CHALLENGING THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF ADULT EDUCATION: JOHN OHLIGER AND CONTRADICTIONS IN MODERN PRACTICE

"John Ohliger made you angry, made you think, made you laugh, made you want to sing, made you read literature late into the night and poetry when you might have been working. His remarkable story is of the making of the most influential adult education intellectual in the United States of the twentieth century working outside the university. Grace and Rocco deliver the goods on this complex and challenging activist adult educator."? —Budd Hall, director, Office of Community-Based Research, University of Victoria?
"I met John Ohliger just once. He was a crusty, challenging, eccentric, wonderful man. This is a remarkable book about that wonderful man, in which you can hear Ohliger's own voice and then read a whole crowd of leading thinkers in the field of adult education reflecting on his legacy. You do not get this kind of quality thinking between two covers too often." —Michael Newman, author, Teaching Defiance?
"John Ohliger was a quite unique adult educator and he made his impression on American adult education. Educators should know his work and this book provides an excellent introduction to it. The authors are to be commended for making it known to a new generation." —Peter Jarvis, editor, International Journal of Lifelong Education?

André P. Grace is McCalla Research Professor and director of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services in the Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Tonette S. Rocco is associate professor and program leader of the Adult Education and Human Resource Development Program at Florida International University. She is a Cyril O. Houle Scholar.

The strengths of the book are many. It not only serves as a biography, it takes readers through the philosophy of adult education as practice, not just a “profession,” and informs readers of the history and politics of Ohliger's time. It also does a nice job of comparing the various philosophies and pedagogical understandings of those past and present in the field of adult education.
— Debra L. Dukes, From NACADA Journal

Foreword (Michael R. Welton).
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
The Authors.
Part One: Introduction.
1. John Funnell Ohliger: A Brief Biography of His Life and Vocations (André P. Grace and Tonette S. Rocco).
2. Mediating Challenges in Adult Education and Culture: John Ohliger’s Radical Social Project (André P. Grace and Tonette S. Rocco).
Part Two: In Ohliger’s Words: Accent on the Social from a Radical Liberal Perspective.
3. Adult Education: 1984 (John Ohliger).
4. Is Lifelong Adult Education a Guarantee of Permanent Inadequacy? (John Ohliger).
5. The Social Uses of Theorizing in Adult Education (John Ohliger).
6. Lifelong Learning as Nightmare (John Ohliger).
7. Forum: You Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Laugh (John Ohliger).
8. A CautiousWelcome to the New Millennium (John Ohliger).
Part Three: Challenging Professionalization in an Emerging Field of Study and Practice.
9. Contesting Adult Education as a Venture: John Ohliger’s Critique of Modern Practice (André P. Grace).
10. The Adult Educator as Public Intellectual (David Yamada).
11. Informing Learning for Today’s Professionals: Lessons from the Social Critique of Mandatory Continuing Education (Tonette S. Rocco).
12. Icons and Pariahs: Mentorship and the Archaeology of Adult Education (Jeff Zacharakis).
13. Moving Beyond Radical Pessimism: Valuing Critical Perspectives (Michael Collins).
Part Four: Narrations on the Life of a Radical Social Educator: Legacies and Critiques.
14. Outside Looking In: Challenges to the Professional Field (Phyllis M. Cunningham).
Reflection: Critical and Radical Themes Abetting Learning for Life andWork (André P. Grace).
15. A Mindful Commitment to ConnectingWomen Toward Intellectual Community (Lee Karlovic).
Reflection: On Bread, Roses, and Paradox (Elizabeth J. Tisdell).
16. CulturalWork in the Trenches: John Ohliger and Paul Robeson (Stephen Brookfield).
Reflection: God Damn the Pushers (André P. Grace).
17. John Ohliger’s Legacy to Building Social Democracy:WORTS and All (Christina (Chris) Wagner).
Reflection: Honoring People, Valuing Ideas, Honoring John (André P. Grace).
Name Index.
Subject Index.