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Knox_Vol_1.indb ii 10/13/2017 7:29:55 PM MAPPING THE FIELD OF ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION An International Compendium
VOLUME ONE: Adult Learners
EDITED BY
Alan B. Knox, Simone C. O. Conceição,
and Larry G. Martin Consulting Editors: Lisa M. Baumgartner, Michelle Glowacki-Dudka, Mark Tennant, and Allan Quigley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, recording, and information storage and retrieval, without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Knox, Alan B. (Alan Boyd), 1931- editor. | Conceição, Simone C. O., 1963- editor. | Martin, Larry G., editor. Title: Mapping the field of adult and continuing education : an international compendium / edited by Alan B. Knox, Simone C.O. Conceição, and Larry G. Martin ; editorial coordinator Anita Samuel. Description: First edition. | Sterling, Virgina. : Stylus Publishing, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017022658 (print) | LCCN 2017047549 (ebook) | ISBN 9781620365267 (uPDF) | ISBN 9781620365274 (mobi, ePub) | ISBN 9781620365243 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781620365250 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781620365267 (library networkable e-edition) | ISBN 9781620365274 (consumer e-edition) Subjects: LCSH: Adult education. | Adult education--Cross-cultural studies. | Continuing education. | Continuing education--Cross-cultural studies. Classification: LCC LC5215 (ebook) | LCC LC5215 .M255 2017 (print) | DDC 374--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017022658
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CONTENTS
VOLUME ONE: ADULT LEARNERS
FOREWORD vii Steven B. Frye
PREFACE ix
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME ONE 1
Alan B. Knox
SECTION ONE: ADULT LIFE CYCLE DEVELOPMENT 3
1 AN ENGAGED THIRD AGE 5
Doe Hentschel
2 IDENTITY/SELF-DEVELOPMENT AND CHRONIC DISEASE 13
Lisa M. Baumgartner
3 EDUCATING MULTIGENERATIONAL GROUPS OF ADULT LEARNERS 21
Andrea Nikischer
4 PSEUDOAUTONOMY IN THE LIVES OF ADULT LEARNERS 27
Robert Jecklin
5 LEARNING IN LATER LIFE 31
Brian Findsen
SECTION TWO: LEARNING THEORY AND PRACTICE 37
6 TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING THEORY 39
Edward W. Taylor and Patricia Cranton
7 THE RELEVANCE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR
ADULT EDUCATION 47 Sandra L. Morrison and Timote Vaioleti v
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vi CONTENTS
8 THE COGNITIVE ASPECT OF ADULT LEARNERS FROM
NEUROSCIENCE 53 Wei-Wen Chang
9 ADULT LITERACY PRACTICES AND ADULT BASIC EDUCATION 61
M. Cecil Smith
10 GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION IS ALL LOCAL 69
Ankur R. Desai
SECTION THREE: A BROAD SPECTRUM OF LEARNERS 73
11 LIFELONG AND LIFEWIDE LOVING IN EDUCATION 75
Tamen Jadad-Garcia and Alejandro R. Jadad
12 ADULT LEARNERS WITH DISABILITIES 83
Overcoming Invisibility and Exclusion Carol Rogers-Shaw
13 ADULTS WITH LOW LITERACY SKILLS 87
Theoretical Perspectives Toward Understanding Teaching and Learning Maurice C. Taylor, David L. Trumpower, and Edward R. Purse
14 THE POWER TO CHANGE LIVES 93
The University of Wisconsin–Madison Odyssey Project Emily Auerbach
15 PROMOTING GENDER EQUITY AND LEADERSHIP AMONG
ETHIOPIAN WOMEN IN MEDICINE 99 Elizabeth Kvach, Mahlet Gebremariam, Fiker Taddesse, and Cynthia Haq
16 LEVELING THE FIELD 103
Professional Development for Part-Time Employees Sarah Korpi
GLOSSARY 107
APPENDIX 135 Contents for Volume Two, Volume Three, and Volume Four
EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS 141
INDEX 147
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FOREWORD
T he rapid-paced changes we are experiencing in our world call for an ongoing conversation to keep adult education relevant, fresh, and current. Two years ago, Stylus Publishing and the American Asso- ciation for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) jointly launched an international compendium to map the field of adult and continuing educa- tion. This initiative reflected the commitment of both organizations to assist associations, practitioners, and scholars who contribute to many parts of the adult education field worldwide. I am pleased to serve as AAACE’s president during the timely comple- tion of this important project. I am thankful for the support and contribu- tions of my two predecessors (Margaret Eggleston and Steve Schmidt), as well the publications committee and the board, who initiated and supported the creation of this valuable resource. The editors successfully attracted an exceedingly diverse group of practi- tioners and scholars from many countries, types of providers, stages of career, and perspectives. The contributors and editors who helped to create the com- pendium have given us an extensive resource that will benefit adult educators worldwide. The end product is a useful and accessible tool for adult educa- tors in our continual journey to better our field of study and practice. The four parts of the compendium are focused on adult learners, teach- ing and learning, leadership and administration, and inquiry and influences. About 20 brief and substantive articles in each volume refer to related com- pendium articles and to other publications for more details about the topic. This organization allows each compendium reader to use this map to explore the combination of topics that pertain to their own provider mission and career journey. I want to offer special thanks to the editors: Alan b. Knox, Simone C. O. Conceição, and Larry G. Martin for their impassioned commitment to this monumental effort. I am confident that your efforts will benefit many in our field and encourage the continual conversation that we call adult education.
vii
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viii FOREWORD
On behalf of AAACE, I invite our membership and our many partners
worldwide to make use of this excellent resource. Together we will build the future of our field.
Steven B. Frye President, American Association for Adult and Continuing Education; Associate Professor and Interim Director, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Tennessee Technological University
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P R E FA C E
W elcome to this distinctive map of our field. The map was created by and for educators of adults and includes 80 brief and substan- tive articles. Together, these articles give you access to concepts and examples about various learning opportunities for adults. We hope these examples, concepts, and guidelines will enhance your learning opportunities for adults. To create this compendium, practitioners and scholars assembled con- cepts and examples from many countries and types of provider organizations to prepare brief articles that are relevant to your experience and interest in excellent learning opportunities for adults. The table of contents serves as a matrix of potential topics that we used to map the conceptual base of the field. Our matrix was a taxonomy of four parts (learners, teaching, admin- istering, inquiry), each composed of major topic areas and subtopics (con- cepts) based on the work of numerous practitioners and scholars. A basic feature of this publication is the ability to follow connections among topics to navigate among articles, discover additional publications, and find ideas to share with program stakeholders. In the electronic edition, hyperlinks allow you to navigate easily among volumes, articles, and key- words so you can create your own individual pathways through the compen- dium. Connections among articles illustrate important educator decisions related to concepts from several parts of the compendium. For example, helping adults learn is related to participant experience and interests, pro- gram coordinator assistance, and available program funding. The compen- dium includes a glossary to clarify the meanings of terms and concepts for the benefit of readers. Adult learners vary in what they want to learn and why. The participants in each learning opportunity also vary greatly in experiences, abilities, inter- ests, vocations, ages, responsibilities, and outlooks, all of which influence their lifelong learning activities. Young people may be recipients of educa- tion, but as adults, many of them want to be users of education in adult life roles in family, work, and community.
ix
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x PREFACE
Volumes and Sections
VOLUME ONE: ADULT LEARNERS
Editors: Alan B. Knox, Simone C. O. Conceição, and Larry G. Martin Sections: Adult Life Cycle Development; Learning Theory and Practice; A Broad Spectrum of Learners
VOLUME TWO: TEACHING AND LEARNING
Editors: Simone C. O. Conceição, Larry G. Martin, and Alan B. Knox Sections: Multiple Contexts; Approaches to Teaching; Professional Develop- ment; Critical Innovation
VOLUME THREE: LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION
Editors: Larry G. Martin, Simone C. O. Conceição, and Alan B. Knox Sections: Administration and Coordination; Planning and Resource Alloca- tion; Organizational Change and Culture; Leadership and Vision; Structure and Stakeholders
VOLUME FOUR: INQUIRY AND INFLUENCES
Editors: Alan B. Knox, Simone C. O. Conceição, and Larry G. Martin Sections: Organizational and Societal Influences; Engaged Inquiry; Methods of Inquiry; Assessment and Evaluation For each volume, the table of contents and introduction explain to readers the purpose, organization, contents, and contributors. Each article begins with a list of concepts and keywords central to the article. The keywords are all in the index so readers can use the index to locate articles of interest. These features reflect our commitment to a compendium that facilitates individual- ized inquiry by readers so as to practice what we teach. Having each of the four volumes of the compendium published sepa- rately is a convenience for some readers who may be interested mainly in the contents of that volume. At the beginning of this preface you were welcomed and introduced to its contents and organization. Similar to a marathon or relay race where the starting line becomes the finish line, we now return full circle, and it is time to pass the baton to you. Alan B. Knox, Simone C.O. Conceição, and Larry G. Martin
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INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME ONE Alan B. Knox
T he first volume of Mapping the Field of Adult and Continuing Educa- tion: An International Compendium focuses on adult learners. Con- tributors from different countries involved with adult education prepared the 16 articles in this volume. These articles can be part of a mod- ule or unit in a formal course or serve as resources for practitioners who work with adults. Many of the articles are brief and provide examples and resources for future exploration. Each article contains concepts, examples, implications, keywords, and cross-references to other articles in the compen- dium. For the e-book version of the compendium, the keywords at the top of the article and cross-references before the references are linked to different parts of the compendium and to the compendium index where interrelated topics can be accessed. The first section of volume one focuses on adult life cycle development and explains the importance of viewing adult learning from the perspective of the life course of individuals. It also addresses some of the issues and con- cerns that arise during different phases of life. The five articles in this section include topics on third age, identity/self-development and chronic disease, education of multigenerational groups of adult learners, pseudoautonomy, and learning in later life. The five articles in the second section of this volume focus on learning theory and practice of adult education. Two articles in this section address trans- formative learning and neuroscience theories and their implications for the practice of adult education. The other three articles explain relevance of indig- enous knowledge, adult literacy practices and adult basic education, and global climate change education. 1
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2 INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME ONE
The six articles in the third section address a broad spectrum of adult learners by focusing on lifelong and lifewide loving in education, adult learn- ers with disabilities, adults with low literacy skills, the power to change lives, gender equity and leadership, and professional development for part-time employees. The total compendium has four volumes: adult learners (volume one), teaching and learning (volume two), leadership and administration (volume three), and inquiry and influences (volume four). It is published in separate volumes as a convenience for readers who may be interested in the contents of a specific volume. Each volume has its own introduction and a table of contents for the other three volumes is located in the appendix to help the reader identify and read articles of interest located in the other three volumes. Articles in this volume can help educators of adults and practitioners to discover an effective alignment between learner characteristics and responsive learning activities and enhance their understanding of organized learning opportunities for adults in different contexts. I trust that this volume will encourage educators of adults to explore further learning activities for adult populations with related benefits for their communities.
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SECTION ONE
A D U LT L I F E C Y C L E DEVELOPMENT
Articles in this section focus on various trends and characteristics of adults
during the adult life cycle, such as experience, age, generation, health, iden- tity, and self-direction, which shape adult learning and spirit.
