Adult Education

Roles of Adult Education in the social change in Women, Handicapped, Aged and Marginalized

There is no denying the fact that adult education has played significant role in the social changes that have taken place in the status of women, handicapped, aged and marginalized persons. Adult education has become an important articulating principle within the scale of the social structure. Because of this, more and more women in Nigeria today, for example, are avidly seeking education as a means of augmenting their incomes for most of these special group members, who seek adult education, they are seeking not primarily intellectual stimulus or personal fulfillment but the means of survival in an increasingly complex world.

Adult education has made available for women vocational training, vast economic knowledge, wisdom and better mate selection capability through mate selection programs. Their social status and social mobility have consequently been improved upon. They become self-independent and economically viable as they acquire better jobs or employment. They thus assume important economic responsibility at home, such as providing the extra- income needed in the home and even provide money for the education of their children where their husbands are unable to do so.

Among the roles of adult education in the social change experienced by the marginalized or ethnic minority are the provision of remedial education and job training for those who are poor, unemployed or trapped in low- paying, dead0-end jobs, provision of employee-training programs including labor history, occupational health and safety for those having working class jobs, including union members.
People belonging to ethnic minorities are often in need of raising their self-esteem. They have a low tolerance for even minor defeats or setbacks, and a negative attitude may be a cover up for a fear of failure. Adult education provides motivation, encouragement and confidence and helps these people to overcome their negative and defeatist attitudes.

For the aged or elderly, the most common complaint is loss of memory, which is often due to inadequate learning, faulty vision or hearing, inattention or learning too fast at a speed. Adult education provides them with the counseling and psychotherapy necessary for overcoming the loss of memory and mental deterioration. Adult education programs better confidence in the aged person’s ability to learn. It integrates the aged people into the mainstream so that they can have productive lives and provide healthy models of aging for the young.

From the foregoing, it can be concluded that adult education has been instrumental to most of the social changes experienced in the society. Adult education has been seen from its definition to be the body of organized processes whereby adults develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, improve their technological or professional qualifications and bring about changes in their attitudes and behavior. Social change cannot take place without increase in knowledge and improvement in technological know-how. Social change is therefore a manifestation or practical outcome of acquired adult education.

Recommended Readings
Sharan B merriam and Laura Bierema: Adult Learning ; Linking Theory and practice.

John J Macionis., Sociology (15th Edition)

Richard T Schaefer., Sociology: A brief Introduction

G.Duncan Mitchell., A new Dictionary of sociology.