Adult education in the United States of America: A critical examination of national policy (1998-2014)

Authors

  • Marcella Milana
  • Lesley McBain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1825-8670/4660

Keywords:

Adult Education Policy, United States of America, Workforce Investment Act, Ideologies

Abstract

Under the Bill Clinton’s administration, the U.S. approved the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998; the backbone for public adult education in many states. But since its expiration (2003), and despite multiple attempts, the Act lacked reauthorized until summer 2014, when a Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act was signed into law. In this contribution we examine how broader Republican and Democrat party-values feed into the legal debate around the reauthorization of the 1998 Act, and whether the ‘great recession’ has had a detectable influence. Our findings pinpoint at a slow but steady across-party alignment in linking adult education to occupational skill training, and English-language instruction to civic learning, while tightening standards and accountability measures for states, thus conditioning curricular content, but also opening to new providers. While this still hides party differences that extend conservative vs. liberal party-sponsored ideologies to the policy debate on adult education, it is such alignment that allowed stricter conservative ideals to gather consensus.

References

Abramowitz, A. & Saunders, K. L. (1998). Ideological realignment in the American electorate. Journal of Politics, 60(3), 634-652.

Bevir, M., & Rhodes, R. A. W. (2002). Interpretative theory. In D. Marsh & G. Stoker (Eds), Theory and methods in political science (2rd ed.) (pp. 131-152). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Birkland, T. A. (2003). An introduction to the policy process: Theories, concepts, and models of public policy making (2nd ed.). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.

Bradley, D. H., & Collins, B. (2013). Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization proposals in the 113th Congress: Comparison of major features of current law and S. 1356. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Bradley, D. H., & Collins, B. (2012). Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization Proposals in the 112th Congress: Comparison of major features of current law and H.R. 4297. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Congress of the United States. (May 21, 2014). Statement of the managers to accompany the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Retrieved from http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/ee9c8cfd-cb3f-4dd5-8574-92d9337f02c9/signed-wioa-managers-statement.pdf.

Easton, D. (1965). A system analysis of political life. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Ellis, J. (1984). A history and analysis of the Adult Education Act, 1964-1984. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 252 658).

Eyre, G. A. (2013). An American heritage: A federal adult education legislative history 1964-2013. Bethesda, MD: NOVA Research Company. Retrieved on March 3, 2014 from: http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/Adult_Ed_History_Report.pdf

Freeden, M. (2013). The morphological analysis of ideology. In Michael Freeden, Lyman Tower Sargent & Marc Stears (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political ideologies (pp. 115-137). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Freeden, M. (2006). Ideology and political theory. Journal of Political Ideologies, 11(1), 3-22.

Freeden, M. (1996). Ideologies and political theory: A conceptual approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gold, S. (1998). Issues raised by the New Federalism. National Tax Journal, 49(2), 273-287.

Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks. New York, International Publishers.

Griffin, R. (2006). Ideology and culture. Journal of Political Ideologies, 11(1), 77-99.

Johnson, V. (2010). Impact of race and welfare reform on African American single mothers’ access to higher education. Journal of Black Studies 40(6), 1041-1051.

Hayes, E. (1999). Policy issues that drive the transformation of adult literacy. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, 83, 3-14.

Himmelstein, J. (1990). To the right: The transformation of American conservatism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Lakoff, G. (2002). Moral politics: How liberals and conservatives think. (2nd ed). Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.

Maddox, W. S., & Lilie, S. A. (1984). Beyond liberal and conservative: Reassessing the political spectrum. Washington, DC: Cato Institute.

Milana M (2013). Incentives and Disincentives to Invest in Human Resources. In G. K. Zarifis & M. Gravani, (eds.), Challenging the 'European Area of Lifelong Learning’: a critical response (pp. 61-73). Dordrecht: Springer.

Miller, G. & Schofield, N. (2008). The transformation of the Republican and Democratic party coalitions in the U.S. Perspectives on Politics, 6(3), 433-450.

Moore, C., Shulock, N., & Lang, D. M. (2004). Funding adult education: Does California put the money where the needs are? Center for California Studies, California State University, Sacramento.

Murray, P. (2014a, May). News release: Bipartisan, bicameral group announces deal to improve American workforce development system. Retrieved from http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ContentRecord_id=f4cbb33a-49c6-4f5d-9e4f-e022cc1fcb32.

Murray, P. (2014b, May). WIOA one-page summary. Retrieved from http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/1864afcb-c7e5-48a5-85e4-9e4904688e42/wioa-onepager.pdf .

National Advisory Council on Adult Education [NACAE] (1980). A history of the Adult Education Act. Washington, DC: Author.

Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) (1991). Education Act: 1966-1991. Washington, DC: Division of Adult Education and Literacy. Retrieved on March 3, 2014 from: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/anniv40/ae-act.pdf

Pew Research Center (2014, June). Political Polarization in the American Public. Retrieved from http://www.people-press.org/files/2014/06/6-12-2014-Political-Polarization-Release.pdf

Pindus, N., Aron, L., Cowan, J., Hatry, H., Hernandez S., Winkler, M., Koralek, R., & Tutko, J. (2005). Volume I: Final synthesis report study to assess funding, accountability and one-stop delivery systems in adult education. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute. Retrieved on February 19, 2014 from: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411291_Adult_Ed_Vol_I.pdf.

Román-Zozaya, C. (2008). Participant ideology: A new perspective on politicians and ideology. Journal of Political Ideologies, 13(2), 111-132.

Rose, A. D. (1991). Ends or means: An overview of the history of the Adult Education Act. Columbus, Ohio: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education (Information Series No. 346)

Sparks, B. (2001). The gendered construction of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 91, 47-54.

Swedlow, B. (2008). Beyond liberal and conservative: Two-dimensional conceptions of ideology and the structure of political attitudes and values. Journal of Political Ideologies 13(2), 157-180.

Watson, K., and Gold, S. (1998). The other side of devolution: Shifting relationships between state and local governments. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute.

Wagenaar, H. (2011). Meaning in action: Interpretation and dialogue in policy analysis. New York: M.E.Sharpe.

Wilson, A.L. (2009). Adult education in the United States as a subject of policy and politics. Bildung und Erziehung, 62(4), 451- 461.

Yanow, D. (2003). Accessing local knowledge. In Maarten Hajer & Hendrik Wagenaar (Eds.), Deliberative Policy Analysis (pp. 228-246). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Yanow, D. (2000). Conducting interpretative policy analysis. Thousand Oaks / London / New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Downloads

Published

2014-12-30

How to Cite

Milana, M., & McBain, L. (2014). Adult education in the United States of America: A critical examination of national policy (1998-2014). Encyclopaideia, 18(40). https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1825-8670/4660

Issue

Section

Focus