B eatrice was depressed and overwhelmed by family issues she seemed unable to control. In a weak moment, she accepted an invitation to attend a meeting to learn about the Third Age Initiative, a program developed by Leadership Greater Hartford (LGH) for older adults designed to help them find ways to channel their wisdom, knowledge, and experience to strengthen their communities. She acknowledges that she literally dragged herself out of bed because she had made a commitment to attend.
Engagement and Healthy Aging
Beatrice’s depression is not unusual in later life. Change and loss that older adults experience as roles evolve, resources become limited, friends and fam- ily age and pass away, and they face personal health challenges often lead to withdrawal, lack of self-confidence, and self-deprecation consistent with per- sistent negative views of aging. At one time, research on adult development indicated that disengagement was the norm for people as they aged. We now know this need not be the case. Many studies about aging from physical, sociological, and psychological perspectives indicate that active social engagement, intellectual challenges, and purposeful activity contrib- utes to a longer, healthier later life. Healthy aging is characterized by con- tinued growth and development during which aging adults seek learning and experiences that enable them to continue to be engaged in the changing 5
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6 ADULT LIFE CYCLE DEVELOPMENT
world in ways that affirm their individual relevance and purpose. Rather than a chronological series of events, life more typically evolves in cycles of renewal (Butler, 2005). Engagement takes many forms. The Corporation for National and Com- munity Service (2007) reports that the benefits to volunteering are measur- able and significant. Longevity, increased functioning, and less depression are related to volunteering, especially for older adults. Unfortunately, fewer than one-third of adults over the age of 65 engage in volunteerism, although many who are not engaged indicate they are interested in doing so now or in the future (Zedlewski & Butrica, 2007). Those who are not engaged are sometimes discouraged because volunteer activities available to them are unchallenging or perceived as menial tasks and time fillers. Too often it is because our communities and nonprofit organizations that would benefit from this untapped talent pool do not welcome or understand the resource that older adults represent (Raynor, 2015). Even though many no longer seek or need compensation, frustrated older adults report that they want to continue to “work”—to solve problems, to develop new ideas into projects that have positive results, and to be part of a group that respects each other, collaborates, and learns and grows together. LGH’s Third Age Initiative is one of only a handful of programs in the world that attempt to address this need, and it is has been recognized as the premier model for doing so. In 2001, LGH was invited to present a workshop showcasing the program at the United Nations Conference on NGO volunteerism; the following year, the Third Age Initiative was featured at the United Nations’ Assembly on Aging in Madrid as a model program to engage older adults as resources in our communities.
The Third Age Initiative
The Third Age Initiative was launched by LGH in 2001 as a vehicle for engaging older adults in their communities. Researching ways in which the quality of life for older adults could be enhanced, a task force in LGH’s core program, Quest, concluded that American culture did not value older adults as the treasures that they are. They conceptualized a program to iden- tify, develop, and engage older adults in ways that would tap into their experience and wisdom to strengthen their communities. Unlike more typical programs that train and mobilize older adults as volunteers, this program develops participants’ leadership skills. They then take the initia- tive in addressing community issues through team projects that provide a “learning laboratory” where they exercise the training they have received in collaborative leadership and team building. They focus on issues of interest
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AN ENGAGED THIRD AGE 7
to them and work together as change agents, program developers, project
managers, and policymakers. Socioeconomic diversity is a unique hallmark of the Third Age Ini- tiative. Zedlewski and Butrica (2007) point out that low income and less educated older adults are less likely to be engaged in the community and therefore less likely to experience the benefits of engagement, such as “decreased mortality and depression, improved health and strength, greater happiness and enhanced cognitive ability” (pp. 2–3). The educa- tional backgrounds of the 341 participants in the 13 classes that have been conducted since 2001 range from less than high school completion to doctoral and professional degrees, with 28% holding less than bachelor’s degrees and 22% degrees beyond the master’s. Family income is similarly diverse; 23% of all participants report family income of less than $22,500 and 26% report earning more than $75,000. The age range has been 48–88 (21% under the age of 60 and 25% over the age of 70) with 30% men and 70% women. Only 46% are married (others are single, widowed, or divorced), and participants live in Hartford (26%) and 45 other towns in central Connecticut. Approximately 28% represent racial minorities including African American, Hispanic, and West Indian participants. Participants value this diversity and report that the different perspectives, experiences, and skills of their classmates contribute significantly to their positive experience (Broderick, 2016).
Forming the Class
Potential participants respond to broadcast promotional strategies includ- ing newspaper articles, television and radio interviews with staff and alumni, the organization’s website, and web-based newsletters. Many learn about the program through word-of-mouth and nominations by alumni and other members of the LGH network. Attending an information session precedes submitting an application. The application process is not a vehicle for exclusion; rather, it is a strategy to ensure that marketing activities dur- ing the typical six-month recruitment process can be targeted to create a diverse class. During information sessions, participants are asked what attracted them to this program. The most common motivations include the following: “I have more to give,” “I want to find ways to give back,” “I want to be involved in the community.” One woman who became a member of the first class articulated the following, which others often state as well: “I am busy in retirement; I volunteer, and my husband and I have a full social life. But I am finding that it is difficult to meet new people, and I miss working with others on something that we care about and that we are creating together.”
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8 ADULT LIFE CYCLE DEVELOPMENT
As they learn more about the Third Age Initiative, they recognize how those goals can be achieved.
The Program Design
The Third Age Initiative is a dynamic learning experience highlighted by community action projects. Those projects, carried out by self-directed teams over the course of a year, serve not only to address community needs but also as learning laboratories in collaborative leadership for program participants. A distinguishing characteristic of this program is that it is designed and con- ducted drawing on a strong foundation of adult education theory and best practices (Eisen, 2005). The program begins with six weekly, daylong workshops in which class members assess their leadership skills and abilities. Two core components of the curriculum are the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® (Kouzes & Posner, 2012) and the Enneagram, a personality system that provides a framework for team building by understanding the perspectives and gifts different personality types can contribute to the work of the team. Train- ing exercises and discussions build on those capacities, particularly in nonhierarchical participative group settings. Interactive activities that are incorporated in each workshop include structured experiences, discussions, and self-assessment instruments. Some workshops include tours in Greater Hartford so that participants learn firsthand about the issues and needs of the community and meet community leaders who are making a difference. At a two-day retreat, they form teams around issues that have been identi- fied by the class using the nominal group process (Hentschel, 1984). They will research these issues and develop and implement projects over the next 10 months while they continue to develop and apply their expertise and perspectives. Bimonthly workshops provide timely learning about group pro- cess, inclusive decision making, and leadership for change. Whereas some teams continue their work with their projects after graduation, the program is designed to be a springboard to meaningful community engagement. LGH assists graduates in staying connected to one another, finding community leadership roles, and continuing their leadership development.
Evaluation and Impact
Formative and summative evaluation are conducted in numerous ways. At the conclusion of the retreat, participant satisfaction about the content and process of the six workshops and the two-day retreat is collected. In addition to a 4-point Likert scale on questions related to the content, delivery, and goals of the program (mean scores for the first class ranged from 3.2–3.9 and for the most recent class from 3.7–4.0), participants are asked to rate on a
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AN ENGAGED THIRD AGE 9
scale of 1 to 10 their learning and their enjoyment of the experience. Scores
on these two factors in the first class were 8.81 and 8.83 and have increased incrementally with each class to 9.6 and 9.8 in the most recent class. Postprogram research demonstrates that, many years later, at least 75% of graduates are involved in the community in ways in which they were not involved before their participation. Engagement ranges from service on non- profit boards, taking on new leadership roles in organizations, running for and getting elected to public office, becoming advocates for various causes, continuing work begun on their teams and even returning to school and beginning new careers. Most graduates attribute their postprogram engage- ment to their participation in the Third Age Initiative, often through net- working as a result of connections made during the program, discovering needs and/or organizations during the class workshops or team process, and developing the skills and/or confidence needed to initiate or respond to opportunities (Eisen, 2012; Leadership Greater Hartford, 2005). Although team projects are considered the means to the end of later com- munity engagement for program participants, the impact of the three dozen projects completed to date demonstrates how the community benefits from the contributions of these older adults. In 2012, Leadership Greater Hart- ford recognized projects of Quest task forces and the Third Age Initiative teams that have had the most significant impact on the community. Selected from among hundreds of projects, the Quest taskforce that conceived of the Third Age Initiative and generated the funding to launch it in 2001 received the award for the project that had achieved the greatest overall impact in building community in the 35-year history of LGH. Third Age Initiative team projects received the awards for the greatest impact in Community Development, and Children and Youth. Additionally, finalists in the Basic Needs and Overall Impact categories included Third Age Initiative projects.
Global Implications Anticipating the impact of tripling the number of people over the age of 60 by the year 2050 to 2 billion, with 400,000 over the age of 80, the United Nations has created an international policy on aging. Central to the 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (2006) is the understanding that “a society for all ages encompasses the goal of providing older persons with the opportunity to continue contributing to society. To work towards this goal, it is necessary to remove whatever excludes or discriminates against them” (p. 639). This document articulates clearly the benefit to individuals and to our societies of healthy aging as described earlier. The plan includes goals to empower older people so that they can be productively engaged through
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10 ADULT LIFE CYCLE DEVELOPMENT
work and volunteerism and to provide opportunities for them to continue to
develop, learn, contribute to their communities, and fulfill their potential. In 2010, the United Nations created the Open-Ended Working Group on Aging, which meets annually to work on the implementation of the 2002 Madrid Plan. Review of the most recent papers from the working group indicates that their current focus is on the need for human rights to extend to older people, especially those in developing countries and particularly women who are dis- proportionately discriminated against.
Replication Six years after dragging herself out of bed, Beatrice, now 69, works part-time as a patient advocate with an organization that addresses the needs of citizens who suffer from sickle cell anemia. She reengaged with a prestigious local organization that provides training in the arts and culture of the African Diaspora, and last year served as chair of its board of directors. She continues the work that her Third Age Initiative team began to support the reentry of formerly incarcerated individuals into the community, and she regularly attends LGH’s events and workshops. Beatrice sees her participation in the Third Age Initiative as a launching pad that helped her find a way to give back to the community. As effective as the Third Age Initiative is as a strategy that successfully achieves the goals established by the United Nations, sustainability and repli- cation are challenging. Several other community leadership organizations in the United States have implemented similar programs to engage older adults in community leadership. Unlike the Third Age Initiative, these programs focus on professional retirees and graduates of their leadership programs for midcareer professionals. The socioeconomic diversity that characterizes the LGH program, which is completely funded by grants and donations and charges no tuition, has not been replicated in these programs, nor is there a similar emphasis on developing new leadership skills. Zedlewski and Butrica (2007) call for policy interventions and more funding for training programs that will help connect older adults to meaning- ful engagement. Historic ageism is a well-recognized barrier. A new initiative involving the American Association for Retired Persons, the American Fed- eration for Aging Research, the American Geriatrics Society, the American Society on Aging, the Gerontological Society of America, Grantmakers in Aging, the National Council on Aging, and the National Hispanic Council on Aging working with the Frameworks Institute is aimed at greater under- standing of today’s older adults.
