Publication Date

2004

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Ilsley, Paul J.

Degree Name

Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)

Legacy Department

Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education

LCSH

Citizenship--United States; Adult education--United States

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to describe what Dewey, Lindeman, Gramsci, Freire, and Giroux say about citizenship and related concepts as influential in the adult education literature; to develop a model for an organic citizenry to be applied in adult education practice; to describe themes emerging from textual imagery presented to the U.S. citizenry as they are prepared through text for war with Iraq; and to describe the need for an organic citizenry, educated as producers and learners of textual imagery. Based upon the work of five contributors, this dissertation represents its own contribution to the adult education literature on citizenship and related concepts to citizenship. The five contributors whose work was examined are John Dewey, Eduard Lindeman, Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and Henry Giroux. These authors were chosen for their status as seminal contributors to the adult education literature. The model for an organic citizenry was then developed. This model includes three essentialities of citizenship: (1) the deciphering of text, (2) commitment to collectivism, and (3) cultural agency. This manuscript further includes an examination of textual imagery and the ways in which the U.S. citizenry was prepared for war with Iraq, presented with Iraqi culture, and educated through popular press about Iraqi history. Textual imagery is the product of the reflexivity between the learned experiences of the author and the authored text, again between that authored text and the learned experiences of the learner or receiver of that text. The product of this is then an image produced through the construction of these aforementioned reflexivities. The three areas of text examined for their treatment of the subject were: the New York Times, mainstream magazines, and popular literature. These areas of text were chosen for their pervasive exposure to the U.S. citizenry as well as for their potential to reveal emergent themes on the preparation of the U.S. citizenry for war with Iraq, Iraqi history, and Iraqi culture. Constant comparative method revealed the following emergent themes in the text examined: the Link to Terror, Nation Building, Discrediting the Opposition, Shifting Rationale, Iraqi Liberation, Manipulating Culture, Citizenship of Consensus, U.S. as Victim, the Deployment of History, and Textual Resistance. Finally, implications are presented for adult education both in terms of the further development of the concept of citizenry as well as the further development of adult education practice.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references (pages [141]-165).

Extent

v, 165 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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