Journal of Adult and Continuing Education

This article reports a study that investigated Vietnamese doctoral students’ motivations to pursue their doctoral study outside their home country. Analyses of in-depth interviews with 19 participants revealed what made a PhD abroad imaginable to them, thus revealing the motivational factors for Vietnamese doctoral students to sojourn for their academic undertakings, including professional requirement and academic development, life enrichment and self-exploration, prior transnational experiences and funding availability. Using the conceptual tools of imagination and capacity to aspire, the study highlights not only the capacity to navigate the horizons of aspirations of Vietnamese doctoral students but also the unevenness of imaginative spaces among them. Going beyond the push-pull framework or the traditional binary of external-internal motivation, this study, with a particular focus on imagination and aspiration, emphasises the capacity of the doctoral students and the socio-cultural context that made a PhD abroad a possibility for them. It further illuminates how their capacity to aspire was different from one another, leading to dissimilarities in their imaginative space and maps of horizons.

For decades, the field of education has been criticized for failing to distinguish between the PhD and EdD degrees. However, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate has recently redefined the EdD as a professional practice doctorate and offered a framework for program (re)design that includes the generation and application of practitioner knowledge to identify, investigate, and solve problems of practice. This renewed focus on (re)designing EdD programs provides a timely segue into rethinking doctoral assessments in EdD programs. This document analysis demonstrates how one near-ubiquitous assessment, the comprehensive examination, can be reimagined to serve as a site for reinforcing practitioner-oriented program outcomes. This manuscript reports how an EdD program implemented alternative comprehensive examinations to support student growth toward a variety of practitioner-oriented program outcomes. The findings indicate that the alternative assessments fostered student growth in all program outcomes and allowed students to meet several purposes of traditional comprehensive exams while also demonstrating that other purposes of comprehensive exams are misaligned with revised visions for EdD education. The implications of this study are that EdD assessments should be aligned with program outcomes and that program administrators should abandon traditional comprehensive exams for assessments that support practitioner growth and development.

This article examines how mature Israeli teachers returning to academia after many years cope with the burden of their masters' studies in addition to their work as teachers and how the college can improve the well-being of these students and help avoid academic burnout. The study is based on repeated in-depth interviews with 18 female teachers. The analysis of the interviews and observations points to four areas that need to be considered. First, transformation, how returning to academic studies while working full-time changed the students’ lives. Second, the academic climate, the clarity of the elements in the program, coordination between the lecturers, relationships with teaching staff, as well as the facilities offered in the college. Third, academic burnout, which includes time management, challenges of balancing work, family and studies, and coping with frustration. The final theme is support, the importance of support by families, workplace, the staff, and their peers on their learning experience. The results point to the need for more coordination between staff, involving students in academic and administrative decisions and to introduce an ongoing program accompanying the M.Ed program that includes a support system to help reduce stress and avoid academic burnout.

Given its importance and value in ensuring quality education, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of teachers draws significant attention from researchers. Research has thus focused on teachers’ CPD practices and the factors influencing those practices. However, a broad theoretical framework that relates teacher CPD participation factors to teacher characteristics and explains their interaction and the resultant CPD practices is yet to be developed. To address this gap, this article reviews literature on teacher CPD and synthesizes an empirically testable theoretical framework. The article begins by adopting a wide definition of teacher CPD as all learning that teachers undertake to improve their professional competencies, and proceeds to identify the essential aspects of teacher CPD and the factors that influence teachers’ participation in CPD. An analysis of the literature leads to the conclusion that teacher CPD is a context bound and goal-oriented learning activity, characterized by multiple aims, content, learning methods. By viewing teachers as adult learners and rational choice takers, principles of Adult Education Theory and propositions of the Rational Choice Theory are then used to explain the interaction of the factors and observed CPD practices. The article concludes by presenting several hypotheses and methodological implications arising from the framework.

