Adult Education in the American Experience: From the Colonial Period to the Present (Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series) (Hardcover)

by Harold W. Stubblefield (Author), Patrick Keane (Author) "A publicly funded, hierarchical system for educating America's children and youth has gradually taken shape through the development of common schools, high schools, colleges and..." (more)
Key Phrases: general adult education, adult education organizations, term adult education, New York, African Americans, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Stubblefield and Keane have brought a high degree of organization and coherence to the very complex history of adult education in the United States. No one who is serious about the study of adult learning can afford to be without this thoroughly researched volume.'' — David W. Stewart, director of program development, the Center for Adult Learning and Educational Credentials, American Council on Education

Review
"Stubblefield and Keane have brought a high degree of organization and coherence to the very complex history of adult education in the United States. No one who is serious about the study of adult learning can afford to be without this thoroughly researched volume."
—David W. Stewart, director of program development, the Center for Adult Learning and Educational Credentials, American Council on Education

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (November 10, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787900257
• ISBN-13: 978-0787900250
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #626,416 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A work that will not stand in another's shadow, September 23, 1998

By	[e-mail] Simeon Norton (St. Vincent, West Indies) - See all my reviews

Stubblefield and Keane did a splendid job in Adult education in the American experience. The whole book was well documented and informative. The great volume of information was constructively arranged. Even though their immediate audience was adult educators, practitioners, scholars and legislators, it could be understood by anyone on a lower academic level.

The preface and the precise summaries of each chapter made it easy to grasp the information. While this is so, one finds that the purposes of the book were not clearly stated. It was expected that they would have been as clearly stated as were the five themes that emerged through the authors' exploration. The implication is that the purposes are in the overall goal of presenting a history of adult education in America.

The data was chronologically arranged in the discussion. One could still see how each of the five themes was covered in the thesis. The first theme, which shows that Americans value education in adulthood and have created many education systems for adults, is covered in nearly all of the chapters. But chapters one, three, four, five and seven show more of this than any of the others. The second theme of the US being a land of opportunities, but certain groups were limited to pursue these, could be seen in chapters three, four, six, eight and nine. The third theme reveals that a dynamic society called for new forms of adult education from the background of agriculture, to that of industry, to that of information. Elaboration on this could be seen in chapters seven, ten, twelve, thirteen and sixteen. To see the fourth theme in experience, one may look at chapters three, eight, nine, eleven and sixteen. This theme speaks of the creation of forms of adult education to shape the individual and society. The last theme stating that adults began to use existing information system is elaborated on in chapters four, five and six.

Two negatives should be mentioned here. The first one is the failure of the authors to list what are the thirteen colonies they referred to repeatedly. These were mentioned in the preface and on pages twelve and nineteen, but they were never listed. A non-American reading this book would be at a lost here. What are the thirteen colonies? The second is the inclusion of a statement on page two hundred and eighty-seven that said it was the insecure to whom religious best sellers brought the message of religion as peace of mind. Those who seek after God and what He offers are not insecure. This may only be true if this insecurity is the same as that which drives anyone to self-actualization.

It was thought that this critique should have shown the shortcomings in not tracing the development of adult education universally. Upon reading, it was discovered that it was never in the minds of the authors to do such documentation. Comments on such have therefore been excluded.

In comparison with other books on a similar topic, this book is top rated for what it set out to do. It was indeed a work to the audience it sought to reach. Works of a similar nature for regions outside the US do not put this in their shadows. This book reveals impartiality in clearly stating the prejudices in adult education, in America, against different groups. Stubblefield and Keane have produced a job well done.

