Stephen Brookfield – författare

This book provides a critical examination of the myths surrounding adult education and its practice.

“Stephen Brookfield disturbs and enriches the entire field of adult learning with this brilliant piece of teaching.”Robert Kegan, Harvard University, USA.

“Simplifying without eroding the complexity of critical theory, Brookfield traverses the grand themes of ideology, power, alienation, liberation, reason and democracy; showing how they inform the adult education practice of fostering critical thinking and critical reflection.”Mark Tennant, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

“I learned more from this book than from dozens of other adult education publications… This book is sure to become a major reference text in the field.”Elizabeth Hayes, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

“…A lucid, accessible overview of how critical theory (with its daunting vocabularies and internal debates) illuminates the contexts of adult learning and orients teaching practices.”Michael Welton, Mount St. Vincent University, Canada.

“This is a sophisticated and comprehensive treatment of the power of Socratic questioning of dogmas and a prophetic witness against the conservative status quo …a must read for all seriously engaged teachers.”Cornel West, Princeton University, USA

This major contribution to the literature on adult education provides adult educators with an accessible overview of critical theory’s central ideas. Using many direct quotes from the theorists’ works, Brookfield shows how critical theory illuminates the everyday practices of adult educators and helps them make sense of the dilemmas, contradictions and frustrations they experience in their work.

Drawing widely on central texts in critical theory, Brookfield argues that a critical theory of adult learning must focus on understanding how adults learn to challenge ideology, contest hegemony, unmask power, overcome alienation, learn liberation, reclaim reason and practice democracy. These tasks form the focus of successive chapters, while later chapters review the central contentions of critical theory through the contemporary lenses of race and gender. The final chapter reviews adult educational practices and looks at what it means to teach critically.

Essential reading for anyone teaching, working in, studying or researching adult education.

Powerful Techniques for Teaching in Lifelong Learning is a practical handbook that offers a range of helpful ideas and approaches for working with older learners. Written in an accessible and conversational style, it draws on the author’s vast experience of working with older learners and tackles some of the major challenges and problems you are likely to face in teaching older learners, such as addressing inequality and diversity and dealing with resistance.

Over fifty techniques, exercises and methods explained in the book promote:

Teaching for critical thinkingUsing discussionSelf directed learningCreating democratic classroomsTeaching about powerTeaching through the creative arts The book is informed by a particular understanding of what constitutes a powerful technique, taking into account the power relationships that exist in the adult classroom and empowering students to develop a sense of their own agency and confidence in their abilities as learners.

With its wide range of ideas, examples and case studies that illustrate how the approaches work in practice, this is an excellent resource for anyone working in the lifelong learning sector looking to invigorate their teaching techniques.

“Brookfield writes in a nice easy-to-read autobiographical style. He explains and fully discusses many good techniques for teaching in an effective and humane manner. Everybody who teaches, whether they teach children or adults, will benefit from reading this interesting book and learning from his lifetime of experience as a teacher.”Peter Jarvis, Emeritus Professor of Continuing Education University of Surrey, UK

“This book is not about increasing your power as a teacher – it is about the dynamics of power in the adult classroom, challenging power structures, and the techniques teachers can use to empower learners. Brookfield uses the lens of ‘power’ to distill, for the practitioner, a lifetime’s work of scholarly and practical engagement with adult teaching and learning.”Mark Tennant, Emeritus Professor, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

“As he explores the pervasive nature of power in teaching, Stephen Brookfield takes us inside his own teaching, offering a treasure trove of practical ideas – what works and what doesn’t work – in pursuit of democratic educational practices. While reading, I felt as though I was talking with a colleague about his struggles, his strategies, and some of what he has learned across forty years of teaching adults. If you want to see how one of the most widely read academics in adult education brings his scholarship into pedagogical practices, read this book! It will be something you go to time and again for ways to make your teaching more democratic.”Dan Pratt, Ph.D., Professor & Senior Scholar,University of British Columbia, Canada

Originally published in 1988, this book provides perspective on conceptualisations of adult education in the late 20th century, the range of providing agencies and the varying orientations towards defining the role of the adult educator. It draws together and contextualises a selection of the most important readings on adult education theory and practice. The book will help develop critically reflective practitioners on adutl education courses - educators aware of the assumptions underlying their practice and capable of identifying theories and placing both theory and practice within the wider and ever-changing socio-politico context.