----

##  The Balancing Act of Adult Life. ERIC Digest.                                

Life in the 21st century seems more complex than ever, as adults                cope with the demands of multiple roles, the stresses of a fluid                workplace, and the pressures of child and elder care. Individuals               feel compelled to update their work-related knowledge and skills and            to keep up with the proliferation of information. Family resource               management is increasingly complex, with expanded choices and                   decisions that must be made about utilities, banking, investments,              retirement planning, etc. The Internet has simultaneously made it               easier to access information, yet more complicated to apply critical            judgment to what one finds. Many of us feel, as Kegan (1994) put                it, "in over our heads" as we strive to "balance" our life                      domains. 
A long list of causes for these increased demands is                 easily found (Daly 2000; Niles, Herr, and Hartung 2001):                        technological advances; the changing nature of work, workplaces, and            working relationships; international economic competition; the                  changing demographics of workers, families, and communities; and                longer life spans, among others. Adults have always had roles and               responsibilities as workers, family members, citizens, consumers,               and community members. However, role expectations have changed. For             example, workers now have increased responsibility for decision                 making, teamwork, and their own career development. Family                      responsibilities are complicated by single parenthood, blended                  families, longer-lived elders, and more women in the work force.                Citizens must be informed not only about local and national issues              but global ones as well. As consumers of health care, individuals               are urged to inform themselves about treatment options and                      participate in decisions about their care. 
These subjects comprise            what Kegan (2000) calls "the hidden curriculum of adult life" (p.               45); in this curriculum, adult roles--parenting, partnering,                    working, and living in an increasingly diverse                                  society--are "courses" in which we are enrolled. This Digest                    describes a selection of adult education approaches to helping                  individuals negotiate the curriculum of life challenges. BEYOND               LIFE SKILLSIn the 1990s, work/life balance caught the attention             of researchers, policymakers, and employers, resulting in the                   development of a range of employment benefits, legislation, and                 programs aimed at helping people cope. Life management or                       family/career management curricula emphasize coping through the                 development of skills in communication, interpersonal effectiveness,            and money, time, stress, and household management (e.g., California             Community Colleges 1998; Mathieson 1999). As Caproni (1997) notes,              research, policy, and practice focused on work/life balance have                raised important issues and brought about changes that have                     benefitted some families. However, these approaches are incomplete              in several ways. 
As Niles et al. (2001) point out, the usefulness             of these types of responses benefits different segments of society              differently. For the working poor, balancing work, nonwork, and life            roles may be a luxury; they "are likely to be far more circumspect              in how they can commit their resources to family needs" (p. 13).                Caproni (1997) suggests that the discourse of work/life balance                 reflects bureaucratic values such as individualism, instrumentalism,            goal focus, and achievement orientation. The framing of imbalance as            a problem and balance as the desirable and achievable alternative               suggests that there is an ideal and our attempts to live up to it               are deficient. But who gets to define what work/life balance is? And            are skill- and goal-oriented approaches adequate in dealing with the            dynamic, unpredictable, and ambiguous nature of life? 
Kegan (1994)            suggests that they are not. The expectations of contemporary life               demand "more than mere behavior, the acquisition of specific skills,            or the mastery of particular knowledge. They make demands on our                minds, on how we know" (p. 5). Adults need both informational and               transformational learning (Kegan 2000). Learning about money, time,             and stress management and becoming informed about flextime and                  childcare options are examples of informational learning related to             work/life issues. Such learning is "aimed at increasing our fund of             knowledge, at increasing our repertoire of skills, at extending                 already established cognitive capacities into new terrain" (p. 48).             Transformational learning, on the other hand, seeks to change how we            know, altering our existing frame of reference, our ways of making              meaning. 