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AN ENGAGED THIRD AGE 11
The United Nations challenges us to embrace aging “as an achievement”
rather than a burden and calls for humane societies to recognize that the experiences and resources of the higher age groups are a benefit to us all. The Third Age Initiative can serve as a prototype for those societies seeking to draw on the assets of older citizens.
Suggested Cross-References For more information on concepts and ideas discussed in this article, please see the following articles in the compendium: 5, 6, 10, 11, 19, 35, 52, 57, 66, 67, 70, 78, 80
References Broderick, M. (October 2016). “Older adults giving back: Leadership Greater Hartford’s program drives volunteerism.” Hartford Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.courant.com/hartford-magazine/features/hc-hm-nh-transitions- third-age-initiative-20160928-story.html Butler, C. B. (2005). Age-related paradigms. New Directions for Adult and Continu- ing Education, 2005(108), 61–68. Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Research and Pol- icy Development. (2007). The health benefits of volunteering: A review of recent research. Washington DC. Eisen, M. J. (2005, Winter). Shifts in the landscape of learning: New challenges, new opportunities. In M. A. Wolf, “Adulthood new terrain,” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 108, 15–26. Eisen, M. J. (2012). The third age initiative: The first ten years. Unpublished report, Leadership Greater Hartford, Hartford, CT. Hentschel, D. (1984). There’s a method in the magic: The nominal group process. Lifelong Learning: An Omnibus of Practice and Research, 8(4), 11–26. Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge (5th ed.). San Fran- cisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons. Leadership Greater Hartford. (2005). Community involvement analysis. Unpublished report, Hartford, CT. Madrid Political Declaration and International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002. (2006). International Social Science Journal, 58(190), 633–665. Raynor, B. (2015). “Ageism in action? Ageism inaction!” Generations, retrieved from http://asaging.org/blog/ageism-action-ageism-inaction Zedlewski, S. R., & Butrica, B. A. (2007, December). Are we taking full advantage of older adults’ potential? Perspectives on Productive Aging, 9, 1–7.
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Knox_Vol_1.indb 12 10/13/2017 7:29:56 PM 2 IDENTITY/ SELF-DEVELOPMENT AND CHRONIC DISEASE Lisa M. Baumgartner
T he purpose of this article is to show the interrelationship between chronic diseases and identity development. Statistics on chronic dis- ease will be followed by an examination of the philosophical under- pinnings of identity models. Chronic disease identity models and common themes in the chronic illness literature will be reviewed. Last, I will consider possibilities for future research. Chronic diseases last three months or more and cannot be prevented or cured (National Health Council, 2016). In 2012, 38 million of the 56 mil- lion deaths that occurred worldwide were due to chronic illnesses (Global Health Observatory, n.d.). Half of all adults in the United States have at least one chronic health condition and 25% have two or more chronic dis- eases (Ward, Schiller, & Goodman, 2012). Chronic diseases include such illnesses as diabetes, asthma, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and obesity (“Living with a chronic illness,” 2016). Given that chronic disease is part of the context of many people’s lives, and identity development is lifelong, it makes sense that knowing more about how chronic disease influences identity development would help individu- als understand more about themselves and how they can live with chronic disease.
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Philosophical Underpinnings of Identity Models
Before examining the philosophical underpinnings of identity models, some definitions of terms are necessary. Whereas some scholars use self and identity interchangeably, others believe that self concerns one’s interior world and iden- tity describes “the properties of sameness and distinction that link the interior world of psychological experience and the exterior world of language and cat- egorization” (Hammack, 2015, p. 12). The chronic illness literature has both made distinctions between these words and used them interchangeably. The definitions of identity belie their historical and philosophical roots. Philosophical perspectives on identity focused on the importance of “memory, meaning, relationality and the perception of sameness or difference” (Hammack, 2015, p. 13, emphasis in original). These concepts are fundamental to the foundational theorists of identity research, William James and George Her- bert Mead. American psychologist William James focused on the sameness and continuity of the self and the integration of mind, emotion, and the body as part of one’s identity where the private interior self interacts with society. Theories that originate this theoretical base include Erik Erikson’s eight-stage model of psychosocial development; James Marcia’s identity status model; Cross’s stage-based, Black identity development model; Helms’s White identity model; and narrative identity development (Hammack, 2015). For example, Erik Erikson (1980) said that identity was “a persistent sameness within oneself (self-sameness) and a persistent sharing of some kind of essential character with others” (p. 109). The social environment influences our identity. Erik Erikson (1968) stated that identity is located “in the core of the communal individual and yet also in the core of the communal culture” (p. 22, emphasis in original). Another theoretical concept of identity comes from Herbert Mead who focused on how the social context and interactions with others influenced iden- tity and how different identities (e.g., identity/role as mother, sister, worker) interacted in the social context (Hammack, 2015). Identity theorists whose ideas are derived from this perspective include Goffman’s stigma and identity manage- ment and Stryker and Burke’s identity theory where individuals possess multiple roles (e.g., drummer, teacher, friend) whose salience is determined by the social context (Hammack, 2015). Roles enacted across various contexts are more sali- ent than roles that are enacted in fewer contexts (Stryker & Burke, 2000). For example, a person may claim the role of being a professor across many contexts, but her role as a bass guitar player in a garage band may be less salient.
Models of Chronic Illness Identity/Self-Development
Several models of chronic illness pertain to identity/self-development. Kelly and Field’s (1996) crisis model is concerned with changes in identity.
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Identity is considered the known or “public and shared aspects of indi-
viduals. Identity establishes what and where the person is within social structures” (p. 245). If one’s chronic illness becomes visible then issues of stigma, labelling, a status passage from a person considered “healthy” to “unhealthy,” and a change of status in the social structure are concerns (Kralik, Koch, & Eastwood, 2003). Scholars have discussed status passages in people living with HIV (PLWHAs; Sandstrom, 1990) and rheumatoid arthritis (Kristiansen & Antoft, 2016). Kelly and Field’s (1996) negotiation model of chronic illness focuses on the loss of the normal self and wanting to maintain a normal self in the face of a changing body. The self is the “existential me” (Kralik et al., 2003, p. 14). The self must negotiate with the illness identity, and there is a struggle to remain normal. Chronic illness is considered a “biographical disruption” (Bury, 1982, p. 167), and indi- viduals want to return to a normal state. This framework has been used in qualitative studies such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; Jowsey, Yen, Bagheri, & McRae, 2014). Although not explicitly related to identity development, Frank’s (1995) three types of illness narratives can be uncovered in the identity development journeys of the chronically ill. The restitution narrative states, “yesterday I was healthy, today I’m sick, but tomorrow I’ll be healthy again” (p. 77). The chaos narrative imagines “life is never getting better” (p. 97). The individual feels a complete lack of control personally, and there may be a sense that no one (including doctors) knows what is going on. Last, individuals who tell quest narratives “meet suffering head on; they accept illness and seek to use it” (p. 115). Quest narratives can be related as a memoir where the illness is interspersed with details from one’s life. Alter- nately, those who relate their quest narrative as a manifesto turn a critical eye on society and illness and call for social justice. In the automythology quest narrative, there is a personal reinvention due to the illness. Individu- als emerge with a new identity in some cases (Frank, 1995). Frank’s model has been used as the theoretical framework in several studies including research concerning chronic fatigue syndrome (Whitehead, 2006).
Common Themes in the Chronic Illness and
Identity Literature There are several themes that are commonly found in the chronic illness and identity literature. Transitions and the role of support in the chronic illness identity process are discussed. These themes are explained in the following sections.
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Transitions Transitions affect identity. A meta-analysis of the health literature revealed that the term transition was used to describe a transition from health to ill- ness or a change within an illness, such as having to start treatment (Kralik, Visentin, & Van Loon, 2006). The literature defined transition most often as a “passage between two points” or the need to adapt to or integrate an ill- ness. Additionally, transition “involves a process of inner-reorientation” (p. 324) as a person adapts to a new situation, such as a chronic illness. Transi- tion also informed changes in self and identity. For example, a stroke may cause a woman to reconsider her identity (Hilton, 1998). Kralik and col- leagues (2006) noted that transition is both a linear and a recurring process with losses and gains that require readjustment. Paterson’s (2001) shifting perspectives model of chronic illness resulted from a metasynthesis of 292 qualitative research reports concerning “chronic physical illness” (p. 21). This model delineates the following perspectives: (a) illness in the foreground, (b) wellness in the foreground, (c) shifting from wellness to illness in the foreground, and (d) shifting from illness to wellness in the foreground. When the illness is in the foreground, it is all- consuming. Typically, dealing with symptoms and learning about the dis- ease are common during this time. When individuals experience wellness in the foreground, one’s identity is not the diseased body but other facets such as one’s spirituality or social commitments. Individuals shift from wellness to illness when they detect a lack of control of the disease such as “disease progression, lack of skill to manage the disease, disease-related stigma and interactions with others that emphasize dependence and hopelessness” (p. 24). When there is a shift from illness to wellness in the foreground, there is generally renewed hope, yet the illness still requires monitoring. Kralik (2002) described a transition process of midlife women living with a chronic illness. She interviewed 81 women over the course of a year. Kralik found that when first confronted with the illness women experienced “an extraordinary phase of turmoil and distress” (p. 149). They transitioned to ordinariness or incorporation of their illness into their lives and identities with the help of others who encouraged them. With this encouragement and empowerment, they found a place for the illness in their lives. They recognized they needed to think differently about the disease and adjust their expectations.
The Importance of Support in the Identity Incorporation Process
Another theme in the chronic illness and identity literature is that this process does not occur in a vacuum. Support from others in the form of conversa- tions with family, friends, and/or support groups is integral to incorporating
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a chronic illness into one’s identity. This support is often necessary at diagno- sis and during transitions as individuals grapple with changing physical abili- ties and, in some cases, as with individuals living with HIV/AIDS, the stigma of the disease (Hayes, Vaughan, Medeiros, & Dubuque, 2002). Disclosure is integral to the integration of chronic illness into one’s identity and finding the right person or support group is imperative in the identity integration process (Baumgartner & David, 2009).
Conclusions and Future Research
Although the identity and chronic illness literature has informed theory and practice, there are several ways this research can generally be improved. First, the use of explicit theoretical frameworks is imperative for further develop- ment of identity theories related to chronic illness. Second, a clear definition of identity is needed in some studies as the concepts of self and identity are often interchanged. Third, much of the identity and chronic illness literature does not explicitly discuss the impact of positionalities such as race; class; gender; culture; and such things as historical, chronological, or developmen- tal time on how chronic illness affects the self and identity. Last, most of the studies on chronic illness and identity are cross-sectional. More longitudinal studies on the effect of chronic illnesses on identity over time are needed. Chronic diseases affect millions of individuals. New therapies and medi- cations mean people are living longer with perhaps more than one chronic illness. To help individuals live their best lives, attention to how these illnesses affect individuals’ identities and selves is imperative. Although research has been done in this area, future research is needed to strengthen the applicability of current models and to provide health educators and practitioners practical ways to assist their clients in navigating their identity with a chronic disease.
