The adult education literature offers little analysis and understanding of the practical knowledge of the program planning process planners hold and use. Rather, a comprehensive review of theoretical sources revealed the widespread use of the academic model, informed by Tyler’s rationale, which has yielded a linear model of planning and a technical view of planners. By contrast, the theoretical sources on practical knowledge and on curriculum and teachers’ thinking pointed to the use of an experiential model, informed by Schwab’s theoretical concepts, which has presented planning as deliberative, and planners as creators and possessors of knowledge. The purposes of the study were to: gain an understanding of the kinds of practical knowledge planners in a university continuing education unit find useful and relevant to their decision making in program planning; acquire a greater understanding of the planning process from their perspective; and develop categories for interpreting these understandings. The research was guided by an interpretive perspective and qualitative methods. The study was conducted in two phases. A pilot and a follow up study. In total, a purposive sample of six planners, two males and four females, none of whom had pursued graduate study in adult education, working in the same institution, were interviewed. It was concluded that practical knowledge, which informs planning practice, consists of three kinds of knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional which stand in dialectical relationship to one another; and that planning practice requires that planners have and use all three kinds of knowledge. Further, planning is indeterminate and contingent on the context and planners’ knowledge. These planners’ practical knowledge incorporates a framework of concepts, rules and routines or strategies, beliefs, values, principles, and metaphors of practice. This framework has implications for planners’ criteria of valid and reliable knowledge, informal and formal planning strategies, the ideological character of knowledge, and ethics of practice. As well, these planners use a combination of planning approaches which are directly related to the nature of the planning context and their own capabilities. The contextual and problematic nature of planning is made explicit. The study challenges the prevailing assumptions associated with a traditional view of planning.

The adult education literature offers little analysis and understanding of the practical knowledge of the program planning process planners hold and use. Rather, a comprehensive review of theoretical sources revealed the widespread use of the academic model, informed by Tyler’s rationale, which has yielded a linear model of planning and a technical view of planners. By contrast, the theoretical sources on practical knowledge and on curriculum and teachers’ thinking pointed to the use of an experiential model, informed by Schwab’s theoretical concepts, which has presented planning as deliberative, and planners as creators and possessors of knowledge. The purposes of the study were to: gain an understanding of the kinds of practical knowledge planners in a university continuing education unit find useful and relevant to their decision making in program planning; acquire a greater understanding of the planning process from their perspective; and develop categories for interpreting these understandings. The research was guided by an interpretive perspective and qualitative methods. The study was conducted in two phases. A pilot and a follow up study. In total, a purposive sample of six planners, two males and four females, none of whom had pursued graduate study in adult education, working in the same institution, were interviewed. It was concluded that practical knowledge, which informs planning practice, consists of three kinds of knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional which stand in dialectical relationship to one another; and that planning practice requires that planners have and use all three kinds of knowledge. Further, planning is indeterminate and contingent on the context and planners’ knowledge. These planners’ practical knowledge incorporates a framework of concepts, rules and routines or strategies, beliefs, values, principles, and metaphors of practice. This framework has implications for planners’ criteria of valid and reliable knowledge, informal and formal planning strategies, the ideological character of knowledge, and ethics of practice. As well, these planners use a combination of planning approaches which are directly related to the nature of the planning context and their own capabilities. The contextual and problematic nature of planning is made explicit. The study challenges the prevailing assumptions associated with a traditional view of planning. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Understanding the political nature of adult education program planning is important for practitioners and researchers. This multivariate study clarified the relationships between contextual factors (nature of the power relationship and degree of situational conflict), individual planner's characteristics (perceived problem solving effectiveness, years of experience program planning), and the use of different power and influencing tactics in adult education program planning. Based on theoretical models specified by Cervero and Wilson (1994) and later Yang (1996), the Problem Solving Inventory (Heppner, 1988) and the Power and Influencing Tactics Scale (Yang, 1996) provided instrumentation.A sample of 245 graduate students and faculty in Adult and/or Continuing Education programs completed the informed consent and all the self-report study instruments. Participants were middle-aged (M = 40.84), female (65.1%), and white (82.0%). Most held master's degrees (50.8%) or bachelor's degrees (41.1%) and worked in a public organization (57.1%) of moderate size. Most participants reported low conflict situations and strong perceived problem solving ability.Two significant canonical correlations were initially identified, though only the first held practical importance. In the first canonical correlation (Rc = 0.524; Rc ² = 0.275; p>0.01), high conflict was the singular meaningful predictor variable and there were several moderately strong criterion variables: high counteracting, low reasoning, and low consulting. This canonical correlation was named "When reasoning and consulting fail: counteracting in the face of conflict." Furthermore, in consensual planning situations, reasoning and consulting were favored, while counteracting was not. Three of the hypotheses that were generated to specifically test different uses of influencing tactics under different individual and contextual conditions were partially accepted. Being an early attempt to characterize complex constructs quantitatively, this study suggests that further work is needed to identify and measure the factors that are most critical. Future qualitative research should clarify the nature of power and conflict, and focus on describing the actual use of different influencing tactics in the field. Quantitative research should focus on reliability of instruments and theoretical model clarification with a broader range of adult education program planners. / Department of Educational Leadership

D. Ed. (Adult and Higher Education) / The aim of this study was to investigate and formulate criteria for distance education programmes at residential South African universities. The objectives of the study included the following perspectives: * Definition and conceptualization: to define and conceptualize the relevant concepts regarding distance education programmes for residential South African universities; * A perspective for change: to discuss the challenges faced by South African universities, comprising certain external and internal determinants, in order to justify the reconsideration of present university education programmes; * A perspective on residential university education: to analyze the composition and format of residential university education programmes. * A perspective on distance education university programmes: to analyze the composition and format of distance education university programmes. * A comparative perspective: to compare typical residential and distance education university programmes. * A perspective on the criteria: to design criteria for distance education programmes at residential universities, which could be employed as recommendations for implementing such programmes.