Discovering Radical Contingency: Building a Postmodern Agenda in Adult Education (Counterpoints)

Discovering Radical Contingency examines the implications of postmodern culture for education, particularly those involving adult learners. Against a critical review of modernist culture and education, a comparative account of the postmodern is posited. That account is reconfigured as a set of six tensions. These tensions are then used in exploring the nature of educational practice and engagement in postmodernity, from different perspectives: through dialogues with students of that practice; through case studies of practice; as descriptive tendencies of engagement; and as nodal forms of programmatic activity. The book closes with chapters examining the nature of educational research and the professional development of adult educators in postmodernity.