Contradictory Interests

Of course, we cannot ignore as well the substantial interests that adult basic educators in Canada have as a professional group in continued support for the liberal perspective as an ideology which legitimates their professional roles and the objectives of the Institutions which hire them. As members of the, "new" petite bourgeoisie, they function as Intermediaries between capital and labour. called upon by the ruling class to make state and corporate bureaucracies run smoothly--a task which requires that they actively obscure and mystify class Inequality in the eyes of the working class clients of these bureaucracies (e.g. the Canada Manpower Training Program).

However, adult basic educators in Canada have somewhat contradictory Interests at both the professional and class levels. For example, their professional position is marked by insecurity. Funding for adult basic education is precarious at best and is sufficiently unstable as to prevent the full emergence of a professional body with a secure core Identity. ABE remains a part-time or intermittent vocation for many, and even full-time workers in this area are often not treated with the same respect and consideration as other teaching professionals. As well, the introduction of ABE 'packages' threatens to deskill their labors, I.e. to reduce their role to one of monitoring the use of preprogrammed materials. These factors tend to discourage their self-identification as a privileged professional stratum.

Alternatively, a structural, feature which encourages their identification with the working class is the fact that ABE has not been taken over by the Canadian state to the same extent as is the case with other forms of education. To a large extent, it remains at the margins of institutionalized education. As a result, many of those working in the field have found employment in non-government sectors offering ASE opportunities, including organizations and movements in which working class elements have a considerable degree of control, such as various community organizations, Native Indian groups, etc. The presence of such individuals within the profession has meant that it, unlike professional bodies with more extensive and secure establishment connections, has had to respond more to a working class world view.

Several historical factors favour links between Canadian ABE professionals and the working class. One of these is a "social movement orientation", a marginal but significant ideological tendency within the adult education profession stemming from the early influence of radical populist movements in Canada which employed adult education as part of their basic approach to mobilizing oppressed peoples. 2 Another factor is the history of the development of the adult education ideology in Canada. One of the most important elements to be incorporated in it has been the progressive education philosophy, derived principally from John Dewey, and adapted for adult education by Eduard Lindeman 3 and others in the U.S. and J.R. Kidd 4 and others in Canada. In its original form this philosophy contained some elements which, while firmly embedded within a liberal political vision, can be considered at least incipiently critical in their support for an active, inquiring stance in education.