No rational field of study or practice would choose to occupy organizational or social margins. Or would it?

Adult educators increasingly risk and resist being placed at the margins of academic and other organizations. This volume argues that depending on how those margins are defined, margins can be a place of creativity and power from which to examine and challenge domincant ideology and practice. Chapters explore advances and effective practices being made in the margins of adult education from several perspectives including community-based programs, interreligious learning, human resource development, African-American underrrepresentation in the academy, and degree granting adult education programs.  Other areas explored include an interdiciplinary Web-based patient education research program and educational focus on citizenship and public responsibility skills.

This volume moves beyond the traditional definition of the margin as a power- and resource-poor position in which individuals are relegated to supporting roles and demonstrates how to embrace, expand, and blend the margins of adult education by collaborating with others to influence the mainstream.

This is the 104th issue of the Jossey-Bass quarterly series New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education.