Reflections on the Profession and Professionalization of Adult Education

Article purpose and framing
- The field of adult education is rich, varied, and difficult to categorize.
- The author and colleagues ask: What is the definition of adult education and why define it?
- Why define it: definitions shape inclusion/exclusion, justify existence to students, institutions, and the profession, and inform practice.
- The article raises core questions: Who is the adult educator? What is adult education’s vision? Where does it happen? How does marginalization impact the field? What is the identity of an adult educator? What are considerations related to professionalization?
- Laura L. Bierema is a Professor of Adult Education at the University of Georgia.
Key concepts to understand from the text
- Professional identity in adult education is multifaceted and context-dependent.
- There is a tension between inclusivity across disciplines and the risk of fragmentation or isolation into subfields.
- Boundaries within the field are both helpful and problematic: they organize practice but can block cross-field collaboration.
- Marginalization (social and institutional) shapes resources, legitimacy, and power in adult education; yet marginality can also offer opportunities for innovation and boundary-crossing.

Who Is The “Adult Educator”?

Self-identity varies by role and context
- The author identifies herself as an “adult educator” whose work spans higher education, HRD, consulting, CPD, and community service.
- Others may be literacy teachers, continuing education instructors, HRD specialists, K-12 educators, corporate trainers, extension agents, prison educators, etc.
Field is hard to categorize
- The scope is enormous and contexts are diverse, making precise categorization difficult.
- Some scholars distinguish between:
- educators of adults (Griffith, 1989): focused on practical educational goals; and
- adult educators (Brockett, 1991): who hold a broader vision including professionalization, academic programs, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Parallel practice and fragmentation
- Brockett describes practitioners who deliver adult education without formal training or professional affiliation in the field, operating in parallel rather than hierarchical relationships.
- This parallel practice contributes to fragmentation across the field.
Inclusive stance toward disciplines
- Bierema adopts an inclusive approach, integrating multiple disciplines (adult education, HRD, etc.) rather than enforcing rigid boundaries.
- The diversity of identities reflects the field’s breadth and the different contexts in which it operates.

What is Adult Education’s Vision?

Definition and boundaries
- Merriam & Brockett define adult education as activities intentionally designed to bring about learning among those defined as adults by age, social roles, or self-perception (p. 8).
- Boundaries are shaped by theoretical premises, philosophical foundations, language, practice arenas, and knowledge codified in graduate programs.
Boundary spanning and expansion
- Boundary spanning involves recognizing, negotiating, and sometimes crossing the limits that separate subfields.
- Jeris & Daley (2004) emphasize learning to boundary-span and extending beyond established boundaries to expand the field.
Spectrum of subfields and visions
- The field contains both explicit social-change agendas (e.g., Highlander Center) and more individualized, compliance-focused programs (e.g., CPE linked to legislation).
- Reading instruction (literacy) and social movements (civil rights, women’s liberation) illustrate divergent aims within the same broader field.
- Corporate training and development may pursue organizational goals that align or clash with activist or social-justice aims.
Need for collaboration and unification
- The field is highly fragmented with various parallel subfields (CPE, literacy, higher ed, HRD, etc.).
- Daley (health promotion) shows potential for alignment and collaboration across domains to build healthy communities.
- A unifying question: what unifies us across diverse visions, and how can we cross borders to learn from one another?
Practical implications of boundary crossing
- Encourages cross-disciplinary theory development and improved practice.
- Promotes communication and collaboration to strengthen professional identity and the field’s impact.

Where Does Adult Education Happen?

Three broad delivery systems (Merriam & Brockett, 2007)
- $3$ broad delivery systems:
- Institutional
- Content area
- Personnel
Institutional providers
- Independent adult education organizations that focus on adult education as their primary mission:
- Community-based (learning exchanges, grassroots orgs)
- Private (e.g., Literacy Volunteers of America)
- Proprietary schools and residential centers (e.g., Highlander Center)
- Educational institutions (public schools, postsecondary institutions) where youth are the primary audience; Cooperative Extension Service also falls here
- Marginalization within postsecondary institutions despite growing numbers of adult learners
Quasi-educational organizations
- Libraries, museums, mass media, community organizations, religious groups, etc., where education is important but not the primary mission
Non-educational organizations
- Workplaces and businesses; education occurs as part of broader organizational goals
- Workplace training expenditures were nearly $130 ext{ billion}$ in 2006 (ASTD, cited in Workforce Management, 2008)
Content areas of adult education
- Human resource development (HRD)
- Continuing professional education (CPE)
- Remedial/basic skills education
- Recreational/leisure learning
- Citizenship
- Technology
- Each content area has its own boundaries, with some overlap across delivery systems
Personnel (delivery actors)
- Houle’s pyramid of leadership as a metaphor for delivery personnel:
- Volunteers at the bottom
- Part-time instructors in the middle
- Full-time adult educators (program administrators, professors, training directors, cooperative extension staff) at the top
- Different levels of personnel may identify differently with the field
Consequences for professional identity
- The wide range of institutions, content areas, and personnel makes forming a coherent professional identity challenging
- The delivery structure reinforces separate communities and can hinder unified professionalization

How Does Marginalization Impact Adult Education?

