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ERIC Number: EJ944220
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1045-1595
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Developing Community Expectations: The Critical Role of Adult Educators
Deggs, David; Miller, Michael
Adult Learning, v22 n3 p25-30 Sum 2011
The quality of life in a community is directly tied to the capital available to its citizenry. The idea of capital refers to the resources related to the population--the wealth, the open-minded nature of individuals, the potential for jobs, and putting skills and talents to use to earn a living. There have been a wide range of studies and efforts to understand how capital affects individuals, ranging from educational choice to how individuals interact socially. The result has been an accepted understanding that the social interactions and the nature of developing these interactions among individuals, both formally and informally, greatly aid in the formation of an individual's identity and ultimately influence life choices. The implication of this understanding is that community organizations, including adult education providers and their agents alike, must understand and learn to appreciate the unintended consequences of their actions that affect the development and expansion of social capital among citizens within communities. The role of the adult educator can become more uncertain when attempting to address individual needs that are fundamentally representative of the complex issues within communities. The scarcity of resources in communities further contributes to the challenges that adult educators face in attempting to meet individual and community needs. Therefore, one cannot help but question the degree to which adult education programs can be successful given the forces within communities that negate educational attainment through obstructing the formation of social capital. In this article, the authors discuss the role of an adult educator as a change agent of any given type of learning organization. They stress that quintessentially contributing to the value of education among all individual citizens in any given community is the job of all adult educators. (Contains 1 figure.)
American Association for Adult and Continuing Education. 10111 Martin Luther King Jr. Highway Suite 200C, Bowie, MD 20720. Tel: 301-459-6261; Fax: 301-459-6241; e-mail: aaace10@aol.com; Web site: http://www.aaace.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A