ABSTRACT
A unique configuration of power, politics, and critical theory grew adult learning at Elizabethtown College (EC) from 2000 to 2015. Platforms or perspectives for notions of knowledge and truth found in adult education include: Postmodernism, Feminism, and Critical theory. Between 2000 and 2015, EC, a small, non-profit, -liberal arts institution of higher education, developed a robust adult learner degree-completion program that ran parallel to its traditional residential student program; this traditional program was stabilized around 1,800 full-time, residential students. Business administration, criminal justice, health care administration, human services, and human services-behavioral counseling were also available online as well as on campus. Evidence of the impact of power, politics, and critical theory on the institution is easier to find in some cases than in others. The political view sees organizations as competitive arenas of scarce resources, competing interests, and struggles for power and advantage.