What marginalization means
- Marginalization occurs when one group’s views are valued at the expense of others (Sheared, 1994).
- The “center” refers to the dominant group (often Euro-American, hetero, white men) that controls resources and influence.
Tension with social justice orientation
- Adult education has a long-standing commitment to social justice, which can contribute to marginalization because it interrogates power and privilege.
Diffuse purposes, funding, and learner-provider ties
- Marginalization also arises from the field’s diffuse purposes, its service orientation, inconsistent funding, and tenuous learner-to-provider ties.
- Adults may be invisible in some institutional settings due to “non-traditional age” status
Social vs institutional marginalization
- Social marginalization: based on gender, race, class, etc.
- Institutional marginalization: organizational structures and delivery systems that place adult education on the periphery
Historical context and implications
- Clark (1956) notes that adult education often sits outside the compulsory-age attendance framework and competes for budget with central departments
- Enrollment-based funding reinforces marginalization in postsecondary and other institutions
Identity consequences
- The field has historically been dominated by White, middle-class males, leading to the loss of important segments such as women’s education, civil rights, immigrant and labor education
Why marginalization matters for practice and influence
- Marginalization impedes the field’s ability to influence education broadly and develop a unified professional identity
- Addressing marginality is seen as essential to strengthening theory, practice, and policy across contexts

What Is The Identity of an Adult Educator?

Identity challenges in a diverse field
- When people hear “adult education,” many do not recognize the field or confuse it with adult literacy alone
- Lack of a unified vision creates an identity crisis and threatens resource access and political clout
Two forms of professional identity
- Individual professional identity: how a person sees themselves within the field (e.g., literacy teacher, health educator, HRD, instructional designer, advocate, etc.)
- Field professional identity: how the field as a whole creates, maintains, and communicates its identity through discourse, research, and practice
Professional outlets and communities
- Numerous professional groups and conferences contribute to the field’s public face (examples include American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, Adult Education Research Conference, SCUTRE, CAL, AHRD, UCEA, ASTD, etc.), plus many state-level associations
Narratives and self-presentation as identity markers
- How we talk about our work (elevator speeches) and how we narrate our practice informs professional identity
The challenge of cross-context dialogue
- Different contexts (CPE vs literacy vs health education vs social justice activism) have distinct values and norms yet share core principles (e.g., honoring adult learners’ autonomy)
- The field benefits from dialogue across borders to identify common ground and shared purpose
Pathways to a more collective identity
- Engaging in dialogue across borders to share definitions, visions, and practices
- Exploring what professionalization would look like (codified knowledge, principles, theories, practices; potential certification)
- Recognizing and leveraging marginality as a source of creativity and innovation while also including the “center” to effect lasting change

What Are the Considerations Related to Professionalization?

The challenge of professionalizing a vast field
- Adult education comprises educators of adults and adult educators working in parallel; the idea of a single “adult education profession” is elusive
What defines a profession?
- Latin roots of “profession”: profiteri, meaning a public proclamation of principles and devotion to a particular way of life
- Professions tend to have codes of conduct, require rigorous training, sustain through research, literature, and legislation (duTont, 1995)
Professional socialization
- Building specialized knowledge, identity, and norms; integrating values into behavior and self-concept
- Can occur formally via graduate programs or informally via peers and sanctions (duTont, 1995)
- The literature notes that many who practice adult education do not identify with the profession, complicating professionalization efforts (Imel, Brockett, & James, 2000; Merriam & Brockett, 2007)
Two forms of professional identity in practice
- Individual-level identity: personal sense of belonging and role within the field
- Field-level identity: a public identity shaped by discourse, research, practice, and professional associations
History of the professionalization debate
- Since the 1920s, debate on professionalization has revolved around whether it will improve practice and influence or exclude diverse voices
- Concerns that professionalization could create an elite class and concentrate power, reproducing existing social inequalities (Johnson-Bailey, Tisdell, & Cervero, 1994)
The practical reality of professional identity development
- A large portion of adult educators may not participate in formal professional socialization (graduate programs, research, associations)
- There are many separate professional communities and associations, each with its own internal identity, making unified professional identity challenging
Margins as a site for innovation and cross-fertilization
- Wisdom from marginality: it can foster independence, creativity, critical thinking, and empathy; serves as a boundary-spanner to connect diverse domains
- Cross-boundary collaboration between academia and practice is essential to strengthen the field’s identity and impact
What professionalization could look like in practice
- Beyond certification, professions would embrace marginality while also including centers of practice to effect structural change
- Developing a shared vision and discourse across the field; establishing standards of practice and ethics to ensure quality and protect the profession
- Encouraging cross-pollination through technology (online communities, e-learning, e-mentoring, blogs) to link siloed segments of the field
Concrete opportunities cited
- Creating a more cohesive professional identity through cross-cutting dialogue across outlets (AECR, AAEA, CAL, HRD associations, UCEA, etc.)
- Establishing a dedicated research association for adult education that connects research with practice
- Strengthening links between academia and practice to bridge the gap between theory and application
Summary takeaways on professionalization
- Professionalization holds promise for strengthening shared values, standards, and practice across diverse contexts
- It risks excluding voices if pursued narrowly; must be inclusive and boundary-spanning
- A deliberate, collaborative approach is needed to realize a more integrated, influential professional identity for adult education