To deal with life demands, adults need the skills,                   techniques, and behaviors for mastering the "hidden curriculum," but            the more important goal of adult learning is fostering cognitive                complexity (Kegan 1994). Tinberg and Weisberger (1998) provide an               example of how educators can gain a sense of learners' current level            of cognition and then facilitate the transitions to more complex                levels: 
Through a sequence of reading and writing assignments, I              wanted students to engage such questions as the following: What do I            know? How do I know it? What schemes or taxonomies do I employ to               order the world? What languages do I use to capture my experience?              In essence, I was asking my students to define what, for lack of                another phrase, I call "working knowledge," knowledge that we put to            work in the world. I was asking them to achieve an awareness of how             they know as well as what they know. (p. 8) 
A supportive learning             environment helps build the bridge to the next level (ibid.).                   Fishback and Polson (1998) also found that adults' cognitive                    development was facilitated by an environment that was dialogic,                challenging, and supportive. 
Several frameworks have been                     developed that acknowledge the cognitive challenges of contemporary             life. Some are still theoretical, and evidence is just beginning to             be gathered about their effectiveness. One example is the National              Institute for Literacy's Equipped for the Future (EFF). EFF's                   framework of knowledge and skills that adults need is based on four             broader integrative concepts (Merrifield 2000): (1) a purposeful,               constructivist approach to learning; (2) education that is rooted in            the context of people's lives; (3) emphasis on application of                   skills; and (4) a view of adult development as transformative rather            than additive. 
EFF identifies adults' key roles and                           responsibilities as citizens/community members, parents/family                  members, and workers. The 16 content standards for what adults need             to know and be able to do to fulfill these roles are organized in 4             categories (Stein 2000): 
* Communication Skills--read with                    understanding, convey ideas in writing, speak so others can                     understand, listen actively, observe critically 
* Decision-Making             Skills--solve problems and make decisions, plan, use math for                   problem solving and decision making 
* Interpersonal                           Skills--cooperate with others, guide others, advocate and influence,            resolve conflict and negotiate 
* Lifelong Learning Skills--take               responsibility for learning, learn through research, reflect and                evaluate, use information and communications technology 
EFF drew              upon concepts of adult development formulated by Kegan and others               that involve transforming ways of knowing: "A developmental approach            to performance means it is seen not simply as mastering more and                more knowledge and skills in a cumulative way, but as making                    conceptual leaps in understanding and viewing the world--as                     transformative more than additive" (Merrifield 2000, p. 12). 
An               Australian adult and continuing education curriculum                            framework (Bradshaw 1999) also takes a transformative approach. This            framework contains eight lifelong learning goals that focus on                  higher-order thinking: 
1. Understand complex systems that interact            unpredictably 
2. Identify and integrate existing and emerging                 personal, local, national, and global perspectives 
3. Prosper with            different paradoxical and multiple sets of realities 
4. See and               make connections between past, present, and future 
5. Encourage               sustainability in relationships and the environment 
6. Engage in a            process of change, privately, publicly, civically, and                          occupationally throughout life 
7. Extend learning styles and                  repertoires 
8. Develop insights through questioning 
Underlying              these goals are four key principles: multiplicity, connectedness,               critical intelligence, and transformation. The curriculum recognizes            the significant contribution of learning to the creation of personal            and social futures. It is intended to provide "a solid foundation               for a full and active life for the variety of roles we play" (ibid.,            p. 23). "BALANCE" IS FOR CHECKBOOKS"Balance" of life roles may            be an illusive pursuit and defining what it means is highly                     individual (Niles et al. 2001). Secretan (2000) asserts that it                 isn't balance that we need, but integration. Balance implies                    either/or, that investing in one role requires taking something away            from another. "Creative people use their brains and deploy their                gifts whenever and wherever they feel the urge....Balancing is what             we do to our checkbooks; integration is the happy confluence and                merging of all of the activities in our lives" (ibid., p.                       29). 
Working toward integration requires transforming our                     perspective about life roles. Transformative learning involves a                questioning of assumptions and a fundamental rethinking of premises.            Attempting to deal with conflicting life roles and the complexities             of contemporary life certainly presents us with "disorienting                   dilemmas" that are often the starting point of perspective                      transformation (Imel 1998). Educators can support adults in                     integrating different ways of  knowing--the cognitive, rational, and            objective and the intuitive, imaginative, and                                   subjective (ibid.)--because, as Kegan (1994) suggests, we need to               draw deeply on both what we know and how we know in order to handle             the demands of contemporary life. REFERENCESBradshaw, D.                  TRANSFORMING LIVES, TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK            FOR FURTHER EDUCATION. 2D ED. Melbourne, Australia: Adult,                      Community, and Further Education Board, 1999. (ED 431                           131) 
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES: A            PLAN FOR THE 21ST CENTURY UPDATE, 1998. Walnut, CA: Mount San                   Antonio College, 1998. (ED 423 941) 
Caproni, P. J. "Work/Life                 Balance: You Can't Get There from Here." JOURNAL OF APPLIED                     BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE 33, no. 1 (March 1997): 46-56. 
