Culture and Politics in 1980s Education

 

Your Name	Commented On
Shane Lanning	Herman Jones  Peggy Dessing

Sociocultural Setting of the United States in the 1980s

The 1980s in the United States is, perhaps, most defined by the presidential tenure of Ronald Reagan, the Culture Wars, and the AIDS epidemic. Of course, the three are interlinked as well. To many in the US, Ronald Reagan miraculously revived the US, put the Soviet Union down, and was integral in the fall of the Berlin Wall. To others, he had a myopic point of view that was dangerous to the world and the country (Troy, 2005, p. 2). The United States saw a rebirth of prosperity in the 1980s and was wrought with consumer revolts. Troy wrote about how Coca-Cola attempted to release a sweeter version of Coke in 1985. When this news broke folks complained about how Coke would no longer mix well in their alcoholic beverages or taste as good with their old-fashioned American hamburgers (pp. 2-3). Troy stated that these ‘rebellions’ were: “a quintessential 1980s’ story: in the disproportionate reaction to a minor, symbolic problem: in the application of 1960s’ grassroots tactics to a decadent, consumer culture issue” (p. 3). 

This rise of consumerism cannot be separated from the Reagan’s presidency. According to Troy, Reagan preached progress and prosperity, which helped to transform the: “cautious American customer…into the 1980s’ sale-searching, trend-spotting, franchise-hopping shopper” (p. 3). Troy even compares this rise of consumerism as the “great American religion” and stated that we now had a “common liturgy” to unite us in this faith (p. 3). He explained that we saw the death of small stores and the rise of malls. According to Troy, “Americans became more obsessed than ever with having the latest, the hottest, the best” (p. 3). Prosperity became as patriotic as apple pie and baseball. 

Running alongside this boom in prosperity and rise of the American consumerist “faith” was the AIDS epidemic. Stewart-Winter (2020) informed us that at this time, “America’s cities…bore the brunt of this new catastrophe” (p. 83). The cities in the US were struggling due to the demise of the factory industry and because white people were fleeing cities that were becoming more racially diverse (p. 83). During the same period, “gay men and intravenous drug users began to die in growing numbers following the collapse of their immune systems” (p. 83). Stewart-Winter noted that “fear and disgust became key drivers of the policy process” (p. 83). This epidemic also had a high price tag, and Stewart-Winter argued that AIDS politics also intensified racial conflicts: “with newly empowered African American leaders facing virulent white backlash” (p. 83). Stewart-Winter wrote that: “the federal response to the crises was characterized by broad indifference at the highest levels, and there were tensions with the Reagan administration between social conservatives and public health authorities” (p. 85). As people were dying in large numbers from the AIDS epidemic, the United States was busy fighting a “war” over culture and often ignored the plight of those affected most by this disease. 

Republicans in the 1980s began to focus their political identity around conservative expressions of faith and culture. Political parties had been dividing their policy across class lines, but this shift saw voting behavior changes where folks were more interested in religious issues and whether they should be enforced at a policy level (Thomson, 2010, p. 178). Thomson suggested that: “What may make the American culture wars exceptional, however, is the relative strength of the religious dimension. European politics is far less involved with such issues as abortion, gay rights, and prayer in the schools” (p. 186). In the 80s, the cultural wars spread across the country as liberals hoped to continue the cultural advancements for minorities that occurred in the 60s and 70s. Constatives pushed back, and the left and right fought over: “abortion, busing, school prayer, the literary canon, school textbooks, museum exhibits, suitable nomenclature for women, blacks, and gays” (Troy, 2005, p. 266). The Reagan administration attempted to dodge the major issues of the culture wars. President Reagan was focused on: “eyeing public opinions polls” because “he lacked the stomach for the broader battles he had engaged in so zestfully as governor” (Troy, 2005, p. 267). Ultimately, the culture wars found their way into various facets of US society, and education is no exception. 

What was Happening in Adult Education in the 1980s?

Ultimately, the culture wars bled into the curriculum and debates over the curriculum, especially in institutions of higher education: “Feminists, African Americans—note the name change—gays, and lesbians demanded recognition and inclusion” (Troy, 2005, p. 269). Stanford implanted a task force where it was concluded that: “Stanford’s Western requirements ‘perpetuate racist and sexist stereotypes’ and ‘reinforce notions of cultural superiority that are wounding to some and dangerous to all in a world of such evident diversity’” (p. 269). These conversations allow for an expansion of the canon (p. 269). 

