If we regard education as the provision of systematic or organized learning experiences, then it can be argued that program planning is at the core of adult education practice. It is hard to imagine what the landscape of adult education would look like if practitioners where not engaged in program planning. A program is an arrangement of activities and experiences designed to promote adult learning, but a program is much more than instruction. Planning is a complex process that substantially influences and is influenced by the context in which it occurs. Planning is also a social process so it is influenced by the same social, cultural, political and economic factors that influence other human social endeavours.
Planning is fundamentally about attempting to shape and control events in the future.
The degree to which this is possible and desirable is a debatable issue. Of greater interest, however, are the ways of thinking about planning that have been developed and the degree to which these are useful for either understanding or engaging in planning. Although it is possible to learn how to plan programs without a thorough understanding of the theoretical, conceptual, and philosophical perspectives which undergird practice, this course will emphasize the development of such understanding and the important relationship between theory and informed, insightful and reflective practice. The purpose of this course, then, is to provide participants with an opportunity to study the process of program planning from theoretical, conceptual, and philosophical perspectives with the intent of providing a foundation for more informed, insightful and reflective practice. In order to accomplish this purpose, we will be exploring many different ways of thinking about and engaging in planning.