Recent trends in higher education indicate a steady increase in the number of adult and non-traditional learners returning to complete college degrees. Though higher education can provide numerous economic and career enhancement opportunities, adult learners experience several challenges when they return to college. The purpose of this qualitative…

Professional membership organizations have long maintained their exposure and revenue stream through a variety of traditional avenues, most notably memberships, sponsored conferences, and professional journals. The synergy of this three-tiered model has depended on a certain enhanced status derived from membership benefits and proprietary…

This study explored the use of critical reflection blogs to integrate civic-mindedness into an executive education program at a large public university in the south Atlantic region of the United States. Although there is a robust literature on the use of blogs for critical reflection in degree programs, far less attention has been given to…

Background: Adult Student Priorities Survey (ASPS) from Ruffalo Noel Levitz was utilized to examine the level of importance and the level of satisfaction of continuing education students in allied health care and English as a second language (ESL) programs at Kingborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY. Method: Mean scores for both…

Alan B. Knox writes in this article that the systemic lens for his practice perspective is focused on five related issues that have animated his previous engagement as a practitioner and scholar, and that shape his views of alternative futures for educators of adults. They are: (1) creative connections: intentions, diversity; (2) sustained…

Adult learners of tomorrow will face many challenges that will make it harder to attend classes. The demands of daily living will continue to multiply. Therefore, flexibility is among the keys to providing a quality learning experience for adult learners. This means teachers must constantly innovate to keep the class content fresh and their…

Academic publications provide insights into a discipline's history, knowledge base, and research norms, and thus analyzing publication activity provides learning about the field of study. To learn more about the field of adult and continuing education, this study used content analysis to examine 10 years of "Adult Learning" from 2006…

The purpose of this article is to describe the interconnectedness of three professional development associations, the impact of various factors on collaboration and fragmentation, and suggestions for future directions. The three adult education professional associations being discussed in this article are the American Association of Adult and…

This journal issue about green jobs resulted from a preconference held at the 2011 American Association for Adult and Continuing Education Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. Interested in exploring the ways that green jobs training is being approached in the United States, this preconference seemed like an excellent way to introduce two new…

It is an interesting assignment to think about the future of adult education. In fact, it is an assignment the author has the graduate students in his "Introduction to Adult Education" class at East Carolina University consider during one of their course units. As a member of the Board of Directors for the American Association for Adult and…

This article presents the author's reflections on involvement with six UNESCO international conferences on adult education. As adult educators continue to look forward with enthusiasm to the future of adult and continuing education in an increasingly international society, the author argues that they need to continually remember that the mission…

In this article, the author discusses how the 60th annual American Association for Adult and Continuing Education conference was a site for everyday informal learning, interdisciplinarity, and integrative learning and teaching. She provides examples for ways in which interdisciplinary projects can emerge naturally from a conference and argues for…

This article shares a reframing of lifelong learning beyond a formal career. Like many of his peers, after 40 years in postsecondary education, the author has moved beyond his most recent full-time work teaching in an adult education graduate program to emeritus faculty status. In this article, he shares his experience moving into the next phase…

The author shares his experience as a professor teaching effective interpersonal relationships for the power of language or voice affirmation. When he was teaching a class that included students whose first language was Spanish, French, or Creole, the author requested his student to speak in native language during a presentation on the topic of…