A strong practice of adult education for social change is apparent in the work of Paulo Freire in Latin America and Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School. We should not be embarrassed to put a price on it. In today's society, value is usually measured by price. Helping adults cope with a changing workplace has placed increasing emphasis on techniques, competencies, and skills. Because adult educators are themselves beneficiaries of the educational meritocracy, they have a stake in maintaining the status quo, which could affect their approach and their responsibility to those outside the mainstream.
Finger calls for collective, collaborative, and social learning as the basis for adult education.
The new form of disadvantage is isolation from information networks and inability to decode cultural signs. However, the issue arises of whose knowledge is legitimate. New social movements such as feminism, peace, and environmentalism are attempting to create knowledge that challenges mainstream knowledge through grassroots political learning, critical discourse, and nontraditional techniques of research and problem solving. An enlargement of the boundaries of the profession to include those engaged in social action and change could build a bridge between academics and front-line activists. In working for social change, it will also be necessary to alter the status quo of the field of adult education itself.