Daly, K. IT                 KEEPS GETTING FASTER: CHANGING PATTERNS OF TIME IN FAMILIES. Ottawa,            Ontario: Vanier Institute of the Family, 2000. (ED 449                          887) 
Fishback, S. J.  and Polson, C. J. "The Cognitive Development            of Adult Undergraduate Students." In PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ANNUAL             MIDWEST RESEARCH-TO-PRACTICE CONFERENCE IN ADULT, CONTINUING, AND               COMMUNITY EDUCATION, edited by G. S. Wood, Jr. and M. M. Webber, pp.            81-86. Muncie, IN: Ball State University, 1998. (ED 424 419)                    http://www.bsu.edu/teachers/departments/edld/conf/cognitive.html                
Imel, S. TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN ADULTHOOD. ERIC DIGEST NO.                200. Columbus: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational              Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment, the Ohio            State University, 1998. (ED 423 426)                                            http://ericacve.org/fulltext.asp 
Kegan, R. IN OVER OUR HEADS: THE             MENTAL DEMANDS OF MODERN LIFE. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University                Press, 1994. 
Kegan, R. "What 'Form' Transforms? A                             Constructive-Developmental Approach to Transformative Learning." In             LEARNING AS TRANSFORMATION: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON A THEORY IN                PROGRESS, by J. Mezirow et al., pp. 35-69. San Francisco:                       Jossey-Bass, 2000. 
Mathieson, M. FAMILY AND CAREER MANAGEMENT.                TEACHER'S INSTRUCTIONAL GUIDE. Lubbock: Home Economics Curriculum               Center, Texas Tech University, 1999. (ED 439 281) 
Merrifield, J.              EQUIPPED FOR THE FUTURE RESEARCH REPORT. BUILDING THE FRAMEWORK,                1993-1997. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy,                     2000. (ED 441 139)                                                              http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/collections/eff/merrifield_eff.pdf 
Niles,           S. G.; Herr, E. L.; and Hartung, P. J. ACHIEVING LIFE BALANCE.                  Columbus: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational                   Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment, the Ohio            State University, 2001.                                                         http://ericacve.org/majorpubs.asp 
Secretan, L. "Integration, Not              Balance." INDUSTRY WEEK 249, no. 11 (June 12, 2000): 29. 
Stein, S.            EQUIPPED FOR THE FUTURE CONTENT STANDARDS. WHAT ADULTS NEED TO KNOW             AND BE ABLE TO DO IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Washington, DC: National                 Institute for Literacy, 2000. (ED 437 557) 
Tinberg, H. B., and                Weisberger, R. "In over Our Heads: Applying Kegan's Theory of                   Development to Community College Students." COMMUNITY COLLEGE REVIEW            26, no. 2 (Fall 1998): 43-56. 
----- 
This project has been funded            at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of                 Education under Contract No. ED-99-CO-0013. The content of this                 publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of               the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names,               commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S.             Government. Digests may be freely reproduced and are available at               http://ericacve.org/fulltext.asp.                                            **Title:** The Balancing Act of Adult Life. ERIC Digest.                                **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** For full text: http://www.ericacve.org/pubs.asp.                             **Descriptors:** Adjustment (to Environment), Adult Basic Education,  Adult                      Development,  Adult Learning, Communication Skills, Competence,                  Daily Living Skills, Decision Making Skills,  Educational Needs,               Family Work Relationship, Hidden Curriculum, Interpersonal                      Competence, Learning Processes, Learning Theories, Life                         Satisfaction,  Lifelong Learning, Postsecondary Education,                       Transformative Learning                                                     **Identifiers:**  Equipped for the Future, ERIC Digests                                       
###
[Return to ERIC Digest Search Page]