Troy informed us that Regan felt: “that today’s faculty were the student demonstrators of the 60’s”, but rather than enact policy or do anything else about it, he: “preferred to brood about it” (p. 271). The tension grew between conservative and liberal philosophers regarding education. Philosophers and politicians on the right felt that higher education felt that curriculum: “must be selective, hierarchical, and enduring, not democratic and trendy” (p. 272). Perhaps, the most iconic image of the culture wars as they relate to higher education is when Jesse Jackson led a march that set its stance opposite to that of William Bennet, Secretary of Education, and his pro-Western approach to education (p. 265). 

Prior to the AIDS epidemic,  community physicians were trying to find ways to encourage safe sex practices, like wearing condoms, but they found that their messages were not being received and incorporated by the public. In the late 1970s, community health professionals had started to join forces with a group of drag nun activists, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, to reframe safe sex health and education in a sex-positive manner because they recognized that queer men would not listen to messages that denigrated sex (Blair, 2017, p. 875). After all, queer folks had been demonized for so long that messages that in any way carried on the ‘you are wrong for doing this’ message would likely not succeed. In attempting to create educational materials for the queer community, two of the originals Sisters, Bobbi Campbell (Sister Florence Nightmare) and Baruch Golden (Sister Roz Erection), both of whom were registered nurses, helped create a pamphlet, Play Fair! (p. 875).

For the most part, these materials still went ignored, and it was not until the AIDS epidemic that folks decided they wanted to change sexual behaviors. As the AIDS epidemic began, public health officials were essentially using hepatitis B as the model for how to educate and approach the HIV/AIDS virus. However, in a community meeting at Lia Belli’s mansion, a person stood up, who was not a doctor, and said that it sounded like the doctors were suggesting that the danger was in the exchange of bodily fluids. The doctors agreed and said that that was exactly what they were trying to explain. Up until that point, they did not have a concise message for the community (p. 876). In 2016, PubMed found 567 references to the term ‘bodily fluids;’ Blair stated that: “only three of these 567 references predate the approximate timing of the meeting at Belli’s mansion. The phrase seems to have entered medical science in the context of AIDS” (p. 876). Essentially, the AIDS epidemic helped community health professionals discover ways to promote sex-positive messages that honored the human desire for sex (p. 876). 

Major Adult Education Programs and Educators in the 80s

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released a report, A Nation at Risk, which ultimately prompted the National Governor’s Association to create seven task forces to investigate education reform (Edgar, 2009, p. 45). According to the report, their charter involved: “Selective attention…to the formative years spent in elementary schools, to higher education, and to vocational and technical programs” (Gardner et al., 1983, p. 10).  The major claim of the report was that our educational systems, while a source of pride for the nation, have not been performing at an exceptional level and that world competitors were beginning to outperform our institutions (p. 13). Some of the educational failures the report noted were that approximately 23 million American adults were illiterate, remedial math courses in public universities had increased by 72 percent from 1975 to 1980, college graduates were testing lower on achievement, and businesses and military leaders had noted a need to spend large sums of money on basic skills training their employees (pp. 16-17). 

In this report, the Commission provided a series of recommendations. Recommendations that affected adult learners include, raising admissions requirements for colleges and universities, higher education institutes offering teacher preparation programs should be judged by the performance of the teachers who graduate from their programs, and those who design teacher preparation programs should have demonstrated mastery in teaching (pp. 35-39). 

Reports like A National at Risk underscored the need to literacy-based education programs. The 80s saw rapid advancement and change around the world. Folks expected educational institutions, businesses, and governments to provide literacy programs that would keep up with these changes (U.S. Department of Education, 1981 pp. 26-27). The 80s saw three main trends emerge in literacy-based education programs: “competency-based individualized instruction programs, technological advances in education media and hardware, and parallel advances in programs in public education, military, and business and industry, and other agencies which will tend to benefit other’s programs” (p 27). Literacy education in the 80s was also based more around political and social ideals, as neighborhood education programs grew (p. 28). 

