Culturally Inclusive Teaching of Adult English Language Learners

The growing diversity of the United States population continues to impact public education in many ways. One key area has been the increased awareness of the need to adapt learning environments to enhance the motivation of students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Culturally responsive teaching is one approach designed to increase motivation by replacing mainstream teaching practices with those grounded in students' experiences and ways of knowing. This multicultural approach is enacted in many adult English language classes throughout the country. It is the purpose of this chapter to highlight those practices for the larger adult education community.

Framing the Role of Culture Reflecting on How Culture Affects Learners in Transformative Learning Settings

From the simplest cell phone to virtual reality headsets, students today are bombarded by technology, so this is bound to affect their expectations in the learning environment and the way they relate to cognitive challenges. Today's culture is an immersion of advanced methods of communicating with each other and with their instructors. Adult learners who return to the world of higher education after having been away for some time have often felt the need to strive harder to show they fit into that world. With a broader worldview, more responsibilities, and often more wisdom gained from having held jobs, sometimes for years, they also bring a richer way of relating to the academic world. At the same, time, though, sometimes responsibilities, including full family lives, limit their time and energy they are capable of devoting to studying and completing assignments.

Analyzing How Cultural Norms Affect Learner Preferences in Organizational Learning Programs

Offering organizational learning programs that engage employees within the culture may help them implement strategies learned within the organization. The current theoretical research scope was performed to bring a greater understanding of the effects of cultural norms upon learner preferences in organizational learning programs along with self-leadership strategies and general self-efficacy due to the possible effects of individual characteristics upon the overall organizational performance. Due to the intrinsic motivation and biological makeup of the individual, a learner style may be skewed simply because their perception of the cultural norms and effectiveness of the organizational learning program. Cultural norms may have an effect upon learner preference within organizational learning programs; however, the magnitude and direction affects learner preference may be dependent upon self-leadership strategies and the level general self-efficacy.

Cultural Considerations in Postsecondary and Vocational Education

This chapter focuses on the culture of a college in post-secondary education and how the educational institution can affect how others experience it. Specifically, this chapter looks at varying aspects of culture that relate to engagement, instruction, operations, and campus climate. Cultural considerations in post-secondary and vocation education are also discussed in the context of the current issues facing college campuses, with a specific concentration on student retention, online education, instructional practices, funding practices, and the acceptance of people groups. Throughout this chapter, considerations are offered for the institution to determine potential benefits to an institution. It is the choice of the institution to make choices that best fit the needs of its students. Not every choice will benefit every institution as no two institutions are the same. However, there are benefits in education to what others have attempted and learn from past educational experience.

Spirituality and Religion as Cultural Influences in Andragogy

Spirituality and religion are important considerations for the adult learner, because with adulthood comes an increased identification with spirituality. In this chapter, the authors outline key theories and concepts related to spirituality and religion in adult learning, or andragogy. Transformative learning, reflective learning, and whole-person or experiential learning are described within the context of their relatedness to spirituality/religion in andragogy. A separate section on lifelong learning, an extension of adult learning, and multiculturalism, a social realty, are explored. Moving from the theoretical to the practical application of spirituality/religion in andragogy, several examples and worldviews of spirituality/religion outside of the Western, Judeo-Christian perspective are included, as well. Practical considerations are given for learners, instructors, and researchers on secular approaches to cultivating traits and qualities that correspond to an individual's spiritual dimension, feeling of connectedness, and overall wellbeing.

Integrating Cultural Perspectives Into Organizational Learning

Higher education has a distinct culture. Subsets of this unique culture are found in specific professional schools, including medical, dental, law, and business schools. Just as every person is different, every institution is also distinctive. Regardless of similarities, successful initiatives at one institution may not translate to another institution. To succeed, a culture of learning, open dialogue, and unbiased, active listening must reverberate through every person and level of hierarchy within the organization. This chapter will delve into the hallmarks of a learning organization and provide useful tools to create successful learning organizations at the program, departmental, and organizational levels while simultaneously being open to transformative learning opportunities for its faculty and staff.

Ushering Transformative Change

The aim of this chapter is to deliberate on the possibilities of transformation in the education system in relation to the pervasiveness of neo-liberalism that promotes the marginalization of indigenous knowledge systems of countries in the “global South.” From 2006 to 2009 various policies were configured in recognition of the rights for social equality and the development of an inclusive education system in the country. However, the delay in the transformation of the education system has erupted into protest activities by students at some academic institutions in the country – the # Fees Must Fall and the Decolonising of curriculum campaigns. The transformative learning theory will be used in this instance to explore the limits of a compensatory education system in relation to the current pathological social settings associated with manifesting the expected changes in the learning sphere. This chapter is a baseline analysis of the scope of possibilities of a multicultural perspective in this regard.

Intersecting Gender and Culture

Ethnoknowledge is practical information inherently accumulated by humanity and passed on from one generation to the next mostly by word of mouth in time and space. The knowledge is mainly esoteric, localized, and manifests in many different, unique, and useful formats with ethnopractitioners. This chapter demonstrates that the AbaWanga people of Kenya have developed potentially useful ethnomedicine systems based on ethnobotany, with more males than females participating as ethnopractitioners. This gendered divide is shaped and influenced by culture and practices that privilege men in the ethnopractitioner profession. In part, then, this chapter is anchored in feminist pedagogy and andragogy theories. Communities of practice and use of technology are offered as part of the strategies that can democratize and change learning processes amongst ethnopractitioners. Lastly, the chapter offers recommendations, suggests future research possibilities, and provides implications for ethnopractitioner learning.

Andragogy, Culture, and Adult Learning Worldviews

Adults differ from children in the ways they learn. This is not only due to the fact they have more experiences to relate to but also due to the motivations behind why they are learning. So why do so many teachers, trainers, and professionals teach courses and provided training to adults in the same manner as if they were teaching children? This discourse explores the adult learning construct of andragogy, applications of different andragogical approaches, and challenges and considerations of andragogy. It also briefly describes a quantitative andragogical scale that was developed, which may provide a useful tool to an otherwise qualitative concept. Finally, the chapter provides several adult learning worldview overviews to be used considered in conjunction with the application of andragogy to potentially increase andragogical effectiveness.

Manifesto for Critical Andragogy

The aim of educating adults not only concerns knowledge transference and intellectual mastery. The foundational theories and associated praxes are just as important, as they enable educators to critically observe human terrain and empower learners. This chapter proposes a fresh approach to andragogical learning design called critical andragogy. Using a neo-Marxist framework, the genesis of critical andragogy amalgamates literature from critical theory, critical pedagogy, critical multiculturalism, and transformative learning. Then, using a qualitative metasynthesis, that literature is critically analyzed, refined, and nested in the context of current why adult learners pursue new learning activities. The combination of the learner's purpose and the revised andragogical theory then become the outputs that culminate into a unified theory of critical andragogy that derivative of key principles extrapolated from current literature.