4.0 out of 5 stars Adult education movement in the USA, December 11, 2006

By	Sung Ran Cho (Laramie, WY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a chronologically, thematically, well documented history book of the adult education movement in the USA since the initiation of the field around 1700 up to modern society, 1980s.
From the colonial period to the present, America has experienced many difficulties including racism, immigration problems, conflicts between Whites and Native Americans, and problems of industrial development and labor. At the same time, many events occurred to upgrade educational environments to include higher percentages of people, including lower-classes, women, minorities, immigrants, black-Americans, industry workers, farmers, rural area residents, and so on. There were also many organizations either private or public, informal and formal programs, inside or outside educational activities aimed at elevating society to a higher level of literacy and advanced education. Without our history, we would not have such a rich and sophisticated society of today.
In the work place, religious groups, folk schools, community centers, libraries, museums, formal educational institutes, private discussion groups, book clubs, and other groups were the managers of implementing public adult educational programs. Sometimes, they spent their own funds, but many times grants and budgets from governmental and other agencies supported these adult educational movements.

This book, Adult Education in the American Experience; From the Colonial Period to the Present by Stubblefield and Keane, has introduced events, activities, and occurrences during this period that are connected to the adult education field of today. Stubblefield and Keane also have organized themes around diverse social movements, social injustices, such as racial and sexual inequality, and all classes of society during this era. This book is divided into five parts: Adult education in early America; The early national and antebellum Eras; adult education in an Era of Modernization; The nation amid crisis and recovery; America at the peak of world power. In the beginning of the book, Stubblefield and Keane briefly introduced the basic knowledge about the book contents, including definition of the term adult education, American Associate for Adult Education (AAAE), Carnegie Corporations, some famous revisionists who have influenced adult education, purposes and essential themes of the adult education field, formative adult educational influences for Native Americans, new settlers of the early colonial period, and colonial concerns about education. In part one, Stubblefield and Keane briefly but helpfully introduced the wise man, Benjamin Franklin, and his Junto, the phases, spirit, and educational level of the times.

In the body of the book, there is a wealth of information about diverse purposes of libraries, museums, world fairs, societies, institutions, apprenticeships, evening schools, published materials, and the unique philosophies of the times, including the utopian society. Stubblefield and Keane also discuss plenty of information about women, workers, African-Americans, immigrants, and Native Americans' adult educational activities in the USA according to the time periods of World War I and World War II. Moreover, there are lots of citations of magazines about adult education, media, social conflicts, labors and religious educations for adults. In the last few chapters of the book, Adult Education in the American Experience, Stubblefield and Keane compared once more the past and present social environments of the USA specifically to help the readers adjust to all of the historical changes of the adult educational movement in this country.
In addition, Stubblefield and Keane organized and enumerated for readers all social and cultural backgrounds of the adult education, main adult organizations, famous journals, and scholars of the adult educational field periodically, so the information was extremely helpful to illuminate the fundamental knowledge of the field. While this is not a very large encyclopedic series of handbooks about adult education, this book would prove to be a useful encyclopedia for me and other adult educators and learners.

Reading about how adult education has progressed from the environment of a segregated agricultural society to a more modern and civilized America gives me a much clearer picture of the development of the adult educational movement in the USA. However, I think this book is a difficult book to understand for some readers, especially foreigners, who do not have a basic knowledge of the history of the USA. Nonetheless, I did not have any difficulty understanding the book, Adult Education in the American Experience, because I already had a basic background of information concerning the colonial period of this country through reading several books about adult educational movement in the USA, such as Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson, How the Other Half Live by Riis, The Idea of Highlander by Frank Adams, and The Meaning of Adult Education by E. C. Lindeman, which were indicated in this book, Adult Education in the American Experience, by Stubblefield and Keane.

Therefore, I would recommend this book to any adult educators and students of the field who only have a foundational knowledge in the history of the USA. As a result, readers would gain insight into the roots of the adult educational movement in this country; these facts would provide a vital background for them.
"In Adult Education in the American Experience we critically address the broad context of adult learning and its relationship to social, economic, and political movements" (Stubblefield and Keane, xii).

4.0 out of 5 stars Veritable Encyclopedia of American Education Movement, November 21, 2004

By	Josephine Jones - See all my reviews

Harold W. Stubblefield & Patrick Keane have written a veritable encyclopedia of the American Education Movement with all the key players and influences. For those who enjoy a multi-faceted historical approach, Stubblefield and Keane keep the reader apprised of other movements and historial events happening concurrently and influencing American Education. This book is a necessity for the education student, educator, and researcher seeking to understand American Education and its history.