Theory and metatheory in the adult education curriculum

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Abstract
Adult education has failed to theorize itself adequately as a field of knowledge in its own right. The professional curriculum required by adult education must selectively relate curriculum content to its world of practice. Andragogy represents the most consistent attempt so far but is inadequate because it uncritically reduces theoretical knowledge to learning theory. This paper aims to provide an alternative theorization, in effect a metatheory, of knowledge for the adult education curriculum. This involves examining the location of adult education as a field of knowledge in the ‘practical’. First, a critique is presented of the dominant professional model of technical rationality in order to show that the knowledge found in practice is not merely derivative. Second, the situated, interpretative and social characteristics of practical knowledge are discussed. Third, given these characteristics, the claim is made that a full understanding of the nature of practical knowledge requires an understanding of its relationship to hermeneutic understanding. Hermeneutic understanding is the circular and concrete process whereby practical knowledge is generated and used. The context of situatedness involves pre‐understandings and traditions which make understanding possible. There is a hermeneutics of practice where practitioners act hermeneutically by using and generating practical knowledge. This is only fully revealed through engagement with the problematics of practice. It is argued that there is an ‘informal’ theory within the practical which for practitioners is both enabling and regulative. However, although informal theory is an essential feature of the practical it has its limitations as it may not readily incorporate an understanding of the distortive effects of power and ideology. There is, therefore, a need for a critical dimension in any theorization of the practical. Critical awareness is possible but within a dialogical confrontation with the problematic which is itself practical. The conclusion is that a curriculum appropriate to adult education can be theorized but this depends on a metatheory of the curriculum. Paradoxically, a theorization incorporating the practical thus requires more theory, not less.

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