Power, Politics, and Adult Educational Administration

This book seeks to draw out the impacts of power, politics, and critical theory on the growth of adult learning in a small liberal arts college setting. Using critical theory as an analytical tool to investigate questions around budgeting, academic quality, and student access, this volume shows how these issues are inextricably bound up with those of hegemony, ideology, and bureaucratic rationality. The author demonstrates, too, how acknowledging these influences at the outset leads to a sustainable and equitable adult learning environment. Through an emphasis on both organizational context and individual learning experiences, this volume contributes new substance to the understanding of politics and power relationships in educational leadership.

John Kokolus is the Founding Dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at Elizabethtown College, USA.

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Continuing Education Timeline at Elizabethtown College: 1899-2014 Part One: Beginnings Chapter 3: Partnerships in Adult Education and the Impact of Critical Theory Chapter 4: Critical Theory's Structural Democratic Impulse Chapter 5: Challenges to the Status Quo Part Two: Accreditation and the Continuing Education Plan Chapter 6: Self-Studies: 1998 and 2009 Chapter 7: New Plan for Continuing Education - Part I Part Three: Faculty Chapter 8: New Plan for Continuing Education - Part II Chapter 9: New Plan for Continuing Education - Part III Part Four: Locations Chapter 10: New Plan for Continuing Education - Part IV Part Five: Class Conflict Chapter 11: Conflicts Between Adult and Traditional Students Part Six: Staff Chapter 12: Stresses and Strains of Critical Theory on the Front Line Part Seven: The Rhetoric of Academic Quality Chapter 13: Faculty Assessment Process as a Gateway for Affiliated Faculty Conclusion References