Category: Culture

Is President Obama Wavering on Gay Rights?

Anybody else see this editorial, A Bad Call for Gay Rights,  tucked away at the back of this morning’s New York Times? Let’s just say it is not a positive view on how the president is handling gay issues. It ends:

But busy calendars and political expediency are no excuse for making one group of Americans wait any longer for equal rights.

While I am not the biggest advocate in the world for marriage of any sort, I can’t help but wonder why the president seems to have done little to nothing (that I can tell) for a population that he so directly courted and still spares few opportunities to mention in an inclusive manner. I cannot imagine the stress and challenges President Obama faces; then again, I did not run for president.

Perhaps taking action is scheduled for later?

Centre for Qualitative Research’s 2008 Video (Bournemouth University)

I stumbled across this video (ok, a colleague sent me a link to it!) about what seems to have been a very interesting qualitative conference last year at Bournemouth University. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then perhaps this video may make an even more powerful statement for what this was about.

"Day Dreams, Night Games" from Kip Jones on Vimeo.

I wonder when the call for papers and information for the 2010 conference will be online, and I am interested to see how interdisciplinary (cf. my life and work) this conference may be. Perhaps I should put it on my proposed list for next year . . .

Snow Leopards in Central Park Zoo

The snow leopard exhibit at the Central Park Zoo just opened, and it promises to be an interesting and exciting exhibit. With only 8000 of these big cats left on earth, the NY Times reports that exhibits such as this one are intended to “enrich” the animals by providing a safe environment that even includes heated rocks and scents (cf. Estee Lauder) that they enjoy.

snow leopard What a change from the older zoos of circular cages and pacing, sad animals.

Adult Educators Speak Only to One Another?

talk to self I received an email yesterday from somebody asking if I knew if and where any of the speeches or presentations from the recent Adult Education Research Conference (AERC2009) were available online. Alas, except for the presentations and sessions I attended and liveblogged, I do not know if and where any of them (including the proceedings) are available. This is one of hte many reasons I liveblog—why fence the learning in and keep it only within the group?

Pity.

There were so many good ideas, so many calls for adult educators to both look back to remember our roots as well as look forward to redefine our work and differentiate ourselves. Alas, speaking to the troops is always easier than speaking to others, yet I have to wonder if these calls for self-reflection will lead to anything. Will we just speak to ourselves and bemoan the formal decline in the profession, or will we do something, anything, about it?

I do not want to be too harsh, yet it remains that as a specific field within education, adult education is in decline to the sexier fields of educational administration, human resource development, organizational studies, communication studies, and cultural studies.

Perhaps it is time for me to also redefine my work? Funny to think about that, as I have never stopped redesigning myself (cf. the Madonna effect), always seeing how my work and contributions develop (not quite change) depending on need and my own interests. The more I learn, the more I think I can offer.

Perhaps adult education as a field should do the same?