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Goals, principles, and practices for community-based adult education through the lens of a Hatcher-Assagioli synthesis
Abstract
This study examines how adult education can facilitate learning towards the full realization of human potential. It synthesizes two theories of human development, and applies this to the practice of community-based adult education carried out by trained facilitators who do not have formal degrees in the field of mental health. The first part of the methodology used modified analytic induction to carry out a synthesis between the works of William Hatcher (1935–2005) and Roberto Assagioli (1888–1974). The second part of the methodology works with the goals, principles, and practices which emerged from the lens” provided by this synthesis, and applies these to an analysis of the Integrated and Systemic Community Therapy (CT) approach to community-based adult education, in Brazil. The impetus for this study was a desire to move beyond limitations of the humanistic orientation in adult education towards a more holistic theory, which draws on and combines both scientific and spiritual views of human reality. The study theorizes that learning which supports the full realization of human nature should actively seek to a) foster a person’s ability to take action in the ‘outer world’ of human social relations (interpersonal dimension) while b) aligning one’s ‘inner world’ (intrapersonal dimension) with an emerging implicate order, which is the origin of the structure of reality. Based on its relevance to the expanding Community Therapy approach the conclusion of the study is that the “lens” of a Hatcher-Assagioli synthesis deserves to be applied and explored further. Key words: community-based adult education; William Hatcher; Roberto Assagioli; Integrated and Systemic Community Therapy; spirituality in adult education.
Subject Area
Adult education
Recommended Citation
Ayvazian, Andrea S, "Goals, principles, and practices for community-based adult education through the lens of a Hatcher-Assagioli synthesis" (2012). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI3545898.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3545898