Mark Selman
Celebrating, Learning and Planning
Adult education in Canada has a distinctive history, thanks in large part to the early leadership of E.A.
Corbett, an early director of the Extension Department at the University of Alberta and the founding
director of the Canadian Association of Adult Education. Corbett pushed adult education into becoming
an active agent of social justice and social change. The CAAE Manifesto of 1943 is perhaps the most
cogent statement of this perspective. Looking back on 100 years of accomplishments in Extension at
U of A and the briefer but honourable life of the CAAE, what can we learn to position ourselves for the
challenge of the next hundred years, or the next seven generations, as many First Nations define a
reasonable planning cycle.
A few sources for inspiration will be reviewed. 1. Most adult education practice was and continues to
be carried on outside of universities by people who have not ever really thought about adult education
as an academic field. How can we build more and better bridges to these aspects of the field? 2.
Understanding the most significant features of the Canadian-ness of our practice. What about our history as a far-flung, multi-cultural society trying to transcend its colonizing history might equip us to make new contributions in the future? 3. The scale of the challenges facing society at present is daunting.
Economic inequality, technologies that develop faster than our social capacity to make good decisions
about them, the social and economic consequences of global climate change, and the pressing
challenges of reconciliation between First Nations and the rest of society all have important educational
dimensions. What roles are adult educators going to play in rising to those challenges? The speaker
does not promise adequate answers to these questions but thinks that studying them together is an
important undertaking in its own right.
Speaker Biography
Mark Selman is director of Executive MBA programs that are customized to meet the needs of managers in specific industries and a new EMBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership, at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University. Mark is active in many community organizations including serving as Vice-President and Treasurer of the Carold Institute, Interim Executive Director of the Ahp-cii-uk Community Society, and as a board member of the Aboriginal Mother Centre. In the past, he has served on the board of the Canadian Association of Adult Education and as president of the Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education. Mark’s research interests have focused on philosophical topics in education, especially in adult education, more recently he has been involved in looking at social and economic development in First Nations communities and on entrepreneurial decision-making. As a lifelong learner, he has been studying the relationships between indigenous thought and western traditions in philosophy. Mark has collaborated with Gordon Selman in writing both The Foundations of Adult Education in Canada, and “The Life and Death of the Adult Education Movement in Canada.”
March 30 Keynote Speaker:
Terry Anderson
New Technologies, New Problems
Terry Anderson overviews developments, promises and challenges of the technologies and the
pedagogies used to support lifelong learning. Although a long time proponent of the use of technologies
for teaching and learning, he is old enough to realize that every new development brings with it the new
challenges, new expectations and new costs. He will overview these developments and try to stimulate a discussion on the ways that technologies and the way they are used both support and challenge
emerging models of lifelong learning.
Terry Anderson
New Technologies, New Problems
Terry Anderson overviews developments, promises and challenges of the technologies and the
pedagogies used to support lifelong learning. Although a long time proponent of the use of technologies
for teaching and learning, he is old enough to realize that every new development brings with it the new
challenges, new expectations and new costs. He will overview these developments and try to stimulate a discussion on the ways that technologies and the way they are used both support and challenge
emerging models of lifelong learning.
Speaker Biography
Terry's first academic appointment was in the Faculty of Extension, where he directed a missionary effort to save the University of Alberta through more effective use of technologies for teaching and learning. Ten years ago, he left the Extension Faculty for Athabasca University and a Canada Research Chair in Distance Education. He continues to work at Athabasca today, teaching in the Master’s and Doctorate of Distance Education programs. He is also a widely published author and editor, a regular on the international distance education keynote circuit and struggling to learn to play the new hammer dulcimer he bought for his wife for Christmas.
