Towards a New Continuing Higher Education: Listening to the Subtle Signals of Change

This article explores claims made on websites of CAUCE members about the purpose of university continuing education. CAUCE members often claim a role in addressing the needs or goals of learners seeking professional development, personal enrichment, or the furthering of knowledge and skills. They claim to deliver programs and services that promote lifelong learning for adults, whether as individuals or as members of communities and organizations. These programs and services are characterized as enabling access to quality education in flexible and innovative ways. The work of continuing education is often presented as a means to link universities with communities and with external agencies. This article describes these public claims made by Canadian university continuing education units and endeavours to promote informed reflection and dialogue about the purpose of those units.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

About Us: Expressing the Purpose of University Continuing Education in Canada

McLean

2007

“…Judging from the literature (Alexander, 1997;Burbules & Callister, 2000;Cruikshank, 1994;Haughey, 1998;Isley, 1992;Selman, 1994;Wilson & Cervero, 2001), university continuing educators are divided between those who wish to respond to market demands and those who advocate a return to our social justice roots, what Selman (1985) called the "profession" and the "movement." This debate has been especially prominent in the Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education (Cruikshank, 1996(Cruikshank, , 1998Cunningham, 1992;Hass, 1992;Karpiak & Kops, 1995;Lamble & Thompson, 2000;Lauzon, 2000;McLean, 1996;Selman, 1985;Stern, 1992). We believe that the issue is of central importance to Canadian university continuing educators, but that it is not as polarized as it first appears.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

University Continuing Education Units: Agents for Social Change?

Cram

2005

Many commentators have argued that Canadian university continuing education has gradually abandoned its historical commitment to social justice in educational programming in favour of a market-oriented approach. Although such literature clearly expresses a deeply-felt sentiment among continuing educators, it has tended to have two problems. First, many proponents of this view have not explained what they mean by social justice, which makes informed discussion of this issue difficult. Second, in praising historical adult education as a social justice movement, many commentators have neglected to provide coherent and pragmatic alternatives for the present. This article addresses these two problems by providing a dialogic theory of social justice, derived from political philosophy, as a conceptual framework to examine ways in which a new understanding of social justice could be practically applied in both strategic and program planning for university continuing education. This conceptual framework is then used to guide and inform a discussion of how information and communications technologies (ICT) can be used by university-based continuing education units to develop and implement learning opportunities designed to empower persons and organizations working for social justice.

“…In 1996, the CAUCE conference theme was "Reflections on the Future of Work and Learning," while that of the joint CAAE -CASAE conference was "Rethinking Education, Training and Employment." Recent publications from all three associations reveal significant interest in how our world is changing, and what the implications are for adult and continuing educators (Bagnall, 1994;CAUCE, 1991;Couture, 1993;Karpiak & Kops, 1995;Little, 1991;Taylor, 1990;Thomas, 1993;Townsend, 1994).…”

Section: Introduction: Social Change and Social Activismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuing Education and the Postmodern Arts of Power

McLean

1996

University continuing educators have recognized that political-economic and institutional changes are making social activism more difficult to sustain. This article argues that to build more effective and vigorous forms of social activism, continuing educators need to understand how systems of oppression are changing. In postmodern societies, patterns of oppression are shifting from centralized, explicitly coercive projects of political domination and economic exploitation, to decentred, subtle processes of constructing individuals with the capacity and the desire to govern themselves. To encourage a different mode of thinking about the nature of oppression and power, some aspects of the work of Michel Foucault are interpreted. To provoke a more creative approach to social activism through university continuing education, the article connects Foucault's abstract.