All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

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democratic learning did not simply validate
the experience of the immigrant domestic
laborers with whom she worked. Their
learning was brought together with that of
other kinds of workers, with labor unions,
with academic activists and community
groups, in a process that had the potential to
build a “coalitional consciousness” (p. 39).
All this supports Gordon and Ramdeholl’s
realistic observation that, absent of a
broader social movement, actively
struggling for change, we should not
expect too much of popular education
programs. In the presence of such a
movement, opportunity for “praxis”
certainly exists, and Gordon and Ramdeholl
point to the Citizenship Schools of the
civil rights movement as a case in point.
The larger point is that adult education,
indeed all education, does not take place
in a vacuum. It exists “in a sociocultural,
political, and economic context” (p. 94)
observes Wendy Yanow in the volume’s
conclusion. Educators and students must
work within the constraints set by that
context. But just as important, they must
be ready to jump at the opportunities
created when that context shifts, and the
lines of force in the field of power begin to
rearrange themselves accordingly.
And when this does happen – and it might
now be happening, on the heels of the right’s
assault in Wisconsin on the working men
and women of the public sector unions –
it needs to be stressed that creating and
maintaining connections to other popular
institutions is critical. These institutions have
political experience and resources of their
own, and can help take the struggle beyond
those euphoric, consciousness-raising
moments in the classroom. And surely, the
writing workshops and other programs
described in this volume can, in turn, be an
important resource for those institutions,
by adding “organic” (in Antonio Gramsci’s
sense) intellectuals to their activist base.
Practical work needs to be done, specific
issues must be identified, strategies need
to be formulated and carried out, if actual
leverage is to be gained. A book like this
reminds us that popular education, while
critical to the struggle for democracy, cannot
go it alone.
References
Freire, P. (1973). Pedagogy of the oppressed.
New York, NY: Continuum.
Keating, C. (2005). Building coalitional
consciousness. National Women’s
Association Journal, 17(2), 86-103.
Ramdeholl, D., Giordani, T., Heaney, T.,
& Yanow, W. (Eds.). (2010, Winter).
The struggle for democracy in adult
education. New Directions for Adult
and Continuing Education, No. 128.
“Highly deliberate learning is a pervasive phenomenon in human life. The 700
hours a year devoted to learning efforts are enormously significant for the adult
himself [sic.], and for the organization, family and society in which he works
and lives. Although 700 hours constitutes only 10 percent of an adult’s waking
time, surely this small percentage affects his life nearly as much as the other
90 percent. It is during these 700 hours a year, when he sets out to improve
his knowledge, skills, perceptions, attitudes, habitual reactions, insight, and
perspective, that the adult develops and changes. He resembles an organization
that maintains and increases its effectiveness by devoting 10 percent of its
resources to research and development.”
Alan Tough, The Adult’s Learning Projects: A Fresh Approach
to Theory and Practice in Adult Learning, 1971, p. 4
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011