The success of the teachers’ trainers’ transfer of training can be affected by several factors like teaching self-efficacy, motivation to learn and transfer, and intention to transfer the gained skills and knowledge. This study seeks to analyze the structural relationships among the above-mentioned constructs by integrating the constructs of perceived usefulness and satisfaction of the ICT training programme. The analysis is conducted on quantitative data collected from 117 teacher educators participating in a national programme on “Teachers training on the use and application of digital technologies in the teaching practice” in Greece. Results of the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that perceived usefulness and satisfaction of the training programme had a significant positive effect on the teachers’ self-efficacy and intention to transfer the gained ICT training knowledge and skills. Also, pre-training and post-training self-efficacy exerted a direct influence on the teachers’ intention to transfer, motivation to transfer, and motivation to learn. The potential contribution and practical implications in the field of adult education and teachers’ continuing professional development are discussed in the paper.

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated an unprecedented education crisis, causing severe disruption to global education systems. One consequence has been an increased demand for online educational platforms, leading to a shift from face-to-face to online teaching. This was the case in Singapore where online educational provisions were quickly adopted and implemented by institutions providing continuing education and training to adult learners. This paper reports on the data from a survey of 258 participants on the accessibility and effectiveness of the different modes of learning (i.e. online learning, face-to-face learning, and a combination of both) based on comparisons prior to and after the onset of COVID-19. The findings indicate that familiarity with online platforms enhances the potential efficacy of online provisions of continuing education and training, but also illuminate issues concerning the kinds of experiences required for effective continuing education and training, with implications for providers and educators in and beyond Singapore.

This study investigated determinants of the behavioural intention of Open Distance Learning (ODL) students to use digital tools and resources for learning in Nigeria. The study utilized an online questionnaire to gather data from 522 ODL students from an ODL institution in Nigeria. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was the main framework used for the analysis in which attitude was included as an additional variable to seek out a much better model capable of improving the understanding of ODL students’ behavioural intention to use digital tools and resources for learning. Thus, an extended UTAUT model was developed and tested in this study. The model consisted of six constructs: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, attitude and behavioural intention. A Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis. Results revealed that the proposed model successfully explained critical factors that determine ODL students’ behavioural intention to use digital tools and resources for learning. The study suggested that attitude, performance expectancy and facilitating conditions are the major determinants of behavioural intention to use digital tools and resources but attitude is the most prominent factor. Thus, implications and suggestions for further studies were highlighted.

Service-Learning is a form of experiential learning where faculty integrate a service or community engagement component into academic coursework. Supported by a growing body of literature documenting the impact of service-learning on undergraduate students as a high-impact practice in the United States, the scholarship and practice of service-learning frequently neglects graduate students as an important and unique demographic of learners. Graduate students pursue master’s degrees to achieve their career goals, but employers claim that students are graduating ill-prepared for the workforce. The disconnect between employers’ perspectives and students’ educational goals presented an opportunity to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation using Knowles’ andragogy as a theoretical framework. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis study was to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation from the perspective of graduate students as adult learners. Findings suggest that (1) service-learning is both as a professional experience itself and is an opportunity to further prepare for their future careers and (2) service-learning is a genuine way for students to develop skills and self-efficacy important to their career trajectory. Recommendations are provided for educators who are considering integrating service-learning into their teaching to support the professional goals of graduate students.

The purpose of this instrumental, multisite case study is to examine fidelity, adaptation, and differentiation challenges found at Wood Badge, a nationwide Boy Scouts of America training for adult volunteer leaders. Our iterative analysis of more than 900 pages of fieldnotes and 400 pages of documents revealed facilitators often explicitly taught syllabus content during the trainings. Observers noted 119 minor differentiations across trainings, notably involving facilitator delivery methods and the duration and scheduling of training segments. Facilitators observed 16 adaptations, which appeared to be based on external conditions at trainings or facilitator preferences, and just three instances of differentiation. Our analysis of the trainings surfaced key fidelity/adaptation issues like overadherence, conflicting notions of deviation, and the impact of preparation on fidelity. In addition, we identified factors influencing facilitators’ use of adaptation and differentiation. Recommendations for large-scale trainings are made based on the study’s findings.

