Re‐examining the place of disciplines in adult education

Abstract

With the evolution of new forms of adult education practice there is a need to re‐examine the place of disciplines in adult education as a field of study. In this paper the place of disciplines as epistemological foundations is explored and rejected. Instead, a case is presented that disciplines are already ‘in’ adult education in the form of power‐knowledge discourses which constitute adults as ‘objects’ of investigation, intervention and regulation. The most influential contemporary discourse of this kind in adult education is based on the disciplinary knowledge of psychology. It is argued that adult education as a field of study cannot be located in disciplines without negating its own aims of empowerment. To reject disciplines as foundations does not however imply that disciplines have no place. If their knowledge claims are approached critically, disciplines can be empowering in so far as they provide a means of countering the subtle regulation of ‘self‐centred’ discourse. Adult education as a field of study is therefore best located in adult education as a critical practice. This involves ‘deconstructing’ the effects of disciplinary power, being reflexive as adult education practitioners, and emphasising ‘subjugated knowledges’. Practical knowledge is discussed as an example of the latter and a place is suggested for disciplines that is neither one of foundations nor of mastery.