Creating a livable world requires more than just new knowledge and technology; it also requires sustained and expert practice in learning and education. The Adult and Extension Education (AEE) program provides opportunities for graduate students to investigate participatory educational and organizing practices that link learning to the challenge of facilitating global sustainability.
- Contact Information
- Scott Peters
Associate Professor
417 Kennedy Hall
Phone: (607) 255-9713
E-mail: sp236@cornell.edu
- Overview of the AEE Program
- Program Participation
- Admission
- Degree Programs
- Practice Concentrations
- AEE Courses
- Programmatic Alliances
- Research Methods
As public universities focus their research, teaching, and extension on domestic and global environmental, political, and social problems, the AEE program focuses on creating opportunities for critical reflection on adult, extension, and international education by connecting action and research. We seek to move beyond procedural questions of "how to do it" to critical institutional questions of who does and who should benefit from our adult, extension, and international educational work. Our aim is to engage practitioners and graduate students in critical reflection on practice to create practical theory from and for action.
Participation in the AEE program helps scholars and practitioners prepare for adult and extension educational leadership and professional roles in domestic and international community-based, non-governmental, and governmental organizational settings. Areas of expertise and inquiry include: participatory practices in research, community development, and adult education; public scholarship, university extension/outreach, and community organizing in the United States; international adult and extension education; learning in adulthood; educational planning and program development; continuing professional education; staff development; and health issues related to the education of adults.
Graduate students in AEE develop interdisciplinary programs of empirical and theoretical inquiries of adult, extension, and/or international education. Using a reflective practice approach to professional development, graduate programs of study include:
- the study of ethical, political, social, empirical, and theoretical dimensions of practical educational endeavors;
- critical analyses of current and historical practices in adult, extension, and international education;
- the theoretical and practical integration of adult, extension, and international education with other disciplinary endeavors; and
- the democratic praxis of education in a global environment.
Successful applicants to the AEE program will demonstrate in their statements of purpose and supporting documentation that:
- they have practical experience as adult, extension, and/or international educators;
- their study and research interests are focused on learning and education in adult, extension, and/or international education;
- they have a clearly articulated interest in research as a central dimension of their graduate study and their educational practice;
- they clearly articulate a coherent vision of how their educational research in graduate study will enable them to achieve their practical career goals; and
- they indicate how their research interests in graduate study align in significant ways with the research interests and expertise of the AEE faculty (see Practice Concentrations and individual faculty website information).
In consultation with their advisory committees, graduate students for Masters of Professional Studies (M.P.S.), Masters of Science (M.S.), or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees take courses in social and philosophical foundations; adult, extension, and international education; and introductory and advanced research methods. AEE students should also generally expect to develop programs of inter-disciplinary study that integrate their course and research work in AEE with other disciplinary pursuits available at Cornell (see Practice Concentrations and examples of Programmatic Alliances following).
AEE faculty represent professional practice and research areas in adult education, community development, continuing professional education, extension education in the United States, health education, international agricultural education, international extension, and staff development:
Professor Rosemary S. Caffarella - Adult Education
Professor Margaret M. Kroma - International Extension
Professor Scott Peters - University Outreach and Extension in the United States
Professor Arthur L. Wilson - Adult Education
See individual AEE faculty website locations for their specific research programs and practice expertise. Program participants will typically focus their study in a practice concentration which in turn will influence the selection of AEE program courses and allied discipline courses.
- EDUC 220 Community Learning & Service Partnerships
- EDUC 632 Teaching Agricultural, Extension, and Adult Education
- EDUC 633 Program Planning in Adult & Extension Education
- EDUC 668 Narrative Inquiry in Social Science and Action Research
- EDUC 680 Foundations of Adult Extension Education
- EDUC 681 Democracy, Science, and Education
- EDUC 682 Community Education & Development
- EDUC 683 Adult Education & Globalization: Comparative Perspectives
- EDUC 685 Training & Development: Theory & Practice
- EDUC 694 Cultural Studies & Discourse Analysis in Education
- EDUC 694 Social Learning in/for Community
- EDUC 718 Adult Learning & Development
- EDUC 783 Farmer-Centered Research and Extension
A major purpose of AEE's graduate program is to connect learning, education, and organizing research and practice to other 
professional disciplines to develop interdisciplinary approaches to the challenges of promoting global sustainability. To achieve this purpose it is important to emphasize that graduate study at Cornell University nearly always requires interdisciplinary study. Consequently, AEE students will in nearly all cases establish advisory committees and programs of study with the major in AEE and two minors for doctoral study and one minor for masters study (minor study nearly always requires additional course work in the minor field). This is a hallmark of graduate study at Cornell which the AEE program seeks to embody. Accordingly AEE has developed and continues to develop program and discipline alliances throughout the university. There is no complete list of all the disciplines, departments, courses, centers, and institutes that could be linked with AEE programs of study. Following are examples of current and past AEE linkages:
CALS Departments:
- Animal Science
- Applied Economics and Management
- Communication
- Crop and Soil Sciences
- Development Sociology
- Horticulture
- Natural Resources
Other University Departments and Divisions:
Cornell Cooperative Extension:
- Public Policy & Public Issues Education
- Youth Community Action Program Work Team
- Extension Educator of the Future Committees
- CCE New Staff Introduction Workshops
- CCE Program and Professional Development
Institutes, Centers, & Programs:
- Bartels Action Research Fellowship Program
- Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI)
- Community, Food, and Agriculture Program
- Community Learning & Service Partnerships (CLASP)
- Cornell Center for the Environment
- Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program
- Cornell International Institute for Food Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD)
- Cornell Participatory Action Research Network (C-PARN)
- Cornell Public Service Center
- Institute for African Development (IAD)
- International Programs/College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (IP/CALS)
- Literacy New York State
- LVA Rural Development & Literacy Initiative
- The West Africa Water Initiative
AEE programs of study vary considerably depending on prior professional experience, career aspirations, previous advanced study, and interdisciplinary interests. Because the AEE program consistently seeks to integrate practice and research, all AEE graduate students are expected to develop and demonstrate a command of various approaches to research. In order to become critical professional users and evaluators of research as well as skilled research practitioners, masters and doctoral degree candidates should expect to take introductory courses in quantitative and qualitative research epistemologies and methods. Doctoral students should expect to take introductory courses in quantitative and qualitative research and advanced research courses in either quantitative or qualitative research methods.