Suggested Cross-References For more information on concepts and ideas discussed in this article, please see the following articles in the compendium: 5, 6, 11, 12, 28, 34, 35, 52, 76, 77, 80
References Baumgartner, L. M., & David, K. N. (2009). Accepting being poz: The incorpo- ration of the HIV identity into the self. Qualitative Health Research, 19(12), 1730–1743.
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Bury, M. (1982). Chronic illness as a biographical disruption. Sociology of Health and
Illness, 4, 165–182. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York, NY: W. W. Norton Company. Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York, NY: W. W. Norton Company. Frank, A. W. (1995). The wounded storyteller: Body, illness, and ethics. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Global Health Observatory. (n.d.). Noncommunicable diseases (NCD). World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/gho/ncd/en/ Hammack, P. L. (2015). Theoretical foundations of identity. In K. C. McLean & M. Syed (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of identity development (pp. 11–30). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Hayes, R. A., Vaughan, C., Medeiros, T., & Dubuque, E. (2002). Stigma directed toward chronic illness is resistant to change through education and exposure. Psychological Reports, 90, 1161–1173. Hilton, E. (1998). The meaning of stroke in elderly women: A phenomenological investigation. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 28(7), 19–26. Jowsey, T., Yen., L. E., Bagheri, N., & McRae, I. (2014). Time spent by people man- aging chronic obstructive pulmonary disease indicates biographical disruption. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 9, 87–97. Kelly, M. P., & Field, D. (1996). Medical sociology, chronic illness, and the body. Sociology of Health and Illness, 18(2), 241–257. Kralik, D. (2002). The quest for ordinariness: Transition experienced by midlife women living with chronic illness. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 39(2), 146–154. Kralik, D., Koch, T., & Eastwood, S. (2003). The salience of the body: Transition in sexual self-identity for women living with multiple sclerosis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 42(1), 11–20. Kralik, D., Visentin, K., & van Loon, A. (2006). Transition: A literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 55(3), 320–329. Kristiansen, T. M., & Antoft, R. (2016). Patient education as a status passage in life: An ethnographic study exploring participation in a Danish group based patient education programme. Social Science & Medicine, 158, 34–42. “Living with a chronic illness.” (2016). Medline Plus, U.S. National Library of Med- icine. Retrieved from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000602 .htm National Health Council. (2016). About chronic conditions. Retrieved from http:// www.nationalhealthcouncil.org/newsroom/about-chronic-conditions Paterson, B. L. (2001). The shifting perspectives model of chronic illness. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(1), 21–26. Sandstrom, K. L. (1990). Confronting deadly disease: The drama of identity construc- tion among gay men with AIDS. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 19, 271–294. Stryker, S., & Burke, P. J. (2000). The past, present and future of an identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(4), 284–297. Retrieved from http://www.jstor .org/stable/2695840
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Ward, B. W., Schiller, J. S., & Goodman, R. A. (2012). Multiple chronic conditions among US adults. Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy, 11, 1–4. doi:10.5888/pcd11.130389 Whitehead, L. C. (2006). Quest, chaos, and restitution: Living with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis. Social Science and Medicine, 62, 2236–2245.
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Knox_Vol_1.indb 20 10/13/2017 7:29:56 PM 3 E D U C AT I N G M U LT I G E N E R A T I O N A L G R O U P S O F A D U LT LEARNERS Andrea Nikischer
I n the United States and across the globe adult education learning spaces include students spanning multiple generations. Members of these gen- erations bring a wealth of unique life experiences and perspectives with them when they work and learn. Generational differences have the power to impact student learning preferences, with important implications for educa- tors and employers.
Generational Groups Generational groups are created when people are born during a similar time period and experience major economic, political, technological, and/or world events together. Four major generational groups1 currently participate in adult and workplace education in the United States, as discussed in the following sections (see Boysen, Daste, & Northern, 2016; Fry, 2015; Helyer & Lee, 2012; Hershatter & Epstein, 2010).
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Traditionalists: Born 1928–1945
Members of the oldest and most experienced group, the Traditionalists or Silents, tend to share a traditional view of education and work. As most Tra- ditionalists are no longer in the workplace, they seek adult education oppor- tunities primarily for personal fulfillment.
Baby Boomers: Born 1946–1964
Baby Boomers were born after World War II and are seen as loyal and hard- working. They seek learning opportunities in order to stay competitive in an uncertain economic climate and to overcome any perceived limitations associated with age. As with Traditionalists, Boomers did not grow up with technology and are, in general, less naturally adept at its use.
Generation X: Born 1965–1980
Gen Xers are in the early to middle stages of their careers and many find themselves faced with challenges associated with caring both for younger children and aging parents. Xers are often described as independent and committed to challenging the status quo.
Millennials: Born 1981–1997
Members of the youngest group, Millennials2 are the most technologically savvy generation. Considered “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001), this genera- tion was the first to live their entire life connected to digital devices and the Internet. Due to this experience, Millennials learn new technology easily and often show a strength and preference for multitasking. They appreciate clearly outlined objectives and request consistent and timely feedback.
The Current Educational Landscape
The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statis- tics (2016) projects that the number of students aged 25 and older who are enrolled in higher education will increase faster than traditional college-aged students during 2014 to 2024. Workplace education will also have to accom- modate generational diversity. According to the Pew Research Center, more than one-third of workers in the United States are Millennials. These young employees join Generation X (34%), Baby Boomers (29%), and a small number of Traditionalists (2%) to create the most generationally diverse workforce in history (Fry, 2015). Global workforce trends indicate a similar pattern of age and generation diversification, as older workers remain in the
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global workforce up to and past retirement age and fewer younger workers enter3 (Society for Human Resource Management Foundation, 2015). Beyond formal education, 73% of adults in the United States label them- selves as lifelong learners, engaging in a variety of nonformal and informal forms of adult education. Whereas younger adults participate at the highest levels, a full 62% of adults aged 65 and older continue to participate in adult learning opportunities (Horrigan, 2016).
Best Practices for Working With Multigenerational Groups
Extensive scholarship has been produced related to working with multigenerational (also known as cross-generational) groups of adults. A key facet of this work is the focus on creating learning spaces and work- places that respect and value generational differences and allow each group to maximize its strengths (Sánchez & Kaplan, 2014). Consistent recommendations across literature include (a) finding ways to leverage the life experience of older learners and the technological skills of younger learners to create robust cross-generational learning communi- ties, (b) providing two-way mentorship opportunities between older learners and Millennials, and (c) diversifying instruction to meet the needs of each individual learner (Boysen et al., 2016; Cekada, 2012; Helyer & Lee, 2012; Hershatter & Epstein, 2010; Torrico Meruvia, 2013).
Future Directions Research in the area of multigenerational learning should continue. As the “post-Millennial” (Fry, 2015) generation begins to enter adult education learning spaces, stakeholders will need to learn about members of this group. Additionally, although researchers often focus efforts on the youngest group of adult learners, older adults should not be ignored. Morris (2014) argues that more attention needs to be paid to the oldest members of our learn- ing communities. Research in this area should explore older students’ needs related both to generation and age.
Final Thoughts Increases in diversity based on ethnicity, gender identification, socioeco- nomic status, age, and generation provide a strong foundation for rich adult learning experiences. Stakeholders need to recognize the variety of perspec- tives adults bring with them to their learning in order to create positive learn- ing opportunities.
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Suggested Cross-References For more information on concepts and ideas discussed in this article, please see the following articles in the compendium: 5, 7, 15, 19, 33, 49, 57, 71
Notes 1. In addition to the groups listed is a group known as cuspers. Cuspers were born at the end or beginning of one generation but share the experiences of another, thus, they do not fit neatly into a generational category (Johnson & Lopes, 2008). It is impor- tant to note that generational grouping is not a strict science and individual life experi- ences may play a greater role than experiences associated with a generational category. 2. A separate, smaller generation known as Generation Y is considered part of the larger Millennial generational group. Generation Y is the oldest of the Millenni- als and shares some characteristics with Generation X. 3. Notable variations exist across continents and countries, including in Africa, where the percentage of young workers entering the workforce remains high.
References Boysen, P. G., Daste, L., & Northern, T. (2016). Multigenerational challenges and the future of graduate medical education. The Ochsner Journal, 16(1), 101. Cekada, T. L. (2012). Training a multigenerational workforce. Professional Safety, 57(3), 40. Fry, R. (2015). Millennials surpass Gen Xers as the largest generation in U.S. labor force. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2015/05/11/millennials-surpass-gen-xers-as-the-largest-generation-in-u-s- labor-force/ft_15-05-04_genlaborforcecomposition-2/ Helyer, R., & Lee, D. (2012). The twenty first century multiple generation work- force. Education + Training, 54(7), 565–578. Hershatter, A., & Epstein, M. (2010). Millennials and the world of work: An organ- ization and management perspective. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 211–223. Horrigan, J. B. (2016). Lifelong learning and technology. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/03/22/the-joy-and-urgency- of-learning/ Johnson, J. A., & Lopes, J. (2008). The intergenerational workforce, revisited. Organ- ization Development Journal, 26(1), 31–36. Morris, L. V. (2014). The mixed generation classroom: What does the research tell us? Innovative Higher Education, 39(4), 261–262. doi:10.1007/s10755-014- 9301-8 Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–6.
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Sánchez, M., & Kaplan, M. (2014). Intergenerational learning in higher educa-
tion: Making the case for multigenerational classrooms. Educational Gerontol- ogy, 40(7), 473–485. Society for Human Resource Management Foundation. (2015). Global trends impact- ing the future of HR management: Engaging and integrating a global workforce. The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited. Retrieved from http://futurehrtrends.eiu .com/report-2015/profile-of-the-global-workforce-present-and-future/ Torrico Meruvia, R. T. (2013, Winter). Navigating a multigenerational workforce in child welfare. Practice Perspective, 1–6. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers .org/assets/secured/documents/practice/children/Child%20Welfare%20Multi generational%20Workforce.pdf U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Digest of education statistics, 2014 (NCES 2016-006), Chapter 3. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016006_3.pdf
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Knox_Vol_1.indb 26 10/13/2017 7:29:56 PM 4 P S E U D O AU T O N O M Y I N T H E L I V E S O F A D U LT L E A R N E R S Robert Jecklin
Keywords: learner autonomy, learner control, personal autonomy, self-
E ducators and researchers may find it helpful to consider the role of pseudoautonomy in the lives of adults as they learn in formal, non- formal, and informal settings. Twenty-five years ago, in the book Self- Direction for Lifelong Learning, Australian Philip C. Candy (1991) concluded that thinking and acting autonomously were important characteristics of adult life, and that adult educators considered the facilitation of learner autonomy to be an important part of their work. Candy conceptualized learner autonomy as a readiness to self-direct thought, action, and learning in specific situations.
