ABSTRACT
At a recent Standing Conference of Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults(1) a dominant theme concerned the differences and similarities between British and North American approaches to adult education. The prominence of this theme was largely due to the presence of people who participated in a faculty exchange sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation. A number of papers emerging from this exchange were subsequently published under the title Dialogue on Issues of Lifelong Learning in a Democratic Society.(2) The layout and content of this publication consists of twelve papers, evenly divided into a British section (pp. 1-47) and a North American Section (pp. 48-97). Absent in all the papers (with one exception) is any reference to the exchange or any comment on the other papers in the publication - hardly a testimony to dialogue. Nevertheless, the one exception(3) provides some insight into this apparent failure to achieve dialogue. Brookfield makes an explicit comparison of the training of adult educators in Britain and North
America. He argues that there are important cultural differences between the two countries which find expression in the curriculum and teaching practices to be found in their respective adult education programmes. These programmes are said to differ on a variety of dimensions: in their concern with history, politics and philosophical debate; in their concept of the ‘adult educator’ and the competencies implied by good adult education practice; and in their views about the role of research in adult education. Brookfield’s thesis is that graduate adult education programmes are socio-cultural products in that they reflect the ethos of the broader culture within which they develop.
