The hidden adult educator in me

On Tuesday I attended a intimate seminar hosted by the Center for Adult and Continuing Education and Division of Lifelong learning at UWC. The topic - "Teaching adult education history in a time of uncertainty and hope" presented by Tony Brown from the University of Technology, Sydney. It wasn't so much the topic but the location of the seminar and the discussion that followed that struck me as the issue of identity was once again foregrounded. We see the world through the lenses of our identity - often our multiple identities. I was reminded of a time when I saw myself as an adult educator - an adult educator with a clear social justice agenda who saw 'progressive' and critical education as a fundamental means whereby adult learners would gain the means to challenge the status quo and necessarily critique their social world. I wondered why I keep forgetting this once upon a time identity because as indicated by scholars like Haggis, this field has so much to offer to our understanding of learning in higher education. But it has a radical and peripheral status and as a result I think it's hard as a practitioner to keep 'pissing against the wind'. Although having said that, the people at the seminar seemed enthused by their role and identity as adult education and development practitioners - happy to wage the war against inequality and keep pushing the social justice agenda.

I had a chat with my first masters supervisor: SW, who endearingly sneaked me a copy of her recent book. We had a lovely chat about my doctoral studies (of course she embarrassingly pointed out to the whole group that as a doctoral student I was surprisingly silent and that I should  have something to say) and the cultural vagaries associated with how the supervision process might be managed. We also spoke about the continuous struggles I had with my practitioner/researcher identities and how at the moment I was adopting the researcher identity in a bid to deal with the positioning privileged by my supervisors. In contrast, for S, the practitioner identity foregrounded her theoretical and practical activities, rather beautifully illustrated when she quickly switched into facilitator mode detailing how our discussion on identity might be translated into a classroom situation and how she would encourage adult learners to engage with and unpack issues of identity in a practical and reflective way. In a subsequent e-mail she made the following suggestion to me " I think that some more injections of good old fashioned partisanship is just what you need - you activist-scholar!" Excellent food for thought I think!