Recognizing Pseudoautonomy and Related Consequences
According to Candy (1991), learners experienced pseudoautonomy in situ- ations where educators communicated learner-controlled pedagogy while exemplifying, in their actions, an instructor-controlled pedagogy. Candy conceded that “it is difficult for an instructor to feel committed to a situa- tion in which the prerogatives for objective-setting; selecting content, pacing, and sequence; and carrying out evaluation have all been ceded to learners” (p. 237). Candy believed that learners lived with pseudoautonomy in learn- ing situations because instructors lacked the skills or commitment to support 27
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learner control of instruction. Another influence might be that external pres-
sures on the instructor to demonstrate a controlling pedagogy could have led them to feel accountable for the intent, content, pacing, sequence, and outcome of the learning. Candy also recognized that more authentic learner control could disturb the personal equilibrium of the learner, an equilibrium based on beliefs and practices acquired through years of instruction where learners usually responded to the demands of instructor-controlled learning. Candy (1991) conceded that instruction based on pseudoautonomy did not necessarily interfere with adult acquisition of information; instead, he warned that adults who experienced pseudoautonomy were at risk for dimin- ished curiosity, less critical thought, less retention of what was important to learners, and other qualitative differences in adult learning. Candy suggested that researchers and other educators would better understand how to develop and support learner control of instruction and related learning outcomes if they used a constructivist framework to understand instructional situations from the perspectives of both instructors and learners.
Learner Experience With Pseudoautonomy
Because pseudoautonomy is a compromise between instructor ideology and instructor practice, learners may not notice a lack of support for their control of a learning situation and conflicted educators seem unlikely to bring this deficit to the learner’s attention. Other learners may experience unsettling dissonance as conflicted instructors seek to control objectives, content, pac- ing, sequence, and/or the ongoing evaluation of their learning. Some learners seek personal equilibrium by challenging instructor control, whereas other learners surrender to instructor control. In addition to the direct influence of the instructor skills, learners experience pseudoautonomy through the less direct influence of external forces found in specific learning situations. Consider the forces involved in welfare reform as a cause of pseudoau- tonomy in the lives of some adult learners. Sparks (2001) described how adult basic education (ABE) was an important but unappreciated part of welfare reform. She wrote that “ABE practitioners now find themselves left out of the loop of decision making, both at the policy level and the recipi- ent level” (p. 148). Sparks also highlighted how learners experienced resent- ment after being denied control over decisions about the purpose, content, sequence, pacing, or value of their learning situations. Consider how workers may experience pseudoautonomy as employers define workplace learning situations. Peterson (2010) presents an enlight- ened perspective on contemporary workplace learning emphasizing par- ticipatory approaches such as apprenticeships, on-the-job training, quality
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circles, and career and leadership development; although workers may find these beneficial it is also likely that learner control is limited when learn- ing does not reflect the interests of the sponsoring employer. Peterson also admits how discrimination and exclusion can undermine learner control in workplace learning. Spencer (2010) provides a more critical perspective on worker control of workplace learning. More blunt than Peterson, Spen- cer writes that “many situations describing workers undertaking their own learning are more accurately described as responses to manager and supervi- sor prompting” (p. 257), and that worker control of union-organized learn- ing in the workplace is diluted by a global context where management can move beyond union influence. Consider low-income citizens involved in education for financial literacy who may be experiencing pseudoautonomy as they are encouraged to save money they do not have, plan for losing a job they do not have, consider retirement before they have had a productive work life, and plan for dis- asters without the necessary resources. English (2014) describes how both the governments of Canada and the United States have funded and other- wise encouraged programs to educate their poorest citizens about how to live a middle-class life. She writes about the socioeconomic and cultural forces that encourage this mismatch between what the participants might choose to learn and what has been chosen for them. She advocates for more learner control, stating:
What does it mean to be involved in a literacy initiative that never seeks the views of the community it serves in terms of readiness to learn, appropri- ateness of material, etc.? And, we need to question our assumption that all literacy efforts are being used for benign purposes. (p. 54)
Pseudoautonomy Beyond the Isolated Instructor–Learner
Relationship Researchers and practitioners might find it helpful to think about pseudoautonomy beyond the power sharing between teacher and learner. Brookfield (2005) uses ideology critique to foster the “ideal of learners mak- ing autonomous choices among multiple possibilities” and he emphasizes “that we cannot stand outside the social, cultural, and political streams within which we swim” (pp. 83–84). In a sense, Candy might be agreeing with Brookfield’s broader perspective when he offered that self-direction was not only for self-fulfillment but also for societal transformation. In Brookfield’s (2010) writing about democratic leadership, the demo- cratic process requires education and learning where the roles of teacher and
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learner rapidly shift from one participant to another, “trusting the extraordi- nary knowledge of ordinary people and working to ensure that those affected by decisions have the most powerful voices in those decisions and have access to all relevant knowledge” (p. 5). In this broader, more collective learning situation, it is still possible to experience pseudoautonomy because of the influence of external forces on any individual or group of participants, and it is still important to assure facilitation by and for ordinary people.
Suggested Cross-References For more information on concepts and ideas discussed in this article, please see the following articles in the compendium: 2, 8, 11, 72, 76, 79
References Brookfield, S. (2005). The power of critical theory: Liberating adult learning and teach- ing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Brookfield, S. (2010). Leading democratically. New Directions for Adult & Continu- ing Education, 2010 (128), 5–13. Candy, P. C. (1991). Self-direction for lifelong learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. English, L. M. (2014). Financial literacy: A critical adult education appraisal. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, 2014(141), 47–55. Peterson, S. (2010). Employer-sponsored learning in the workplace. In C. E. Kas- worm, A. D. Rose, & J. M. Ross-Gordon (Eds.), Handbook of adult and continu- ing education (2010 ed.; pp. 243–252). Thousand Oaks, CA: American Associa- tion for Adult and Continuing Education and SAGE. Sparks, B. (2001). Adult basic education, social policy, and educator’s concerns: The influence of welfare reform on practice. Adult Basic Education, 11(3), 135. Spencer, B. (2010). Worker’s education for the 21st century. In C. E. Kasworm, A. D. Rose, & J. M. Ross-Gordon (Eds.), Handbook of adult and continuing educa- tion (2010 ed.; pp. 253–262). Thousand Oaks, CA: American Association for Adult and Continuing Education and SAGE.
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5 L E A R N I N G I N L AT E R L I F E Brian Findsen
Keywords: critical gerontology, educational gerontology, later life learning,
older adults, seniors’ education, third age
T he phrase “learning in later life” has assumed major significance for educators and allied professionals in their efforts to understand the dynamics of learning for older people across the globe. In earlier times, the phrase “educational gerontology” was used to describe a similar set of ideas but is now deemed too restrictive for the vast range of learning in which seniors participate, whether organized for them or with them, or self-initiated. The purpose of this article is to provide a solid platform for conceptualizing the complex array of learning opportunities open to older adults in diverse cultural contexts. Fundamentally, later life can be interpreted in different ways across and within cultures. There is no benchmark chronological age at which a per- son may become an older adult (Phillipson, 2013), though many nations signal this transition through the award of pensions in accord with a social welfare regime. For instance, in Aotearoa, New Zealand, there is a universal pension available to all citizens at age 65 regardless of gender, ethnicity, or other social attributes, but this is not the case in many countries and socie- ties. Hence, older adulthood is context-specific (Phillipson, 1998). Within the scope of later life, there are vast developmental and social distinctions between young-old and old-old (Neugarten, 1976); people entering retire- ment at age 60, for instance, are likely to have very different (learning) needs from individuals in their 90s. Hence, heterogeneity among older people should be acknowledged. Laslett (1991), in describing the third
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age—typically one of increased freedom to spend time less encumbered
with the multiple responsibilities of the second age (entering and/or sus- taining a career; building a family; striving for financial security)—has identified the considerable period of life beyond paid work in which adults continue to learn. The fourth age, often neglected by the majority of society (Formosa & Higgs, 2013), is one of returning to dependence and prepara- tion for death. A significant distinction needs to be made between learning and educa- tion. On the one hand, learning can occur anywhere and anytime for an individual, aligned to one’s chosen pattern of living. It is both lifelong and lifewide (Findsen & Formosa, 2011), synonymous with life itself. We learn as we live. On the other hand, education refers to learning that is system- atically organized, often credentialed and hierarchically constructed and frequently associated with an agency/provider. This distinction for (older) adults is important because learning is often self-directed and individualis- tic and not necessarily aligned to an organization’s objectives. Further, we need to distinguish among informal learning (often incidental and unin- tentional), nonformal education (that which is organized, frequently in an organizational context—for instance, associated with volunteering for a social agency)—and formal education (usually assessed and for credit, led by a teacher in an education setting). For the majority of seniors, learning is informal or nonformal, away from universities and vocational institutes (Withnall, 2010).
Motivation and Needs Assessment
The motivations for learning for older people have been fairly comprehen- sively examined. Drawing on the well-known typology of learning needs devised by Howard McClusky (1974), these needs reflect different aspects of older people’s lives. He distinguished needs as follows:
• Coping needs: adults engaged in economic sufficiency, physical fit-
ness, and basic education • Expressive needs: adults learning for their own sake, where creativity is emphasised • Contributive needs: adults engaging actively in society as contributors (not just as consumers) • Influence needs: adults becoming politicized to effect social change • Transcendence needs: adults achieving an advanced state of consciousness
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LEARNING IN LATER LIFE 33
Although it is common for people in later life to spend larger periods of
time on coping and expressive needs fulfilment, the two other domains should not be minimized in importance. Increasingly, older people want to “pay back” to society, commonly in volunteering roles (Newman & Hatton-Yeo, 2008), their labor often propping up fledgling not-for-profit, socially oriented agen- cies. Further, as the numbers of people over the age of 60 increase in most nations (Tuckett & McAulay, 2005), their physical presence cannot be ignored, and, indeed, their political force is something that governments ignore at their peril (see the actions of Grey Power, an explicitly political organization that advocates for the rights of older people). Another way in which older persons’ needs have been described is in the continuum from expressive to instrumental (Jarvis, 2001). From a humanistic perspective (e.g., Laslett’s third-age descrip- tion), the focus of later life is on leisure-oriented endeavors. Arguably, this is a highly romanticized view of later life. The neoliberal economic-political con- text in which many older people conduct their lives is one of enduring hardship as governments find it difficult to sustain a social benefit for elders. Instead, the reality for many older people—often regarded as a marginalized group in society (Findsen, 2005)—is that they need to continue in the workforce for as long as feasible to maximize their economic futures. Those from working-class backgrounds may find themselves locked out of job opportunities where, for example, information and communication technology (ICT) competencies are high in demand.
