In 1957, The University of British Columbia launched Canada's first degree-granting
program in adult education. It subsequently grew to be one of the largest departments in the
Faculty of Education, and recognized internationally for its work. As it grew, however, the
program lost its initial administrative privilege. This study asks why UBC had the honour of
this Canadian "first," and how the program flowed and ebbed. It shows the relations between the
department's administrative and intellectual activities, and how the program fit British
Columbia's social development more generally. The study concludes that the successes were
largely opportunistic, as the program profited from the changing face of higher education more
generally and privileges secured under an early administrative regime. The program's failure was
that it did not create a stable identity independent of these opportunities: it failed to gain
recognition from academic outsiders as the home of distinct adult education research and
knowledge, and it failed to become the gatekeeper of a controlled profession.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11050 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Damer, Eric John |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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