Motives for Enrollment

While the life history of nearly all study members indicates the stimuli of disorienting dilemmas that Mezirow (1991) propounds as the first step in perspective transformation, economic factors appear to be the predominant impetus for participants’ enrollment in adult education programs. Other causative factors include the encouragement of family, friends, and social workers, the desire to set an example for others, and a deep-felt longing for self-improvement and self- actualization.

The Need for Self-Sufficiency

Thirteen men and women sought to improve their academic skills in order to succeed in their current jobs or to enter training programs. Ronald explains:

It about came to a point where your job calls for education. You have to be able to read and spell. I had to do something. So the wife saw an ad in the paper on literacy, and I felt right there that I was going to give it a try. I felt, what have I got to lose, give it a try!

Fifteen women entered ABLE programs after abuse, a divorce, or the death of their spouse. These women hoped to improve their children’s lives and looked to education as the first step toward self sufficiency.

I had two kids and I was on Welfare. That was the only life I knew since I became pregnant. I was working on my own but I wasn’t making any money. I was living with some elderly woman, cleaning her house for room and board. I was only making $5 a week but that was enough for me at the time. I became pregnant. I had two boys at the time and the father and I weren’t going anywhere. I decided to go back. I didn’t want Welfare. I wanted to take care of my own. Gina

Encouragement by Others

Encouragement and a belief in the value of education were causative factors in the following adult learners’ decisions to enroll in adult education. Five participants cited physical and/or mental injuries as the cause for their enrollment. Except for Fran who began teaching herself English as a cure for depression, other members of this category were referred to adult education by social service agencies. Oliver, who suffered from memory loss as a result of head injuries, decided to do something about it, and recalls:

when my grandson was 11, he was reading a newspaper article and sitting there talking to his dad about it, telling his dad what he read, and I couldn’t figure out why (he was so young) that I couldn’t read. So I went to rehab and told the lady out there that was a speech specialist, I told her I wanted to learn how to read, and that’s when it was started.

Nine men and women were encouraged by family, friends, social workers and teachers/tutors to attend adult education classes.