Provision of Learning Opportunities
The issue of participation in education for older adults is long-standing. The truism that “those who have, get more” applies strongly in older adult education. People in earlier life who have established considerable human and social capital (Field, 2003) are usually adept at arranging their own education later in life because they have the requisite skills and social networks to acquire further nonformal or formal education. It is important to note that older adults have access to educational programs designed for the general public, although these may have been designed without seniors being a target for the program. Hence, it is possible to envisage education agencies according to the extent to which older people feature as incidental and/or primary targets of the program. At one extreme, an agency may focus almost exclusively on older people (for example, Seniornet), and on another, seniors might be invis- ible in planning or engagement (Findsen, 2005). However, there is a strand of provision that is self-initiated, typified by the establishment of the University of the Third Age (U3A), where the learning is controlled by older people themselves; the program itself relates to their own learning needs, the program
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Another random document with no related content on Scribd: judge and jury was firmly established, and a beginning was made in the development of Roman Law. On taking office the praetor published an edict containing the maxims of law and the forms of procedure which would govern him throughout his year of office. This document followed the edict of his predecessor, with such modifications and additions as his own judgment and the needs of the times required. The law in this way became a living thing and constantly adapted itself to the changing needs of society. The later history of the edict and certain additions to the praetor’s duties we shall have occasion to notice in another connection. The increase which the tribune’s power underwent during this period almost made his office a new one. With their characteristic hesitation about introducing radical changes in the constitution, and with their tendency to take concrete action, the Romans at the outset had required the tribune to intervene in person when a citizen was being harshly treated. But their common sense showed them in course of time that it was far better to allow the tribune to record his opposition to a bill when it was under consideration than to have him prevent the execution of a law. This change placed a tremendous power in the hands of the tribune in his struggle with the senate and the nobility. In the early period the senate had been composed of the representatives of the leading clans, but as public business became more complex, in making out the list of senators the censors gave a preference to ex-magistrates, who were already experienced in public affairs, and in course of time this practice was crystallized into law. The men who thus became senators by virtue of having held the praetorship, or consulship, for instance, were elected to a magistracy, to be sure, by the people, but the prestige of a candidate who could point to magistrates among his ancestors was so great that a “new man” had little or no chance of being elected against him. The results were twofold. A new nobility was established composed of ex-magistrates and their lineal descendants. In the second place the senate, being henceforth made up of men who had had experience in administration at home and abroad, easily gained supremacy both over the magistrates, who held office for a year only, and over the popular assemblies, which were unwieldy and ill- informed on important matters. For a century and a half, down to the time of the Gracchi (i.e., the second century b.c.), this nobility maintained itself, and Rome was ruled by a parliament. This state of things is the more astonishing in view of the fact that at the beginning of this period the democracy had won a complete victory, and the action of the popular assembly was accepted as final on all matters. The anomaly is easily explained by the fact that the senate controlled the magistrates; they only could bring bills before the assemblies, and they dared not submit measures of which the senate disapproved. The ascendency of the senate during this period was due in no small measure to the necessity of dealing with important foreign affairs, for which the people were not qualified. Between 287 and 133 came the war with Pyrrhus and the acquisition of Southern Italy, the three wars with Carthage and the conquest of the Western Mediterranean, the wars with Macedonia and the subjugation of the Eastern Mediterranean. By 133 Rome’s territory included practically all the lands bordering on the Mediterranean. The government of this newly-acquired empire was a peculiarly difficult problem for a city- state. It was somewhat simplified however by the fact that in her ultimate arrangements Rome had to deal with city-states like herself. In Italy, at the outset, she gave conquered cities civil rights and the right of self-government. The Social War in 91-89 b.c. forced her to grant them the political rights of Roman citizens also. Henceforth Italy was a political unit, but, inasmuch as ballots could be cast at Rome only, voters outside the city were at a disadvantage. The Roman Republic never got far enough away from the tradition of the city-state to recognize the fact that citizens could cast their ballots elsewhere than at Rome or that other communities could send their representatives to Rome. To provide for a new province outside Italy, the senate sent a commission of ten to co-operate with the Roman commander in drawing up a charter. In this document the province was divided into judicial circuits, and the status of each city was fixed either by separate treaty with Rome or by legislative action. Provincial cities were usually permitted to retain their senates, popular assemblies, local magistrates and courts. A few of them were “free cities,” exempt from taxation, but most of them were required to pay a fixed sum in taxes, or to turn over to Rome a certain proportion of the annual return from the land. The rate of taxation was not high, but farming out the taxes to contractors, whose sole desire was to extort as much from the provincials as possible, made taxation in the provinces oppressive. Roman governors were often in league with the moneyed interests at Rome, and were themselves anxious to line their pockets during their year abroad. After a period of experimentation the Romans settled down to the practice of sending out ex-consuls and ex-praetors as provincial governors. These men had experience in public affairs, but their term of office was so short that they acquired little knowledge of local conditions and felt little sympathy with the provincials. Public sentiment at Rome could effect no change, because, like most democracies, the Roman democracy felt little interest in the welfare of the provincials.[4] The tribunates of the two Gracchi[5] at the end of the period which we have been considering begin the century-long revolution which ultimately overthrew the oligarchy and brought in the empire. The attention of Tiberius Gracchus was called to the gradual disappearance of the peasant proprietor from Italy, to the abnormal growth of the city at the expense of the country, and to the crushing out of the middle class. He and his brother set themselves to work to remedy this situation by limiting the size of landed estates, by assigning state lands to homesteaders, and by drafting off the city’s proletariat to colonies in Italy and abroad. In these plans Tiberius met the violent opposition of the senate, but carried his measures through in a popular assembly in spite of the senate’s efforts. By this action, and by securing “the recall” of a hostile tribune, he struck a fatal blow at the prestige of the senate, which had controlled legislation for a century and a half. Ten years later by securing the passage in the popular assembly of one bill to supply grain to the poor of Rome at a price lower than the market rate, of another imposing a penalty on a magistrate who carried out the final decree of the senate suspending certain constitutional guarantees, and of a third which dealt with the taxes in Asia, Gaius, the brother of Tiberius, vindicated the claim of the popular assembly to be the controlling factor in legislation on domestic and foreign affairs. The political history of Rome for the next century is a continuation of this life-and-death struggle between the nobility and the democracy, with one and the other contestant alternately in the ascendant. The development of the empire and the need of a standing army to carry on wars abroad and maintain order, in the end, gave a decisive turn to the struggle. To maintain its integrity an oligarchy must keep its numbers small and must prevent individuals from gaining too great eminence or popularity. The traditional acceptance by the masses of certain families as the only families qualified to furnish rulers for the state had kept the nobility a close corporation. To accomplish the second object, that is, to prevent an ambitious individual from rising too rapidly to power, from holding his authority too long a time, and from securing too strong and compact a following, the senate had hedged the magistracies about with a number of legal safeguards. The strict laws enacted before the time of the Gracchi against bribery and prescribing a secret ballot were passed to protect the nobility, and not in the interests of morality. Custom at first, and later, legislation, fixed minimum age requirements for most of the offices, established a certain order in which they must be held, and required an interval between the incumbency of two successive magistracies. The reactionary recasting of the constitution under Sulla illustrates well the aristocratic policy in these matters. In it the important magistracies stand in the order of quaestorship, aedileship, praetorship, and consulship, and a two-year interval was necessary between each two. The minimum age requirement for the consulship was forty-three years, and no one might be reëlected to a magistracy until a period of ten years had expired. This is essentially the system which had been gradually worked out during the flourishing period of the oligarchy. It had also always been a fundamental principle of the Republic that no magistrate should hold office for more than a year, except the censor, whose term was eighteen months. This provision of the constitution took from the magistrate his power and desire to initiate political action. He had been a senator for many years before becoming consul. In twelve months he would be a senator again. He did not lose class-consciousness during his short term of office. If he had wished to assert himself, it would have been impossible. The senate was a body of trained administrators, many of whom had a wider technical knowledge of the questions at issue than he had himself. It was a body of men bound together by mutual self-interest, which had a tradition of centuries behind it. The danger point in the system for the oligarchy lay in the fact that an army and unlimited authority had to be given to the governor of a province. The senate tried to minimize this danger by keeping a tight grip on the purse- strings when appropriating money and in voting troops for the provinces, and by requiring governors to submit their arrangements in the provinces to the senate for ratification, when their terms had expired. The decline of parliamentarism in the century which lies between the Gracchi and Caesar may be traced in the loss of these safeguards, one after another. Disorders at home, the pressure of wars abroad and the dominance of the army led to their disregard. A case in point occurred toward the close of the second century before our era. The senatorial leaders had shown great incompetence and venality in their campaigns against the Numidian king Jugurtha, and the popular party forced the election to the consulship of Marius, a man of humble birth, and gave him command of the forces in Africa. His brilliant success in this war made the people turn to him in 104, when the Cimbri and Teutons swept down into Italy and overwhelmed the aristocratic leaders. Once more he succeeded, and was elected to the consulship year after year, until, in the year 100, he held this office for the sixth time. The popularity of Marius brought his son to the consulship before he had reached his twentieth year. Twenty-five years later the senate itself was forced to give up an important feature of its policy. Sertorius, a brilliant democratic leader, had established himself in Spain; he had formed an alliance with Mithridates, Rome’s deadly enemy in the East, and threatened to return to Italy and restore the democracy to power. To avert this danger the senate made Pompey proconsul, although he had not yet held even the quaestorship, and sent him to Spain with 40,000 troops. A little later the Gabinian and Manilian laws, carried through by the democracy against the vigorous opposition of the oligarchy, entrusted him with extraordinary powers for a long term to carry on the wars against the Cilician pirates and against Mithridates. The dictatorship of Sulla in 82 b.c. and the sole consulship of Pompey in 52, both of which resulted from disorder in Rome, violated the principle of collegiality which was one of the most important safeguards of the oligarchy. Within one hundred years, then, of the time of the Gracchi all the bulwarks which the aristocracy had built up to protect its position were broken down. “New men” were put in the consulship. Popular favorites attained that office before reaching the minimum age required of candidates, and men were freely reëlected to it. The fixed “order of the offices” and the principle of collegiality were violated. In its struggle for power, the democracy met a reverse in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy in 63 b.c., so that when Pompey returned from his campaign against Mithridates in the following year, the senate ventured to postpone the ratification of his arrangements in Asia and the reward of his veterans. This forced him to make common cause with the democratic leader Caesar, and with Crassus, whose wealth and financial associates made him a man of great influence. In 60 b.c. these three political leaders formed the compact, known as the First Triumvirate, which directed the politics of Rome through its control of the popular assembly for a number of years.[6] Caesar was given the consulship, and later an important command in Gaul. The death of Crassus in a campaign in Parthia left Caesar and Pompey face-to-face. Pompey who had staid in Rome ultimately threw in his lot with the senatorial party, and, when in 49 b.c. the senate tried to make Caesar give up his Gallic province and the Civil War broke out, Pompey was put in charge of the army operating against Caesar. Caesar’s success in the war made him undisputed master of Rome, and before his death he became dictator for life. The liberators, as they called themselves, made a last stand for the old régime, but were defeated at Philippi, and the victors, Octavius, Antony and Lepidus, formed the Second Triumvirate, the members of which did not content themselves with the unofficial position of political bosses, as Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey had done, but secured a legal basis for their autocratic power through legislation in the popular assembly. Again the elimination of one member of the triumvirate, Lepidus, and the battle of Actium in 31 b.c. left Octavius, or Augustus as we know him in later life, in undisputed control of the state. The revolution was complete. The old machinery of government had broken down under the strain put upon it by the policy of imperialism. Parliamentarism and the narrow policy of a city-state were ill adapted to the government of an empire. The large armies and the long terms of office abroad which Marius and Sulla, Pompey and Caesar had held, had put at their disposal greater resources than the state could command, and the Roman citizens and provincials who had been taught to obey them implicitly in the field maintained their allegiance to their old commanders upon the return of the latter to Italy.
