social reform.

'Postmodernism' in adult education

Postmodernism is meant to mean more than just the relativity of partialunderstandings, as is common to its current epistemological use. It is used injuxtaposition to Knowles's use of 'modern'. Knowles's technological and competency-based notions of adult education are a reflection of a period that sought to applymachine-age efficiency to questions of practice (e.g., the Tyler Rationale, distancelearning, programmed instruction). In the literal sense of postmodernism as being pastthe modern period, there is a continuation of the earlier pragmatic themes of Deweyand Lindeman in current thought about adult education practice. In a sense currentdiscussions of adult education's relations to society can be seen as a neo-conservativemovement in a liberal context: an attempt to reclaim the impetus of original pragmaticintention, particularly its emphasis on reflection and critical thought, and to see adulteducation as more than the technological efficiency of the Knowles generation. Ifeducation is a technical issue for the modern practitioner, then the postmodernist'sissue is criticality.

The work of Brookfield, Cervero and Mezirow will be briefly examined in thisrespect. It is important to note that all incorporate and reflect basic pragmatic values intheir views. The role of experience, a problem-centred and person-based pedagogy, aninteractional instructional process and an anti-traditionalist stance are all visible intheir work. What all three also resurrect from the pragmatic tradition is the use ofcritical reflection in adult education. Brookfield (1986) discusses the role of criticalreflection in adult learning. Cervero (1988, 1989) raises the issue in respect of thepractice of continuing professional education and adult educators themselves. AndMezirow (1981, 1985, 1989) attempts to make explicit the connections betweenindividual critical reflection and collective social action. Where the nuances becomemore visible is in their separate views on the role of education in social reform.

Brookfield (1986) perhaps represents the clearest example of an attempt to linkKnowles's andragogical views with the libratory pragmatism of Lindeman. WhereasKnowles locates the development of learning needs solely within the prerogatives of thelearner, Brookfield presents a more critically engaged and confrontive adult educator.He talks about education being 'centrally concerned with the development of acritically aware frame of mind' (1986: 17). The role of the adult educator is 'to presentlearners with alternatives to their current ways of thinking, behaving, and living'(1986:19). Brookfield takes on the development of autonomy, which he defines as 'thepossession and awareness of a range of alternative possibilities' (1986: 58), as a majorgoal of education. Autonomy is explicitly connected with self-directed learning. Adultlearners become more autonomous as they become more self-directing. This is aprocess of coming 'to view their personal and social worlds as contingent and thereforeaccessible to individual and collective interventions' (1986:58). Thus self-directedlearning is a function of learning to act in autonomous ways: adult learners 'arerealizing their autonomy in the act of learning and investing that act with a sense ofpersonal meaning' (1986: 58). Knowles would tend to see autonomy more in Maslow's

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terms of self-actualizing whereas Brookfield defines it in a more critical sense of beingable to make critically valid choices among alternative courses of thought and action.Brookfield says it this way:

The external technical and the internal reflective dimension of self-directedlearning are fused when adults come to appreciate the culturally constructednature of knowledge and values and when they act on the basis of thatappreciation to reinterpret and recreate their personal and social worlds. In sucha praxis of thought and action is manifested a fully adult form of self-directedlearning. (1986:59)

Brookfield thus tries to meld Knowles's focus on the technical conditions withLindeman's concern with developing personal meaning in a version of autonomybased on critical considerations of alternative thought and action. The focus, though, isstill largely on individual thought and action.

