2. Andragogy and Andagogues

In the title and throughout this book a central term is “Andragogy”. On several occasions, I tried to explain the meaning and function of this term: Andragogy can be defined as the “discipline, the subject of which is the study of education and learning of adults in all its forms of expression” (Savicevic, 1999, p. 97). The subsequent chapter was published in an encyclopedia. Forthcoming chapters will go deeper into the understanding and helpfulness of using this term.

2.1 Andragogy (2005)1

The term andragogy has been used in different times and countries with various connotations. There are three main understandings: (a) andragogy as the scholarly approach to the learning of adults, viewed as the science of understanding and supporting their lifelong and lifewide

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education; (b) andragogy in the tradition of Malcolm Knowles, which refers to a specific theoretical and practical approach based on a humanistic conception of learners who are self-directed and autonomous, where teachers who work with learners to facilitate their learning are also in a learning mode; this understanding is most common in the United States; and (c) andragogy used in an unclear way, with its meaning changing from “adult education practice” or “desirable values” or “specific teaching methods," to refer to “reflections” or a specific “academic discipline,” as well as the “opposite of childish pedagogy.” Terms make sense in relation to the object they name. Relating the development of the term to the historical context may explain the differences.

The History of Andragogy

The first person to use the term andragogy, as far as we know, was the German high-school teacher Alexander Kapp in 1833. In a book entitled ‘Plato's Educational Ideas’ he describes the lifelong necessity to learn. Midway through that book, which begins with a section on early childhood, there is a section on adulthood entitled “Die Andragogik oder Bildung im maennlichen Alter” (Andragogy or Education in the Man's Age); a replica of this book can be found onwww.andragogy.net and on page 31 in this book. In 60 pages, Kapp argues that education, self-reflection, and character education are the first values of human life. He then refers to vocational education for those in the healing professions, soldiers, educators, orators, rulers, and men as fathers. In a common pedagogical pattern, Kapp includes and combines the education of inner, subjective personality (character) and outer, objective competencies; for Kapp, learning happens not only through teachers, but also through self-reflection and life experience, and is about more than teaching adults.

Kapp does not explain the term andragogik, and it is not clear whether he invented it or whether he borrowed it from somebody else. He does not develop a theory but justifies andragogy as the practical necessity of the education of adults. Yet it was not considered unique, which may be the reason why the term lay fallow: other terms and ideas were available. The idea of adult learning was not unusual in the time around 1833, neither in Europe (Enlightenment movement, reading-societies, workers' education, educational work of churches), nor in America (Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Lowell Institute in Boston, Lyceum Movement, town libraries, museums, agricultural societies); all had important dates between 1820-40. The existing initiatives had their own terminology, so a new term was not needed.

The Second and Third Invention

In the 1920s, Germany adult education became a field of theorizing, especially among a group of scholars from various disciplines, the so-called “Hohenrodter Bund,” who developed in theory and