ABSTRACT
Adult educators commonly claim a distinctive nature for their enterprise, implying that adult education differs significantly from the rest of the educational system. This claim refers to its diversity of forms, its voluntary nature and its concern with meeting individual need through a student-centred curriculum. Adult educators are continually confronted by the low priority which others accord to their activities and by the threat this holds for their professional identities. Insistence on the distinctive nature of adult education may be seen as a counterclaim which provides adult educators with a collective sense of their unique identity and establishes the value of their activities. The notion of individualism was also informed by theories of child development which defined an image of the ‘normal’ child at any stage and to which middle-class children were most likely to conform. The concept of cultural disadvantage or deprivation posits a culture of poverty which runs alongside the mainstream culture.