Cervero (1988), in his analysis of continuing professional education, argues thateducators attempt to maintain a value neutrality in their work by focusing on technicalissues of process and unproblematically assuming consensus of educational goals. Heargues further (1989) that professional educators, like professionals in any discipline,do not apply ready-made algorithms to their everyday practice. In actuality, they aremaking choices about what problems to solve as well as choices over the best means tosolve them. The critical viewpoint Cervero proposes is an attempt to bring these issuesof means and ends into careful scrutiny: 'this approach stresses the need forprofessionals to be critically aware of the implications of these choices' (1988: 30). ForCervero, these choices are 'wise action' which 'means making the best judgment in aspecific context for a specified set of ethical beliefs' (1989:4). In this way Cerveroquestions and suggests a process to continue to question the technical emphases of theKnowles generation. Because he sees professional practice and educator's role incontinuing professional education as an interconnected network of social, political andethical relationships, educators cannot operate in a moral or political vacuum. Theymust become critically reflective over not only the means of the efforts but also the endsto which they are directed: 'continuing professional educators must understand ethicaland political as well as technical dimensions of their work' (1988:37). Cervero thusdevelops another facet of the critical framework proposed by Dewey by bringing thereflective process to adult education itself. But while it is directive of an engaged criticalprocess, the critical viewpoint proposes no specific agenda for social reform.

Mezirow has provided probably the most extended description and analysis of thecritical process in adult education (see, for example, 1981, 1985, 1989). In this analysishe has had to consider the relationship between adult educator practice and socialaction. While his critics charge that he has neglected this relationship (see, for example,Collard and Law 1989, Hart 1990), he has actually, although not alwaysunequivocally, addressed this issue. While he claims that the real task of adulteducators is to facilitate the kind of learning conducive to perspective transformation(he and Brookfield are quite close on this), Mezirow also sees the critical processnecessary for such change as leading the learner 'to take action to change socialpractices and institutions which implement and legitimate the distorting ideologieswhich enthrall us' (1985:147-148). This can include both individual and collectiveaction: 'if adult education is defined in terms of helping adults act to free themselvesfrom dependency producing restraints as learners, it must include facilitation of bothindividual and collection actions in its mission' (1985:149). But Mezirow is quick to

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qualify this: 'education for social action is an integral part of our responsibility . . . [but]we cannot assume the roles of leaders or organizers of social action, but we have afunction which involves helping learners become aware . . . ' (1985:149). Mezirowultimately claims that collective social action is only a 'contingent and instrumentalgoal' (1989:172) and makes an attempt to define the parameters of the relationship ofthe adult educator to social action:

The educator may encourage the learner to critically reflect on specific taken-for-granted relationships which appear dependency producing or oppressive, but thelearner makes his or her own decision about specific actions to be taken, if any.The educator can be a partisan but a partisan only in a commitment to fosteringcritical reflection and action. (1989:173).

Here again we see Lindeman's emphasis on defining adult education in terms ofpersonal meaning while also appreciating its social context. There is also an attempt toremain politically and ethically distant from the learner's situation even though theeducator may be instrumental in bringing such matters to the conscious awareness ofthe learner.

Conclusion

So what we see in the post-Knowles generation is an attempt to revivify the explicitemancipatory themes of Dewey and Lindeman. The emphasis has also shifted awayfrom the technical know-how of planning and instructional methodologiescharacteristic of the Knowles approach. It is not that Brookfield, Cervero and Mezirowdiscount or ignore Knowles's technical concerns. Rather, they are more willing toquestion critically not only the means of education but also its ends. Indeed, in manyways they propose specific agendas which can have potential effects on social structure.Knowles spends little time concerned with the goal of adult education. For him it is asimple answer of providing a service to self-actualizing adults. The result is a bettermaintained society with more competently functioning adults. Brookfield redirects thisendeavour into an effort to manage the development of autonomy in individual adultlearners. He is suspicious of a 'felt needs' approach and argues persuasively for aconfrontive, praxis-oriented educator. Cervero questions the alleged value-neutralityof educational effort by calling for a critique of the social, political and ethicalviewpoints which frame that effort. Mezirow comes closest to elucidating a frameworkfor how this criticality works and in his work he wrestles with the conflicting valuepositions in which a more critical form of adult education places the educator. If thereis a common theme, it has to do with being ever watchful of the distorting power oftaken-for-granted ideologies either in their students, themselves, or in the practice andtheory of their work.

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