By Means of Critical Theory

Abstract

So-termed non-traditional adult students have become a key target for marketing efforts in higher education, and non-conventional, accelerated paths to university-issued degrees are the lure du jour in the business of selling education programs. A key ethical challenge in our profession remains how we align the education of adults according to the higher education institutions' mission statements to the education adults seek and actually receive. In this chapter, it is argued that the realities and possibilities of socially responsible educating when institutions are accountable to myriad stakeholders. This issue is viewed through the lens of emancipatory education informed by tenets of critical theory. The argument hopes to engage the readers in problem-posing so that cross-sector, collaboratively designed education options can be considered that are contextual rather than prescriptive in nature and which align to the indigenous[1] needs of teachers, learners, institutions, and communities.