Prominent Themes in International Andragogy Around the Globe

Abstract

Reconfiguring many hundreds of historical and philosophical andragogy documents in this research into six major themes was a formidable but worthy task. In short, Theme 1 included Draper's outlining a worldwide historical background on andragogy; Theme 2 emphasizes Savicevic's panoramic sweep of andragogy's development in the European setting; Theme 3 presents a comparison of Savicevic's European perspective and Knowles' American perspective; Theme 4 garners Newman's view of Knowles process for effectively identifying adult learner needs; Theme 5 offers Ingalls' idea of using andragogy in corporations; and Theme 6 supports Biao's contention that only andragogues teach andragogy. Knowles' presentation declared andragogy as a ‘breakthrough' in the adult education field. Draper offered an overview of historical forces influencing the origin and use of the term ‘andragogy'. Henschke and Savicevic bring together ancient sources that are antecedent developments of andragogy.