Toward a Theory of Practice

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Abstract
This paper suggests a rationale and strategy for developing a research-based body of theory, indigenous to adult education and of practical utility to practitioners in program development, pro gram evaluation, training and in setting research priorities. Epistemological and methodological considerations in the develop ment of a theory of practice are explored. Central among the former is the question of the nature of meaning as a construction of the individual in social interaction. Central among the latter are ways of understanding the reality of interaction in adult educational enterprise without distortions endemic to research methodology of the social sciences. Glaser and Strauss have suggested a research approach useful for developing a theory of practice in adult education. This involves the systematic construction of an evolving and integrated body of inductively formulated generalizations by which the behavior of adults in educational situations may be understood and predicted.

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