Читать книгу Learning in Adulthood - Sharan B. Merriam - Страница 17

Demographics, globalization, and technology are closely intertwined. Advances in technology, for example, are interrelated with changes in the economic sector. Automation and robotics displace production workers but create other jobs. Technology creates an alternative work sector. The need to be competitive in the world market leads to further technological sophistication. Demographics and economics are related. Economic growth is tied to productivity and the number of individuals in the workforce. The Baby Boom generation is beginning to retire and globally there are fewer working-age individuals and more retirees. This decrease in labor force participation has been offset somewhat with advances in technology (Hayes, 2018). We can now complete our taxes with software, we obtain money from ATMs instead of bank tellers, and in the future perhaps driverless cars will eliminate the need for chauffeurs (Hayes, 2018).

Embedded in this convergence of demographics, economics, and technology is a value system based on the political and economic structure of capitalism. More than three decades ago, Beder (1987, p. 107) explained how these three forces are linked in the value system:

The beliefs undergirding the capitalist system emphasize material values. The health of the system is gauged in terms of national wealth as embodied in the gross national product, and social equality is assessed in terms of economic opportunity—the potential of members of the underclasses to amass more income. Hence, the political and social systems become directed toward … economic productivity, and economic productivity under the rationale of human capital theory becomes the predominant rationale for all publicly funded social interventions including adult education.

This value system directly shapes adult education in the United States in several ways. First, economic productivity becomes “the dominant rationale for all public subsidy of adult education” (p. 109). Second, social justice becomes equated with economic opportunity in that “the just society is a society that provides opportunity for members of the underclasses to amass more income and material goods” and adult education “helps learners acquire the skills and knowledge” to do so (p. 109). The emphasis is on productivity and efficiency, both of which benefit from advances in technology. Thus technology, in the service of economic productivity, converges with changing demographics in shaping the adult learning enterprise.

Nowhere is this more visible than in higher education. Before globalization and the market economy, higher education was a local enterprise serving a predominantly local or national constituency. Academic foci shaped the nature of the student body and concerns of the institution. With the shift to a consumer approach to higher education, the institution worries about its “brand” appeal, its profitability, its “share” of the market. Globalization is reshaping higher education in several ways. Students are studying abroad with more coming to the United States and Europe than in previous generations (Stromquist & Monkman, 2014). Technology has helped people communicate across the world using multiple media (Stromquist & Monkman, 2014). This has also meant that the Western values have circulated to other countries (Mason, 2003).

As already pointed out, some writers would like to see the values and purposes of adult education reexamined in the wake of the wide-scale social and economic changes taking place. In a postmodern world characterized by large-scale changes in global activity resulting in economic, social, and political uncertainty, adult education tends to be an entrepreneurial instrument of the so-called new world order. Adult education is particularly sensitive to a restructured workplace, reliance on technology to produce knowledge, and a market demand for multiskilled workers. Humans are resources for the winners of globalization—transnational corporations (Stromquist & Monkman, 2014). As well, knowledge has become an important business commodity that is readily marketed, due, in part, to the explosion of the Internet and other information technologies. Although knowledge and learning serve the needs of transnational corporations, there is also evidence that technology and globalization have made women's struggles across the globe more evident and technology has helped movements like Occupy Wall Street come to fruition (Stromquist & Monkman, 2014). Others note the impact of neoliberalism on adult education as educators help individuals cope with the overwhelming economic and other challenges that threaten their identities and survival (Bowl, 2017).

Globalization has affected the supply of low-skilled workers globally and in the United States (Hickman & Olney, 2011). Although scholars worry that low-level workers are being left behind in this global economy (Schied, Mulenga, & Baptiste, 2005), there is some evidence that U.S. workers are trying to obtain the skills needed for continued employment (Hickman & Olney, 2011). The researchers examined how immigration and offshoring levels affect enrollment in post-high school education (Hickman & Olney, 2011). Results showed that “offshoring and immigration increase enrollment at community colleges but not other types of institutions, particularly among older, non-traditional age students” (p. 654). Community colleges are appealing to lower skilled workers because they offer short-term affordable programs, and some community colleges offer technical programs that lower skilled workers find appealing (Hickman & Olney, 2011). The authors recommend increased governmental support for community colleges (Hickman & Olney, 2011).

If the postmodern world is characterized by fragmentation and diversity, it is also defined by new alliances and interactions. Demographics, the global economy, and technology have come together in adult education in the blurring of the field's content and delivery mechanisms. For example, adult education has been variously divided into formal, nonformal, and informal learning activities (see Chapter 3). Formal learning takes place in educational institutions and often leads to degrees or some sort of credit. Nonformal learning refers to organized activities outside educational institutions, such as those found in community organizations, cultural institutions such as museums and libraries, and voluntary associations. Informal learning refers to the experiences of everyday living from which we learn something. Today, many formal providers offer learning experiences that are noncredit, leisure oriented, and short term. Similarly, nonformal learning and informal life experiences can be turned into formal, credit-earning activities.

Another blurring can be noted in higher education. Once composed of learners 18 to 22 years old, the student body has grayed along with the population. Roughly 38% of those enrolled in college are age 25 or older (National Center for Education Statistics, 2018). Similar subjects may be taught at the local community college for credit and at the public adult school for noncredit. The part-time adult student taking a course during the day at a college is an adult learner as much as the 16-year-old studying for a high school diploma in a local evening class. There is also a blurring between higher education and business and industry. Many postsecondary institutions have business institutes that provide training and development services to business. Conversely, a growing number of private companies, such as McDonald's Hamburger University (Tomar, 2019) and the Pardee RAND Graduate School, are offering accredited degrees (Pardee RAND Graduate School, 2018).

Finally, a blurring of content and delivery is found in such popular slogans as “workplace literacy,” “learning to learn,” “critical thinking,” and “media literacy.” Educators, employers, and society at large are focusing attention on developing the skills needed to be productive and informed members of a fast-changing and highly technical society. With the erosion of boundaries in the content and provision of adult learning, we may be witnessing the emergence of what has been called the learning society. Taking human beings rather than educational institutions as its beginning point, the learning society is a response to the social context.