2. Post-Augustan The problem which confronted Augustus in revising the constitution after the battle of Actium was not simple. He had to provide a just and efficient government for an empire, which included southern and central Europe, the Near East, and northern Africa, without breaking away too violently from the traditions of the city- state. Rome must continue to be the capital. Italy must hold her privileged position above the provinces, and the old organs of government and the old forms and titles must be kept. The political life of the Republic had been embodied in two institutions, the senate and the tribunate. One represented the aristocracy; the other, the aspirations of the democracy. These two organs of government formed the core of the system which Augustus finally adopted. In this arrangement therefore he adhered closely to the tradition of the old city-state.[7] Other considerations reinforced in his mind the argument from tradition. The tribunician power, which he took for life, could be exercised in almost every field of administrative activity. Furthermore, the office was popular, because the tribune had from time immemorial been the champion of the masses and had protected the individual against the encroachments of the state. Probably Augustus also felt that the power of the office, from its nature and history, was capable of indefinite extension in all directions. Outside of Rome and Italy the problem before him was the improvement of conditions in the provinces.[8] To the provinces also he applied the dual system of control. The supervision of Italy and the management of the older provinces were entrusted to the senate. The border provinces, where troops were stationed, he took into his own hands. He directed the government of them by virtue of the proconsular imperium which he held permanently. In this case, as in that of the tribunician power, he held firmly to an old practice, because proconsuls had ruled the provinces for centuries, but he extended the scope of his own imperium to cover all the unsettled provinces. This arrangement made him commander-in-chief of all the legions. He also held the power permanently, and he was not required to lay down the imperium, as republican proconsuls had done, on entering the city. The whole empire was thus put under the dual control of Augustus and the senate. This is the first instance in history of the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. The provinces profited greatly by the changes which Augustus made in the method of governing them. The evils of the republican system come out in Cicero’s orations against Verres, the governor of Sicily, and in the letters which he wrote while he was himself governor of Cilicia. Governors had been sent out to the provinces without paying much heed to their competence. They received no salary, and their terms were short. The governors whom Augustus sent out were chosen on the score of honesty and fitness. Their terms were long enough to enable them to become familiar with conditions in their provinces. They received a generous fixed salary, and those who were capable and honest might look forward to steady advancement. The older provinces were still under the control of the senate, but the excellence of government in the imperial provinces exercised a beneficial influence upon them also. Italians and provincials welcomed the firm and stable government which the principate of Augustus promised them in the same spirit in which the French accepted Louis Napoleon. The development of the city-state into a world-empire is well illustrated by the decadence of the popular assembly which represented the narrow, selfish interests of the city of Rome, and we are not surprised to find the election of magistrates transferred from this body to the senate under the successor of Augustus. As for the magistracies they lost their independence in large measure. Augustus introduced the practice of commending certain candidates for office, and his approval assured them election. Consequently they became subordinates in the new executive system, of which he was the head. The functions of government were divided between the prince and the senate, but the lion’s share fell to the prince. The senate could not successfully assert, in dealing with him, the claims which it had made good against an annually elected magistrate of much less prestige and power. Another circumstance contributed greatly to lessen the influence of the senate. During his declining years Augustus could not attend all its meetings. Consequently he adopted the practice of sending it his proposals in writing. They were always adopted without change, and propositions of this sort, known as orationes principis, became in the course of time part of the law of the land. The powers which Augustus held were granted to him for life or for a term of years. It was not easy to arrange for their transmission to a successor, but he cleverly surmounted the difficulty by naming Tiberius as heir to his private fortune and by having him invested with the imperium and with the tribunician power. The theory of the republican magistracy was kept intact, inasmuch as the two powers just mentioned were conferred on Tiberius by the senate in coöperation with the people, but the action of the popular assembly was a pure matter of form, and the senate could be counted on to approve the choice of the prince. The precedent which Augustus set was followed by his immediate successors. He materially strengthened his position by clearly marking off certain social classes from the rest of the population and by making their privileges dependent on his favor. No one could become a senator unless he had been elected to a magistracy, and success in an election required the support of the prince. He gave dignity to the knighthood and definiteness to its membership by making important appointments from its ranks, and by revising the list of knights at regular intervals. He even created an aristocracy among the freedmen in the municipalities. No survey of Roman politics would be complete without some account of political life in these municipalities, for, as we have already noticed, the city was the organic political unit in antiquity. Several municipal charters,[9] most of which have been found within the last fifty or seventy-five years, give us a clear idea of the municipal system in the West and of the efforts which were made in the early empire to improve it and make it uniform. In cities of the typical form there were two local chief magistrates corresponding to the early republican consuls, two minor magistrates who bore the title of aediles, a senate or common council of one hundred members, and a popular assembly. The system adopted was conservative, inasmuch as the control of local affairs rested largely with the local senate, and the magistrates were its ministers. Most cities were allowed to keep a large measure of self-government under the early empire, and this fact kept alive the sentiment of local pride and the local patriotism of the citizens. So long as the cities were free to manage their own affairs, the empire was prosperous. As the cities lost their sense of responsibility, or as the central government encroached on their rights, as it began to do in the second century of our era, the decline of the empire set in. It was to this halcyon period of municipal prosperity from the latter part of the first to the close of the second century that Gibbon pays his famous tribute in the third chapter of his history: “If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.” We need not stop to consider in this connection whether the decline of this prosperity caused the decay of self-government or was due to it. At all events the two processes were contemporaneous. To return from this brief account of city-life to the story of imperial politics,—as we have noticed, under the system which Augustus set up, there were two recognized sources of authority in the state, the prince and the senate. We say “recognized sources of power,” because in the background loomed up the sinister figure of the army, which was still capable of determining the fortunes of the state, as it had done in the times of Sulla and Marius, of Pompey and Caesar. Perhaps we may see the first step toward the intrusion of the army into politics again when Sejanus, the unscrupulous praetorian prefect of Tiberius, brought all the cohorts of the praetorian guard together in Rome. The control of these soldiers stationed in the capital put a powerful weapon in the hands of Sejanus, but, before he could strike, his designs were laid bare. The hereditary principle which Augustus had introduced, by adopting Tiberius and by conferring imperial honors upon him, a principle which was followed by his immediate successors, was for a time a safeguard for the succession. But when the Julian line became extinct on the murder of Nero, the field lay open to the imperial aspirant who was backed by the strongest army. After a year of struggle between four military leaders, Vespasian made good his claim to the prize, and in the year 69 founded a new dynasty, the Flavian. The precedent which Vespasian had set was not followed for a century, but from the close of the second century to the accession of Diocletian in 284 the praetorian guard and the army constituted the power which made and unmade the rulers of Rome. Within the period of seventy-three years which preceded the reign of Diocletian there were in fact twenty-three different emperors, almost all of whom owed their elevation to the throne to the force of arms, and kept their places on the throne so long as they could keep the favor of their armed supporters. Vespasian, whose seizure of the imperial purple we noticed a moment ago, was not a native of the city of Rome, as all the members of the Julian line had been, nor did he belong to a noble family. These two facts might almost be taken as an omen of the great change which he and his successors were to bring about in the position of Rome and Italy in the Roman world and in the political standing of the senate. The exceptional position which Rome and Italy had held under the republic was taken from them in part by robbing them of their privileges and in part by raising the provinces to a higher political plane. Augustus had started the new movement by stationing troops in Italy and by taking the municipal departments in Rome under his control. Within a century the same fate befell other Italian municipalities which had befallen Rome, and they had to surrender to the emperor the control of their finances and their jurisdiction in all important civil and criminal cases. The privilege which at first Rome and later the Italian municipalities guarded most jealously was their exclusive right to Roman and Latin citizenship. Claudius turned from this tradition when he granted these privileges to certain Gallic cities, and the Flavian emperors violated it in a still more striking way by their generous treatment of many cities in Spain. The levelling down of Italy to the position of the provinces, so far as citizenship was concerned, was completed when Caracalla in 212 granted Roman citizenship to practically all freemen in the empire.[10] In this connection may be mentioned a significant change which was made in the organization of the army. The legions from the time of Hadrian on were recruited in all parts of the empire, and officers were no longer drawn solely from the Western and Latin- speaking portion of the Roman world, but from the East also. The army therefore ceased to be the great Romanizing influence which it had been in the past, and what was still worse, a feeling of local solidarity grew up which was destined in the end to be fatal to the unity of the empire. It was this feeling which gave rise to the nationalist movement in the third century, and the Gallic kingdom of Postumus in the West in that century and the kingdom of Zenobia in Palmyra in the East were concrete manifestations of this feeling and at the same time premonitions of the future dissolution of the empire. We noticed not only that Vespasian was born outside of Rome, but also that he was of lowly birth. Perhaps the latter fact accounts in part for the hostility which the senate showed toward him, and for the effort which it made in the early part of his reign to assert its authority. The movement was short-lived. The prince and the senate were partners of unequal strength in the dyarchy which Augustus had established, and Vespasian soon made this fact clear to the senate. It came out still more clearly in the reign of his younger son Domitian, who had himself made censor for life, and by virtue of this authority drew up the lists of senators to suit his own pleasure. The tradition of the city-state had been violated and the prestige of the senate had been lowered when Julius Caesar admitted provincials to the senate. This revolutionary precedent was freely followed by emperors during the second half of the first century. This transformation of the Roman senate into a body made up of representatives drawn from all parts of the empire was part of the larger change of the Roman imperium into an international world- state. The senate was still allowed to elect the emperor, but the election meant nothing more than the formal ratification of a choice made by the candidate’s predecessor or by the army, and “Caesar’s candidates” for the magistracies were always elected by the senate. The senate’s legislative powers had almost disappeared, because the senate had given up to the emperor almost entirely its right of initiative. We have already observed the importance which the “discourses of the prince” had acquired in the field of legislation. Through the opportunity which they gave him of declaring his will, and by the issuance of edicts, decrees and other “constitutions,” as they were called, the emperor took the lawgiving power almost completely into his own hands. The one real power which the senate exercised under the empire, long after its legislative and electoral functions had lost most of their meaning, was its right to sit as a court, especially in important political cases. In this capacity it had authority to impose the penalties even of banishment, deportation, and death, but by the beginning of the third century this jurisdiction, except where senators were charged with crimes, had passed to the emperor. By the close of this century the Roman senate had completed the cycle and come back to the status which it had held in the primitive city-state, that of a municipal council. This gradual loss of power by the senate meant a corresponding increase of course in the influence of the emperor, but his supremacy was assured also by positive additions to his authority in other directions. Hadrian in the early part of the second century built up a bureaucracy[11] so large and so systematically organized that it enabled him and his successors to reach into the remotest parts of the empire and control the government of municipalities and the lives of all the citizens. Probably the world has never known so complete and crushing a paternalistic system as is revealed to us by the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian in the fifth and sixth centuries. The drift toward autocracy was greatly accelerated by the influence which Egypt and the Orient exercised on the development of the principate. Perhaps the Oriental practice of identifying the secular and divine rulers of the world never found complete acceptance in Rome, but the erection of altars in the provinces to Rome and Augustus, the attribution of the titles “Master and God” to Domitian by his procurators, and in the third century the introduction into the court of Elagabalus of the Persian practice of paying divine honors to the sovereign, the presence of eunuchs in the palace of Aurelian, and the wearing of the Eastern diadem by Diocletian, show clearly enough that the principate was taking on the form of an Oriental despotism. The conception of the emperor’s authority which these practices suggest finds expression in the Code of Justinian in the sixth century.