IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD PROFESSIONALISM AMONG ADULT EDUCATORS.

Abstract

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217 p.

Adult educators have been engaged in recent years in an ideological debate on the merits of professionalizing adult education. Although those in the occupation debate this issue, nowhere is the term "professionalism" clearly defined. The literature on this topic confirms the complexity of the term, and little empirical data exist to clarify the degree of actual disagreement in the ideological debate.Therefore, this study addresses three research questions: (a) What are adult educators' attitudes and ideological orientation toward professionalism? (b) What is the relationship between adult educators' ideological orientation and attitudes toward professionalism? (c) What is the relationship between adult educators' demographic characteristics and their ideological orientation?Data were collected on adult educators who belong to professional adult education associations by means of the Adult Education Profile (AEP). This instrument contains 38 items related to 19 professional dimensions found in the sociological literature. In order to assess adult educators' ideological orientation, three ideology groups were identified based on a three-item ideology scale. These groups were labeled traditional, moderate, and non-traditional according to their relative support of a traditional understanding of professionalism.The findings indicate widespread support among adult educators for 13 of the 19 professional dimensions. Attitudes related to public service receive the strongest support, while occupational self-regulation and dimensions closely associated with the traditional medical model receive the least support. A positive correlation between ideological viewpoint and attitudes toward professionalism is reported for all but two professional dimensions. For example, individuals with traditional ideology scores have higher scores on most professional dimensions. Demographic variables were found to have minimal relationships with adult educators' ideological orientation toward professionalism.The study provides the beginnings of an empirically-constructed definition of the professionalism of adult education. In addition, it reveals that many adult educators support professionalism but reject the traditional model of professionalism. A more inclusive, client-centered model of professionalism is suggested.