Sociology and Adult Education Adult Education

Many believe that vessel education and training that that the very foundation of success. A strong educational background can help any individual branch into new opportunities, where individual goals and community goals are intimately intertwined. In addition to traditional education facilities, the United States has a prominent adult education industry which helps bring academic practices and continuous learning to individuals already within a working environment. Essentially, adult education helps empower both the individual and the community through a continual closure to new and useful information that continuously pushes the individual towards more progressive action.

There is a wide variety of types of adult education offers within mainstream American society today. Essentially, what sets adult education apart from traditional educational program is the fact that adults are already within the workforce are returning to an educational civility in order to train on some potentially lucrative element of a future position or to gain knowledge on something that would benefit them within their daily lives, like foreign nationals continuing their studies in English. A number of sources claim that the individual can be considered an adult when that "individual perceives herself or himself to be essentially responsible for her or his own life" (Merriam & Brockett 2007 p 5). Thus adult education focuses on providing learning opportunities for students who are arty which her look or deep been exposed to the workplace. The whole process of adult education within contemporary American society has been an evolving process. It has been incredibly particular "to the adult status of students" and "the notion of the activity being purposeful or planned," meaning that the educational facility is one which is premeditated and not conducted within the context of everyday experiences (Merriam & Brockett 2007 p 7). Some elements of adult education are known as continuing education. These educational programs often offer literacy, management or other business services, and a wide variety of other genres available for adult the study in order to better their current mission within their employment, or lack thereof. Essentially, the main goal of adult education is to improve the quality-of-life an adult is already experiencing. Further education can only mean further opportunity within one's current working position, or at a different level or organization. Thus, "adult education is an intervention into the ordinary business of life -- an intervention's immediate goal is change, in knowledge or incompetence" (Merriam & Brockett 2007 p 7). The policies and procedures of most adult education programs aim to empower already working individuals on a time span that works with a full-time occupation. Even more innovative, many adult education facilities have implemented new developments in technology as a way to increase the scope and availability of adult education within the modern social landscape. New technologies are essentially increasing the range and availability of adult education to a wider range of the American public. For example, distance learning has been crucial to the influx of adult learners within the American environment (Hopey 1999). Online applications have allowed the continuous evolution of distance learning within adult education. Today, almost all adult learning facilities have some form of distance learning that is often revolving around online applications. This empowers individuals to continue their learning and academic goals on their own time, and therefore in synergy with their full-time work schedules. Some resistance to adult learning practices. These accommodating elements of contemporary adult education programs that are offered help make the entire process of adult education easier for those individuals trying to better their quality of life and positions within the organizations they work for. Here, the data shows that "individuals appear to meet general pressure for engaging in lifelong learning very different feelings" (Weber 113). Thus, with all the accommodations available within the context of adult education many students are finding new possibilities in continuing their learning and academic experiences as a way to further their individual professional and academic goals.

Empowering individuals is a major element of how adult education is supposed to function within contemporary society. There are two basic theoretical perspectives which understand how adult education empowers the individual. First, there is the concept of functional theory. In this sense, Adult Education helps create a situation where the individual gains tools and insight...

Here, the research states that "Adult Education is believed to foster empowerment by equipping people with the skills needed to obtain higher wage employment, to improve their health, to their children succeed academically, and to perform other functional tasks," (Prins & Drayton 2010 p 209). However, this functional role of adult education is often limited in terms of its view of power relations and individual roles within a larger society, like gender or ethnic roles. From a psychological perspective, adult education increases self-esteem and confidence, therefore creating a stronger individual who can do more to improve their own lives. Thus, adult education focuses on "giving individuals a voice" which they can use to increase their own capabilities within the society (Prins & Drayton 2010 p 210). These are often the product of education organizing, which focuses on individual goals that meet academic demands and requirements. Adult Education often is shown by the research to increase individual self-esteem and provides a stronger sense of confidence and capacity so that the individual can take greater forces of action within their own lives and in the lives of the community around them. Prins and Drayton (2010) argue that "adult education programs often seek to overcome learners low self-esteem -- a common obstacle to empowerment -- by building their self-confidence and sense of the possible" (p 216). By strengthening the psychological well-being of the individual, adult education empowers that individual. Easy to access and understand classes and other educational resources are often provided either free or at a low cost to community members and focus on increasing "community organization and civic participation" in order to make the communities voice heard and push them further towards their progressive goals (Prins & Drayton 2010 p 211). Essentially, adult education is the locator for improvement of life and livelihood. The knowledge gained from additional education helps the individual adapt to changing technologies and therefore guarantee a higher rate of employment compared to the individual fails to upgrade his or her knowledge of the profession chosen. According to the research, "The provision of education throughout the whole of the lifespan may help the learner to satisfy a basic human need, especially in a rapidly changing world in which the individual may be posing many questions of meaning" (Jarvis 37). Adult Education helps increase the ability of the individual to adapt to new environments because new training is consistently available through the educational facilities offered. Thus, individuals continue with Adult Education will likely have a better chance of employment in a wide variety of industries and positions compared to those who failed to utilize community efforts to educate individuals. Adult education tends to emphasis self-direction through individualism gained by empowerment through knowledge (Brookfield 1993). A common trend within current adult education has been the empowerment of teaching English to those workers who had previously gone without learning the language of the mainstream culture in the society they live in.
There is a strong influence on providing educational programs to teach literacy and language skills to adults already in the working world looking to increase their potential roles within society. In fact, the research shows that "millions have been taught to read through national literacy campaigns," even at adult ages (Merriam & Brockett 2007 p 260). Such statistics to prove how successful Adult Education strategies are in terms of providing working adults was additional augmented knowledge of an ever-changing workplace.

Still, adult education often suffers from the same prejudices and disadvantages as traditional education facilities do. Racism and racial stereotypes can be a problem within any American institution. However, they are often prevalent within adult education facilities because there is a connotation that individuals of lower socioeconomic statuses are unable to absorb the same types of information individuals of higher classes would be. Therefore, many minority groups are offered less opportunities in terms of adult education programs and facilities. It is clear that there is discrimination within various forms of adult education has proven to have a detrimental impact on its overall connotations. Racism is seen within the structure of adult education, as it is within almost every American institution. Still, issues of various subgroups within society have begun to gather more support in the adult educational world, therefore allowing for the potential of greater individual and community empowerment. Porting to the research "Multiculturalism, gender, and sexual orientation have begun to receive increasing attention in the field of adult dictation, along with the impact of these factors on the teaching-learning context," (Sheared et al. 2010 p 100). Thus, the more prevalent adult education is becoming within the contemporary workforce, the more open it is to different members of racial, class, or gender group.

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