Thesis (D.Ed.) in Literacy Education--University of Maine, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-142).

Thesis (EdD)--Open University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1933. / Without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 193-199.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1933. / Without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 193-199.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 1988. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [121]-139.

Thesis (B.A.)--University of Sydney, 1967. / Title from title screen (viewed 5th March, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts to the University of Sydney. Degree awarded 1961. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microform.

Relationships among education, oppression and class have been presented and explained in distinct and different ways by different social theories, namely, neo-classical and orthodox Marxist determinist, conflationist, and Marxian overdeterminist theories. Human practice, following these different social theories has had, and may continue to produce, different social structures, some of them disastrous, irrespective of whether the disasters are intended or not. Others carry in them seeds of freedom and justice. Determinist theories have contributed to disastrous human practice by being exclusionary in approach, picking either education or oppression as their entry points to which they assigned the privileged position of causality, independent of all other processes. The class process is one of those omitted processes because determinist theories had thought it would be wiped out following changes in education or oppression processes. Conflationist theory has formulated its logic differently, gliding education into oppression, presenting and explaining them to mean the class process. Result: changes have occurred in human practice which are nothing other than continual reformulations of the cultural process of education whose guiding threads are those determinist and conflationist theories. Politics, too, has been reformulated to mean competition for power--a process that tends toward oppression even if unintended. The class process itself has either been denied existence in contemporary society or inessentialized vis-a-vis education and oppression, leaving it untouched in the process of changes in education and oppression. This study rests on an alternative methodological standpoint with respect to how education, oppression and class are related, and how they might be removed. Using alternative Marxian theory, whose logic is overdetermination, I present and explain these three distinct and different processes and their relationships. The method of overdetermination understands the processes of education, oppression, and class to be mutually and contradictorily related. Its political implications, which this thesis tries to accentuate as having a promise in achieving freedom and justice, are that changes must simultaneously occur in education, oppression, and class processes. Following this viewpoint, overdetermination believes a different set of processes will constitute a free and just society. Those processes are politics, classlessness, and non-indoctrinational education.

This research explores the question of whether the current thinking in the adult education literature on how to teach adult students reflects the best thinking about good teaching. Two bodies of literature are reviewed. First, the literature on good teaching is reviewed to get a sense of the dominant ideas about how to recognize and judge good teaching. Then, the literature on teaching adults is reviewed both to determine the dominant ideas and to analyze the extent to which those ideas are reflective of the best ideas about good teaching. In depth interviews are presented with four people who teach in undergraduate programs at colleges or universities and who teach both 18 to 22-year old undergraduates and adult students. The teachers were asked to talk about their lives growing up and being students in order to show the effect of those events on their ideas about teaching. Each teacher then discussed the question of good teaching by talking about his or her own teaching practices. The analysis of the interviews concludes that none of the teachers use practices that are advocated in the adult education literature. The teachers all acknowledge that adult students are different from their younger counterparts; none of them say that those differences are fundamental to the activity of teaching. The conclusion of the dissertation is that good teaching is good teaching, no matter the age of the student, and that the adult education literature does not generally reflect the best ideas about good teaching. In fact, the research points out that much of the literature in the entire field of education does not incorporate the best ideas about good teaching. More research needs to be done on good teaching, and more work needs to be done to ensure that the best ideas about good teaching are reflected in the education literature.

This study has addressed the need for greater understanding of the part education for social change plays in the process of creating a more just, equitable, and humane society. The purpose of this study has been to develop a better understanding of education for social change through examining the case of Highlander Center, a leader and pioneer in American education in the Appalachian region, and its efforts to create greater economic democracy and a more just and democratic society. Initially the author presents the case of Highlander Center and a review of the literature of education for social change to establish a conceptual foundation for this phenomenon and to provide examples of this alternative educational approach. The study then focuses on the qualitative case study methodology that was used in collecting data through open-ended, in-depth interviews with Highlander Center staff and program participants, participant observation at Highlander Center education for social change workshops and trainings, site observations of program participants' efforts in four communities in three Appalachian states, and document analysis. Five themes are used to present the findings of the study: (1) The Economic Problem in Appalachia, (2) Forces That Aid Social Change Toward Greater Economic Democracy, (3) Forces That Constrain Change Toward Greater Economic Democracy, (4) Highlander Center Education for Social Change, and (5) The Part Education for Social Change Plays in the Process of Creating a Society That Is More Democratic and Just. Finally, a summary and interpretation of the research findings are presented, implications for education for social change including a Social and Human Reality Framework of Education for Social Change are discussed, and suggestions are made for further research.