[12] The first words of the rescript in which Justinian authorizes Tribonian to codify the laws of the empire are: “We, under divine guidance governing our realm, which has been entrusted to us by the powers above, etc.” We shall see in the next chapter that under the prevailing theory of Roman lawyers from the second to the sixth century the emperor derived his authority from the people, but this utterance of Justinian and other passages in the Code show us the beginnings of the doctrine of the divine right of kings which Rome transmitted from the Orient to the states of modern times. When this point in the development of the empire had been reached, the preëminence of the city of Rome had gone, the distinction between Italy and the provinces had been obliterated, Roman citizenship had lost its significance, the splendor of the senate and the magistracies had faded, and the municipalities, which had been the pride and glory of the early empire, were plunged in poverty and wretchedness. In their place is an autocrat, kept in power by an army made up largely of barbarians, who carried out his wishes through a bureaucracy; and this, in turn, was supported by a body of citizens divided into groups by a system of castes, and held in most cases to the soil and to their hereditary occupations by the will of the state. II. ROMAN POLITICS AND MODERN POLITICS 1. Rome and the Church of Rome In the brilliant argument which Belloc makes in Europe and the Faith to prove that “the Roman Empire with its institutions and its spirit was the sole origin of European civilization,” he goes so far as to maintain that “the divisions and subdivisions of Europe, the parish, the county, the province, the fixed national traditions with their boundaries, the routes of communication between them ... all these derive entirely from the old Roman Empire, our well-spring.” He finds in the Church of Rome the medium through which this inheritance has been transmitted. With this Catholic essayist the Protestant historian, Harnack, is in substantial agreement when he writes: “The Empire has not perished, but has only undergone a transformation.... The Roman Church is the old Roman Empire consecrated by the Gospel.” Before we take up for consideration certain points of resemblance and of difference between our political institutions and those of ancient Rome, it is interesting to stop for a moment to ask ourselves in what respects the tradition and the ideals of the Roman state have been perpetuated by the Church of Rome. In the first place the Church is the lineal successor of the Empire in the sense that she saved Europe from chaos when the political ties which bound its several component parts to Rome were severed, and she conserved with all her power through the Middle Ages the Roman elements which escaped being engulfed by the wave of barbarism. More than that, she kept alive the old tradition of world-empire, no longer of the flesh, but of the spirit. Like the old Empire her domain embraced diverse lands and peoples. She resembled and she resembles the Empire now in the fact that she follows law and tradition strictly. She requires implicit obedience from the individual, and the interests of the individual are subordinated to those of the organization. In all these characteristics she is the true spiritual daughter of the Roman Empire. We noticed a moment ago that the realm of the Church, like that of the Emperor, included many different lands. The territorial parallelism between the two systems goes beyond this general point of resemblance. As Sohm has put it in his Outlines of Church History, “the city or civitas was the lowest political unit of the Empire. It became the lowest political unit of the Church. In the constitution of the Church the territory of the city appeared as the episcopal diocese. In the constitution of the Empire the province, with the provincial governor, stood above the civitas. The episcopal dioceses were united in like manner under the direction of the metropolitan, the bishop of a provincial capital, forming an ecclesiastical province. In the constitution of the Empire, from the fourth century, several provinces composed an imperial diocese under an imperial governor (vicarius). The imperial diocese also (at least in certain parts of the Eastern Greek Church) formed, after the fourth century, part of the ecclesiastical constitution, as the district of a patriarch, to whom the metropolitans of the imperial dioceses were subordinate. Finally the general union of the churches corresponded to the general union of the Empire, with the imperial Council (the so-called Oecumenical Council) as its legitimate organ.... Thus in its old age the Roman Empire bequeathed its constitution to the young Church.... It was its last great legacy to the future.” And later Sohm goes on to say: “To this day the diocese of the Catholic bishop is the copy of the Roman civitas; the province of the Catholic archbishop, the copy of the Roman imperial province; and the Catholic Church under a Pope declared omnipotent by law, the copy of the ancient Roman Empire, with its Caesars who claimed the world as their possession.” The Church extended its limits in ancient times and still extends them by new conquests, just as the Empire did. The missionary expeditions of Gregory in the sixth century, like the Jesuit enterprises in North and South America in recent times, were carried out in the spirit of Caesar or Trajan, and, after the Christian conquest of England, Gregory spoke as a Roman Emperor might have spoken, when he said “In one faith He linked the boundaries of the East and the West.” The absolute power of the Emperor in the later period is continued in tradition by the infallibility of the Pope, and the remarks of the city prefect, Themistius, to Theodosius the Great, “thou art the living law,” might be made with propriety to the Pope of today. The title “Pontifex Maximus” is common to both rulers, and there is a striking similarity between other ecclesiastical titles and those in the official Roman list of the Notitia Dignitatum. Latin is the official language of the Church, as it was of the Empire; the Pope consults the College of Cardinals, as the Emperor consulted the Senate; Canon Law, which has been derived in part from Roman Civil law, is codified as Roman Law was; the Councils seem to follow the parliamentary procedure of the Roman Senate, and the dress of Church officials is reminiscent of Roman times. In other words, what is characteristic of the spirit of the organization and of the externals of the Church of Rome is a direct inheritance from the Empire.
2. The Individual and the State
Let us pass now to consider the relation which our political theories and institutions bear to those of Rome. A wise government aims to strike a judicious balance between the rights of the individual and the safety and welfare of the community. This happy mean can best be determined by watching the play of the two principles in concrete cases. Such an opportunity is offered to us by the history of the ancient city-state which sets before us examples in which the two ideals of government mentioned above are combined in varying degrees. These instances range from Athens which favored the freedom of the citizen to Delphi or Sparta which exalted the importance of the commonwealth. We owe also to the Greeks and Romans the discussion of another fundamental political problem and various attempts to solve it. Is the ideal state a state ruled by one person, by a few persons, or by all the citizens? This question was discussed with great acumen and learning by Greek writers on political theory, and their views with certain modifications have been transmitted to us by Cicero in his treatise On the Commonwealth. Indeed the merits and defects of all systems of government have been exemplified in the history of Rome itself, which ran through the entire gamut of governmental forms. The two most important Roman writers of the classical period on political theory were Cicero and Seneca. Unfortunately only a part of Cicero’s treatise On the Laws has come down to us, and only fragments of his book On the Commonwealth are extant, but these two works were known in their entirety to the early Roman jurists and to the Christian Fathers, and have exerted a great influence on them, and through them, upon us. Even in their present fragmentary form they show us what an important contribution Cicero has made to political philosophy. Quite outside the fact that he served as an intermediary between Greek political thinking and that of our own times, his two works are of great value to us, both because of Cicero’s method of approaching the subject of the state and because of his conception of the organization of society. Most of Cicero’s predecessors, with the exception of Panaetius and Polybius, direct their attention to the ideal state, to an imaginary commonwealth. Cicero in his Commonwealth, De Re Publica, II. 1. 3, tells us that it is his purpose to study the Roman state “in its birth, its growth, its maturity, and in its present strength and vigor.” In other words he introduces the modern method of studying the organization of actual states, and we have set forth, perhaps for the first time, the fruitful conception of the state as an organism. In discussing the organization of society, Cicero finds the source of law and justice, not in utility, but in nature. Right and wrong are determined naturae norma, (De Legibus, I. 16. 44). This law of nature is not one thing in Rome, another in Athens; it is not one thing today, another tomorrow, but it is eternal and immutable, (De Re Publica, III. 22. 33). This conception of the ius naturale was taken up by Ulpian in the third century and by other early jurists, developed in the Code of Justinian, and handed down through the Middle Ages to our own time. It covers “that body of principles of justice and reason which men can rationally apprehend, and which forms the ideal norm or standard of right conduct and of the justice of social institutions.” From the Civil law it passed into Canon law through the encyclopedic work of St. Isidore in the seventh century, and gave rise to the tripartite division which Gratian sets forth in the Decretals, when he writes: “Ius naturale appears with the beginnings of the rational creation, and remains unchangeable: the ius consuetudinis (i.e., the ius gentium) had its inception later, when men began to live together.... But the ius constitutionis (i.e., the ius civile) begins with the principles which the Lord delivered to Moses,” i.e., with written law. These distinctions have furnished the starting point in most modern discussions of the subject. Cicero defined the Commonwealth as “the affair of the people, but the people is not any assemblage of men, gathered together in any fashion, but a gathering united under a common law and in the enjoyment of a common well being,” (De Re Publica, I. 25. 39). From this definition he seems to imply that the state has a twofold purpose, to protect the individual, and to promote his welfare. In one passage in his Commonwealth, (De Re Publica, III. 13. 23), he makes a speaker in the dialogue enunciate a theory of the state, out of which Rousseau may well have developed his doctrine of the Social Contract: “But when one person fears another, when man fears man, and class, class, then, since no one trusts his own strength, a compact is made between the people and the rulers, out of which springs that which Scipio approved—a state whose form is determined by agreement.” This theory of the Social Compact, probably derived from Cicero, was put forth again in the eleventh century. So far as the form of the state goes, it may be monarchical, aristocratic, or democratic, or these three elements may be combined in it, as Cicero thought they were in the Roman state; Cicero followed Aristotle and particularly Polybius, in the latter’s discussion of the constitutions of Rome and Sparta. The views which Cicero held on this point were taken up for consideration and emphatically denied by Jean Bodin in his great work on the state in the sixteenth century. Cicero regards any government as legitimate which secures justice and promotes the well being of all its citizens, but he is dissatisfied with monarchy or aristocracy. As the Carlyles have remarked, in their History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the West, which has been of great service to me at many points in this chapter in tracing the development of Roman political doctrines through the Middle Ages, Cicero believed that “every citizen had in him some capacity for political authority, some capacity which ought to find a means of expression.” Another fundamental social conception which comes to the surface in Cicero, and is still more clearly stated in Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and the Christian writers, is that of the homogeneity of the human race, the brotherhood of man. To the Greeks, before the time of Stoicism, there was a great gulf between themselves and the barbarians. The Romans showed sometimes a similar contempt for other people, but they recognized the intellectual and artistic superiority of the Greeks. A century and a half before Cicero’s time Plautus seriously or humorously refers to his countrymen as barbarians, when compared with the Greeks. In other words the Romans believed in their own superiority in some fields of human activity, but recognized their inferiority to other peoples in other respects. This made them tolerant of the institutions and practices of races which were brought within the Empire, and formed the basis of that conception of the brotherhood of man which did so much to ameliorate the condition of the lowly, and which is the ideal towards which we somewhat ineffectually strive today. Allied to this cosmopolitan doctrine of the brotherhood of man, was the Roman doctrine concerning the composition of individual societies or states. Aristotle’s theory of the organization of society presupposes the inequality of the men who compose it. Cicero believed in natural equality. We are alike, he says, in esteeming the same virtues, in hating the same vices, in our possession of reason and in our capacity for acquiring knowledge. Seneca is almost at the point of extending this conception of natural equality to include even slaves, for, as he says in his treatise on The Giving and Receiving of Favors: “fortune has granted the slave’s body to his master, he buys it and sells it, but the soul of a slave can not be bought and sold.” We shall have occasion to return to this point later, but, while we are speaking of Seneca, it may be well to mention his explanation of the origin of the law of nature which was discussed a few moments ago. The existence of the ius naturale presupposes a state of nature
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