Adult Learning and Adult Education (review)

As noted in his other recent work, The Three Dimensions of Learning (2002), Illeris has been a well-known and sometimes "controversial figure in Danish and Scandinavian education research, debate, and development" (p. 259). As a professor of psychology and educational research at Roskilde University, he has written this book to reflect his philosophical and theoretical perspectives of adult education and adult learning within the cultural context of Denmark.

Adult Learning and Adult Education does not represent the entire landscape of adult education theories, policies, programs, and practices. Rather, Illeris provides a narrower perspective because of his prior research with a subset of adult learners (the unemployed and the disadvantaged) and with subgroupings of adult education programs to include adult vocational training, adult education centers, and day high schools.

Part 1 situates adult education within the development of lifelong learning policies in the European Union. Illeris describes the philosophical and pragmatic tensions of neoliberal ideology and the market economy orientation of these policies in relation to the centrality of the adult learner life situation. After an informative discussion of EU members' efforts to develop competence frameworks as part of the lifelong learning agenda, Illeris proposes his own qualification (competence) theory model, featuring overlapping areas of social life, work life, and the personal life core. He notes that the term "competence" has replaced "qualifications" and is now a unifying concept that "integrates everything it takes in order to perform in a given situation or context" (p. 47). Thus, competence frameworks have become a key element to define learning outcomes in lifelong learning programs.

In these discussions, he also weaves in valuable discussions of subjective societal consciousness regarding qualifications and adult capacities. This section represents Illeris's argument that lifelong learning should be envisioned in a more democratically framed concept of competence. He contends that it should be linked to the "disciplined flexibility" of the individual, as opposed to its current placement within a model of marketplace economic rationality. Further, he argues that adults should be co-decision-makers about their education, rather than being viewed as commodities for societal work needs. Given these tensions and issues, he suggests the term "resistancy," representing a dimension of critical opposition for maintaining competence as an independent orientation. This first section would be of particular interest for individuals with limited knowledge of recent lifelong learning policies through OECD, UNESCO, EU, and the World Bank and its dominant ideology of knowledge as a societal industry to meet the competitive market economy.

In Part 2, Illeris offers an overview discussion of key principles and dimensions of adult learning, directing interested readers to a fuller discussion of these topics in his earlier The Three Dimensions of Learning. He describes his model of adult learning, with limited discussions of other topics such as non-learning, mislearning, active and passive resistance, differences between child and adult learning, learning and life phases, and learning strategies. At its core, this model advocates humanistic adult learning principles based on adult learner needs, interests, and values.

This section is a helpful overview of the humanistic perspective of adult education. The chapters, however, are limited in scope and do not present a thorough scholarly understanding of the complexity and breadth of current theories and research of adult learning, adult development, and adult instructional strategies.

In particular, this section does not acknowledge and recognize most of the current foundational work being done by the international adult education research community. There are no discussions about critical theorizing of adult learning and engagement; current theory and research in cognitive and adult development psychology; cultural, societal, and institutional conceptions of adult learning and education; perspectives on adult learning from the lenses of class, race, ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic conditions; or the issues of hegemonic societal structures influencing the organization, funding, and engagement of education and learning for adults.

Part 3 offers a...