Cyr (1999) summarized some of the major adult educational theorists and their main contributions to the field. What was learned about adult learners in the 80s was that adults have their own learning styles and are not willing to change those styles without ample persuasion(Long 1983 and Mast & Van Atta 1986, as cited in Cyr, p. 6), they enjoy activities that they feel they have agreed to engage with and are not forced upon them by the instructor or peers in the class (Mast & Van Atta, as cited in Cyr, p. 6), they do not like making mistakes in front of their peers especially if those peers are younger or viewed as less experienced (Mast & Van Atta, as cited in Cyr, p. 6), they enjoy self-directed learning (Mast & Van Atta, as cited in Cyr, p. 7), and they engage in self-monitoring strategies (Darling 1986, as cited in Cyr, p. 7). 

How can we inform our practice from lessons learned in the 80s?

In some ways, the 1980s served as a pivotal transition to what we are familiar with today in terms of society, culture, politics, and education. We began to see a larger focus on the purchasing power of the individual, an epidemic that shone a spotlight on marginalized communities, and a fear that US education was beginning to fail. Today, we continue to see consumer revolts, arguments over what cultural and religious information should and should not be taught in schools, and we are even seeing the effects of a pandemic and struggling to educate the public on how to mitigate them. 

Adult education research in the 1980s informed educational practices. We began to understand that adults learn differently than children. They have established learning practices and bring fears, goals, and other mental and emotional experiences into the classroom. At present, educators are having ongoing conversations about individualization in adult learning environments and finding ways to empower adults in their own learning experiences.

As in the 80s, our sociocultural landscape continues to reshape and reform at a rapid pace. In many ways, adult education is struggling to keep up with those shifts. Education continues to blend with commodification and struggles to avoid a model in which the educational experience is one based in knowledge transmission where the educator transmits knowledge to the student, the student graduates, and then the student shifts to the workforce. However, educators can look back to the 80s and remind ourselves that adult learners are complex and have varied needs. Educators must meet adult learners where they are in a context that rings true to them. If not, adult learners will continue one with their lives. 

Table 1. Summary of the History of Adult/Community Education

Areas	Summary
Social Background	President Ronald Reagan & the rise of the patriotic consumer Culture Wars AIDS Epidemic
Highlights	US education begins to falter on the world stage Adult literacy concerns Businesses and Military struggle with the unprepared workforce
Influential Factors	Adult education researchers begin to define how adults learn Better ideas of how to engage adult learners Better idea of what adult learners find meaningful and ways that they might struggle with education
Implications	Educators can meet adult learners where they are Educators can use what was discovered in the 80s to help adult learners find meaning in their education Educators can help create moments of self-directed learning in adult classrooms Educators can try to minimize the impact mistakes have on an adult learner’s psyche.

References

Blair, T.R. (2017). Safe sex in the 1970s: Community practitioners on the eve of AIDS. American journal of public health, 107(6), 872-879. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303704 

Cyr, A.V. (1999). Overview of theories and principles relating to characteristics of adult learners: 1970s-1999. U.S. Department of Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED435817 

Edgar, A. H. (2009). The history of curriculm in American schools: From the pilgrims to the present. Author House. 

Gardner, D.P, Larsen, Y.W., Baker, W.O., Campbell, A., Crosby, E.A., Foster Jr., C.A., Francis, N.C., Giamatti, A.B., Gordon, S., Haderlein, R.V., Holton, G., Kirk, A.Y., Marston, M.S., Quie, A.H., Sanchez Jr., F.D., Seaborg, G.T., Sommer, J., & Wallace, R. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. An open letter to the American people. A report to the nation and the Secretary of Education. National Commission on Excellence in Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED226006 

Stewart-Winter, T. (2020). AIDS and the urban crisis: Stigma, cost, and the persistence of racism in Chicago, 1981-1996. In Beyond the politics of the closet (pp. 83-99). University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi-org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.9783/9780812296723-005 

Thomson, I.T. (2010). Culture, class, and American exceptionalism. In Culture wars and enduring American dilemmas (pp. 175-216). University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt22p7hg8.10

 

Troy, G. (2005). Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan invented the 1980’s. Princeton University Press. https://doi-org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.1515/9781400849307 

U.S. Department of Education. (1981). Outlook for the 80’s: Adult literacy. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED211701