Access to higher education is often limited to adults because of their location. This is particularly challenging for adults who live in rural communities and small towns and can lead to unmet expectations. While policy makers have long recognised the potential impact of lifelong education for adults, the educational needs of adults have received relatively less attention. For adults residing in rural areas who rely, more often than not, on distance education, mostly in the form of blended learning there is usually limited access to public universities. For policy makers to respond effectively to the educational needs of the adult population in the rural areas, the first step is to understand the educational barriers of adults living in such areas, particularly as they are constrained with lack of minimal transportation and information communications technology. This paper reports on qualitative research exploring the educational challenges and needs faced by adults in rural areas of Ghana.

This paper reports the findings of a study that had examined the operations of open schools for out-of-secondary-school youth and adults in Tanzania. Its objective was to establish the practicality of the policy guidelines in guiding the operations of open schools and the emerging controversies and dynamics in their daily operations. This qualitative study collected data using documentary review and interviews, which was later subjected to thematic analysis. The study found contradictory and incongruous policy guidelines for open schools that largely rendered them impractical. Moreover, misinterpretations, varying understandings and inconsistencies in practices among open schools were common occurrences. There also emerged several dynamics in guiding the operations of open schools such as un-standardised practices, erratic registrations and persistence of uncontrolled open schools in the black market. In consequence, it was difficult to rationally manage their practices. Overall, the rather misplaced policy priority governing the operations of open schools calls for a special attention and impetus to bring about the desired positive change in this education sub-sector.

Much research focuses on schooling for refugee children in resettlement contexts; however, limited research addresses young adult refugees (YAR) between 16–24 years in the adult education (AE) system. This paper strives to fill this gap by providing the perspectives of 12 AE practitioners who welcomed and worked with Syrian YAR in Quebec, Canada. Practitioners’ experiences and challenges faced with this refugee population reveal strategies needed to enable YAR to flourish and attain their objectives, including a call for systemic change in AE. Critical race theory and the capabilities approach set the conceptual framework guided by a narrative inquiry methodology. Semi-structured interviews provided the data that were thematically analyzed through collaborative work. From our understanding of the effectiveness of AE approaches for YAR, it is clear, based on the insights provided by the practitioners, that the face of AE has changed, and its current approach does not work for the YAR population.

Nearly one-quarter of American adults have low-level literacy skills. Existing research provides a great deal of quantitative information about skill levels and attainment, but little information exists that highlights the contextualized experiences of adult learners. In this phenomenological study, we explored individual adult learners’ experiences in a community-based literacy program. A purposive sample of eight adult learners participated in semi-structured interviews. The study shows that the tutors’ caring and understanding attitude towards the learners, friendship relationships between the tutors and learners, and the tutors’ use of individualized interventions for their learners were vital in shaping their positive learning experience. The study also highlights how the learners’ motivation and support system played in helping them persist in the program. The literacy program transformed their lives and meant “a chance” for making a change.

This article proposes a framework for capability development of adult educators (AEs) in Singapore. Globalisation, demographic changes and digital innovation, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, have accentuated the importance of adult education and changing role of AEs. The immediate implications of these effects on the professionalism of AEs and the significance of their development trajectories are acute. With an increased focus on the need to ensure AEs are current in both their pedagogic and domain competences, we introduce discussions on the need to develop a conceptual framework to generate a deeper understanding of their knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs and practices of AEs. This framework can be used by practitioners as a tool to facilitate professional reflection and development, and by policy makers to support continued improvements to the quality of adult education. Our overall aim is to promote the importance of varied and continued opportunities for the professional development of AEs at policy, organisational and individual levels.

This article interprets how five left-leaning parties in Sweden and Spain intend to politically socialise their members through the use of educational activities. By applying a framing perspective on interviews with leading party representatives from the five parties, the analysis theoretically illuminates how educational activities can be a tool for mobilisation. While the interviewed party representatives stress that educating their members has several functions for a party, three salient frames about party education are identified in the interview data as follows: education as (i) movement building, (ii) training members and leaders and (iii) deliberative reflection. Categorising the different ways that in which education is understood shows how different political motives are integrated into parties’ education. Hence, the findings emphasise the intermediating role that education plays between a party organisation and its members in left parties.