Forging a New Mission: Implications from the Experiences of Antecedent National Associations

In the past 75 years, three national associations have attempted to give direction to adult education: the American Association for Adult Education (AAAE) from 1926-1951, the Adult Education Association of the USA (AEA) from 1951-1982, and the American association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) from 1982 to the present. Each association began with great expectations, but their success depended on external funding and creating a unique role in relation to the many providers and associations already engaged in some form of educational services to adults. The history of these associations shows that creating a unique role requires continuous adjustment to changing social and educational conditions. Presently, the project of the AAACE to foster local collaborative programs for adult education on public responsibility marks another attempt to define a compelling organizational focus and relationship to the larger society. This paper examines the experiences of the AAAE, the AEA, and the AAACE in order to provide perspectives on, and implications for, the Future Directions project. The Experience of the AAAE By the 1920s, the concept of adult education had come to designate what bad previously gone under the rubric of self-improvement. Because this term gave coherence to what had previously been discrete efforts, it enabled persons to make the adult educational activities of institutions and individuals an object of study, policy, and coordination. A philanthropic foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, established the direction for study, policy making, and coordination when it took on adult education as a new foundation endeavor in its mission of diffusing knowledge. To accomplish its goals, Carnegie founded the AAAE, generously supporting it and using it to review and approve project proposals from 1926-1941. The association solicited as members well-known and positioned civic and educational leaders, though membership was open to everyone. The association refused to identify itself with any one segment of the field or to support educational programs that advocated specific social change. Rather, it identified its role as a clearinghouse. Focusing on non-vocational adult education, the association sought to advance the general intelligence and cultural level of the adult population in arts, literature, and understanding of public issues. Through annual conferences and publications, especially The Journal of Adult Education, the association gained acceptance of the idea of adult education. The association sponsored studies of adult education in specific institutional settings, the Thorndike studies on adult learning abilities and interests, and the first handbooks of adult education. It supported several demonstration and experimental projects. To provide expert leadership, the AAAE funded in the 1930s the first doctoral program in adult education at Teachers College, Columbia University The association supported the efforts of specific segments of the field to create national associations. When the Carnegie Corporation ceased supporting projects in 1941, the effectiveness of AAAE ended, though it continued for another 10 years. Of all its accomplishments, the most major one was that it initiated adult education as a self-identified movement. The years 1926-1941 were a golden age in the history of adult education national associations. The Experience of the AEA and Beyond A new' kind of national association emerged in 1951 when the AAAE and NEA Department of Adult Education dissolved, and their members formed the Adult Education Association of the USA. It differed from the AAAE in membership, governance, and goals. Its members were mainly career workers in some segment of the adult education field who had a stake in strengthening the work of their agency and an interest in advancing the adult education movement. …