Synthesis: Toward a Shared Vision for the Field

Core commitments that many in the field share regardless of subfield
- Emphasis on humanistic values and lifelong learning
- Commitment to social justice and learner autonomy
- Recognition of the impact of social context on learning
- Constructivist perspectives and the role of technology in learning
A path forward for professional identity and professionalization
- Build a shared discourse and language for practice, teaching, and research
- Develop and agree upon standards of practice and ethics
- Create formal and informal channels for professional socialization and identity formation
- Encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and cross-context dialogue
- Leverage marginality as a source of creativity while ensuring the center is included
- Use technology to connect parallel practices and communities
References and foundational works cited in the article
- Allan, B., & Lewis, D. (2006). The impact of membership of a virtual learning community on individual learning careers and professional identity. British Journal of Educational Technology, 37(6), 841-852.
- Bierema, L.L. (2010). Professional identity. In A. Rose, J. Ross-Gordon, & C. Kasworm (Eds.), Handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 135-145). Sage.
- Brockett, R.G. (1991). Professional development for educators of adults. In R.G. Brockett (Ed.), Professional development for educators of adults (pp. 5-13). New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 51.
- Clark, B.R. (1956). Adult education in transition: A study of institutional insecurity. UC Press.
- Daley, B.J. (2006). Aligning health promotion and adult education for healthier communities. In Merriam, Courtenay, & Cervero (Eds.), Global issues and adult education: Perspectives from Latin America, Southern Africa, and the United States (pp. 231-242). Jossey-Bass.
- Daloz, L.A.P., Keen, C.H., Keen, J.P., & Parks, S.D. (1996). Common fire: Leading lives of commitment in a complex world. Beacon Press.
- duTont, D. (1995). A sociological analysis of professional socialization in nursing identity. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 21, 164-171.
- Griffith, W.S. (1989). Has adult and continuing education fulfilled its early promise? In Quigley (Ed.), Fulfillment of adult and continuing education (pp. 5-13). Jossey-Bass.
- Heaney, T.W. (2000). Adult education and society. In Wilson & Hayes (Eds.), Handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 559-572). Jossey-Bass.
- Houle, C.O. (1970). The educators of adults. In Smith, Aker, & Kidd (Eds.), Handbook of adult education (pp. 109-120). Macmillan.
- Imel, S., Brockett, R.G., & James, W.B. (2000). Defining the profession: A critical appraisal. In Wilson & Hayes (Eds.), Handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 628-642). Jossey-Bass.
- Jeris, L., & Daley, B. (2004). Orienteering for boundary spanning: Reflections on the journey to date and suggestions for moving forward. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 6(1), 101-115.
- Johnson-Bailey, J., Tisdell, E.J., & Cervero, R.M. (1994). Race, gender, and the politics of professionalism. In Hayes & Colin III (Eds.), Confronting racism and sexism (pp. 63-76). Jossey-Bass.
- Merriam, S.B., & Brockett, R.G. (2007). The profession and practice of adult education: An introduction. Jossey-Bass.
- Merriam, S.B., & Brockett, R.G. (2007). The profession and practice of adult education: An introduction. Jossey-Bass.
- Merriam, S.B., Caffarella, R.S., & Baumgartner, L.M. (2007). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
- Sissel, P.A., & Sheared, V. (2001). What does research, resistance, and inclusion mean for adult education practice? In Sheared & Sissel (Eds.), Making space: Merging theory and practice in adult education. Bergin & Garvey.
- Sheared, V. (1994). Giving voice: An inclusive model of instruction—A womanist perspective. In Hayes & Colin (Eds.), Confronting racism and sexism (pp. 27-37). Jossey-Bass.
- Sheared, V. (2006). The intersection of education, hegemony, and marginalization within the academy. In Merriam, Courtenay, & Cervero (Eds.), Global issues and adult education (pp. 182-192). Jossey-Bass.
- U.S. Census. (2004). PhD degree statistics. (Note: source cited for context on graduate attainment.)
- Wilson, A.L., & Hayes, E.R. (2000). Handbook of adult and continuing education. Jossey-Bass.
- Workforce Management. (2008, June 9). 2008 training providers. Retrieved from workforce.com
Final takeaway
- The article argues for embracing cross-boundary collaboration, acknowledging marginality as a potential source of strength, and pursuing a shared vision with standards, ethics, and ways to link theory and practice to strengthen the field and its impact on adult learners.
Note: All quoted passages and ideas are summarized from Bierema (2011) as part of the 20th Anniversary Volume reflections on the profession and professionalization of adult education.