school diploma—with today's long and specialized training.
It can also be argued that the nature of society at any point in time determines the relative emphasis placed on adult learning. In preindustrial societies, the rate of change was such that what a person needed to know to function as an adult could be learned in childhood. In societies hurrying to catch up, however, and in our own society with its accelerated rate of change, the urgency of dealing with social realities is felt by adults. In this global, increasingly technologically interconnected world, “the context for adult learning is growing more complex” (Nicolaides & Marsick, 2016, p. 9). The challenge for learners and adult educators is to understand the learning context whether it be “simple, complicated, complex [or] chaotic” and to adapt our learning and teaching (p. 10). Further, social issues such as immigration and climate change and individual concerns such as those related to health or family or finances often result in individuals attending courses or learning informally about these issues.
Although adult education is responsive to the context in which it takes place, it affects that same context. Take, for example, enormous changes in our society brought on by advances in technology. Advances in telemedicine mean doctors can diagnose patients who live at a distance using increasingly sophisticated web-based communication and patients can use smartphone apps to monitor their health. Auto mechanics must now be trained to diagnose engine problems using computers; auto manufacturers tout self-driving cars; a smartphone can be turned into a 3D printer; misplaced items such as keys, wallets, and backpacks can be located via smartphone. Adult education has responded to these technological advances by offering courses to learn this technology so that we can better function in our digital environment.
Although the preceding examples of learning are particularly contemporary, historically there has always been an interlocking of adult learning needs with the social context in which they occur. The skills needed in colonial America reflected the agrarian context; further, since early settlers were fleeing religious persecution in Europe, there was a moral and religious imperative in learning to read so that one could study the Bible. After the Revolutionary War, the newly independent nation needed leaders and informed citizens to build the democratic society. In this new world, civic education, which included learning about philosophy, science, and politics, eclipsed religious education and became paramount in the education of adults.
With the Industrial Revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, industry-based skills training became a necessity. Also, because of the massive influx of immigrants to the United States at this time, “Americanization” and citizenship programs became a prominent form of adult education. It was felt that these immigrants needed to learn the ways of their adopted country so that they would “melt” into society. Interestingly, immigrants themselves organized their own schools to maintain their culture, but these were largely invisible to society at large.
Although a major thrust of adult education at any particular time reflects the sociohistorical context, varied purposes and learning interests coexist. We might argue that technology is a major thrust of learning today, but there is still job training, literacy, civic education, liberal (such as Great Books clubs) and leisure learning, along with community-based social-action initiatives. As Stubblefield and Keane (1994, p. 312) observed from their survey of adult education from colonial times until the present, regardless of the historical era, “Americans learned because there was knowledge to master, technology to adapt, and life's uncertainties to be resolved.”
Thus, to a large extent, the learning that goes on in adulthood can be understood through an examination of the social context in which it occurs. How is learning in adulthood shaped by the society in which it takes place? How does the sociocultural context determine what is learned and by whom?
This chapter explores three conditions characteristic of the current sociocultural context that are shaping the learning needs of adults in today's world: changing demographics, the global economy, and information and technology. Although we present each of these separately at first, these three factors are very much interrelated, and thus their convergence and subsequent impact on learning in adulthood are discussed in the final section of this chapter.
Changing Demographics
Changing demographics is a social reality shaping the provision of learning in contemporary American society. Demographics is about people, groups of people, and their respective characteristics. For the first time in our society, adults outnumber youth, there are more older adults, the population is better educated than ever before, and there is more cultural and ethnic diversity. For various reasons, individuals and groups of people seek out learning experiences; for other reasons, society targets learning activities for certain segments of the population. Thus, certain learning activities are learner initiated and others are society initiated in response to the changing demographics. The field is concerned with the growth and development of adult learners, while at the same time, there are emerging groups of learners with special needs.
To begin, there are simply more adults in our society than ever before, and the population will continue to age. In comparison to colonial times when half the population was under age 16, in 1990, fewer than one in four Americans were under age 16 and half were age 33 or older. The median age of the American population was 38 years in 2017 up from of 35.3 years in 2000 and this figure is expected to increase to 43 by 2060 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017b, 2018a, 2018b). The so-called Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are a contributing factor to this change in the population. The Baby Boomers started turning 65 in 2011 and by 2056 those over age 65 will outnumber individuals under 18 (Ortman, 2012, U.S. Census Bureau, 2017b).
The shift from a youth-oriented to an adult-oriented society is solidified by the increasing numbers of older adults in the population. In addition to an increase of persons over age 65, the oldest old, those over 85 years old, are the fastest-growing segment of the older population. The number of people age 85 and older is expected to grow from 5.8 million in 2010 to 19 million in 2050. This age group is expected to comprise 2.3% of the population in 2030 and 4.3% in 2050 (Vincent & Velkoff, 2010). In addition, the population over age 65 is expected to become increasingly racially diverse and the life expectancy gap between men and women is expected to narrow (Vincent & Velkoff, 2010).
Today's older adults are also increasingly better educated, in better health, and many are economically better off than previous cohorts. Society is already heeding their learning needs with policies like tuition waivers for higher and continuing education programs and specially designed programs, such as the popular Road Scholar program and learning-in-retirement institutes. There has also been a subtle change in the philosophical rationale—at least among those working in the fields of gerontology and educational gerontology—underlying the provision of education for this group. Along with an economic rationale (the better educated need fewer social services) and a social stability rationale (millions of healthy retired people need something to do) is an awareness that older adults as well as younger ones have an unending potential for development. The stereotypical idea of retirement as a time for cognitive decline and withdrawal seems to be slowly changing as an increasing number of individuals are reaching retirement age and the media, although still promoting some stereotypes, is showing older adults actively engaged in a wide variety of activities. Additionally, retirement communities arrange learning opportunities for their residents including lectures, travel, concerts, and discussion groups.
Thus, more adults and an increase in the number of older adults are two demographic factors influencing the provision of learning activities in our society. So, too, is the rising level of education characteristic of U.S. citizens. This is dramatically illustrated by the fact that 90% of the U.S. population age 25 or older has completed high school or higher levels of education, which compares with 24% in 1940 (Schmidt, 2018). Because previous education is the single best predictor of participation in adult education, the rising educational level of the adult population is a contextual factor of considerable import. For example, 66% of U.S. adults 26–35 years old participated in adult
