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.

Autorentext

The Author: Richard G. Bagnall works in the Philosophy of Education, with a particular focus on adult education. His Ph.D., on the classification of adult education events, is from Florida State University. Presently, he works as Associate Professor of Adult and Vocational Education at Griffith University in Australia. His many research papers focus on a diversity of issues and concerns in educational practice and theory. Two collections of those papers recently have been published in Australia under the titles, Conceptualising Adult Education for Research and Development and Issues and Implications in the Epistemology and Ethics of Adult Education Events.