Adult Education and the Rural Community

Adult Education and the Rural CommunityAuthor(s): P. J. GiffenSource: The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienned'Economique et de Science politique, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Nov., 1947), pp. 533-544Published by: Wiley on behalf of Canadian Economics AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/138068 .

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ADULT EDUCATION AND THE RURAL COMMUNITY*

THE subject of adult education has been chosen for this paper in order to provide a point of orientation for the discussion of certain related social

problems of the western farming community. The conclusions are based upon field studies of several contrasting rural communities in Manitoba carried out under the direction of the Manitoba Royal Commission on Adult Education.' Some characteristics of governmental institutions, farm movements, and farming conditions are peculiar to that province but basic simi- larities in the social structure of farming communities throughout the Prairie region mean that most of the findings have a wider application. It is necessarv for reasons of space to treat ethnic communities only briefly, but this brevity may be partially justified on the grounds that the British-origin farming community represents the ideal type to which the ethnic communities are assimilating at various rates.

The difficulty of defining adult education may be avoided by noting briefly its place in the educational process. In complex societies the term "education" has commonly been used to apply to the explicit function of the formal institutions through which social groups prepare young candidates for adult participation. It is apparent that, in terms of this social function, education is part of the more inclusive processes of socialization and ac- culturation necessary to all social groups and carried out in many societies without benefit of formal institutions. To prepare the young for integration in social groups as adults it is necessary that they acquire and incorporate in their personalities at least a minimum of the normative behaviour patterns necessary to various social roles as well as learn such elements of the cultural tradition (systems of knowledge, techniques, value-patterns, language, art, and the other expressional forms) as the adults controlling the training deem desirable. Although an unprecedented amount of training is acquired within formal institutions in our society, these institutions provide only part of the training necessary for social participation as an adult.

The strictures on contemporary educational programmes put forward by educational critics indicate that the conservative effect of institutionalized education and a written tradition has been to preserve inumerous elements and techniques having no practical value for adult social participation. In any case state controlled education must have a content which is a compromise representative of the distribution of political power between competing groups and, for special religious, ethnic, and economic groups, must be supplemented by private education. The complexity of modern society makes it impossible to foresee, and thus provide the training necessary for participation in, the kind of social groups to which the young may eventually belong. Social change makes it difficult to predict future educational requirements. Hence,

*This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science As- sociation in Quebec, Mlay 30, 1947.

'The data derived from community studies has been supplemented by interviews with farm leaders and professional workers, as well as written sources. The empirical justification for each general statement has not bcen included, in the interests both of brevity and scope of the discussion.

533



534 The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science

acquisition of adequate skills and knowledge for adult social life depends to a large extent on experiences secured outside educational institutions.2 Under contemporary conditions of social change and mobility, learning necessarily continues throughout adult life to a degree not found in less fluid social structures.

If institutions of formal education provide only a portion of the training necessary for social participation, the activities usually classed as "adult education,"3 sponsored activities of an avowedly educational nature, play a still smaller role, since they affect only a minority of adults and cover only a small field of knowledge for those who take part. The extra-curricular experiences through which knowledge is broadened are too varied to be examined in detail but among the more important must be classed the performance of occupational roles. Only a small number of persons take advanced professional training or specialized vocational training; most people must acquire the requisite skills and knowledge informally, while participating in occupations. Further instrumental knowledge is gained through the performance of a variety of other social roles, such as those involved in voluntary associations. In the course of these experiences and through the media of mass communication, much incidental knowledge without direct instrumental significance is also assimilated. The instrumental nature of most of this learning is to be stressed, since the so-called "amateur search for knowledge" appears to be relatively rare.

It follows that for an adequate examination of its role, adult education must be considered in relation to other aspects of the social situation. Since these sponsored activities play but a minor part in accounting for the extent of adult knowledge and skills, or what might be termed cultural literacy, the other types of experience contributing to this end must be taken into consideration. The requirements for adult social roles in the rural community must be examined in explaining the extent to which certain types of extra- curricular education are sought. The place in the rural community of various types of knowledge and skills not directly relevant to farming problems cannot be understood apart from the facilities for acquiring an interest in these problems themselves. Participation in the educational activities of various voluntary associations is frequently understandable only in relation to the other functions performed by these associations, while the existence and programmes of the associations must be related to the problem of rural leadership.

A discussion of the rural community inevitably involves comparisons with the urban community and a tendency to exaggerate the social differences and, in turn, the personality differences. Not only does the rural community participate in the same broad cultural tradition, but the vulnerability of the western farming economy to urbanizing influences makes for fewer differences

2Cf. Florian Znaniecki, "Education and Self Education in Modern Societies" (Amierican Journal of Sociology, vol. XXXVI, 1930-1, pp. 371-86).

3For a comparison of the nature of publicly-sponsored adult education in the Prairie Provinces and three Mid-Western states see Report of the Royal Commission on Adult Edu- cation (Winnipeg, 1947), pp. 36-91.



Adult Education and the Rural Commn uinyty 535

than are to be found in many older-settled agricultural regions. Recent settlement in an area of large-scale specialized farming accounts for the absence of many of the elements of a traditionalistic social structure characteristic of indigenous communities in the older mixed-farming regions. High physical mobility and the rapid spread of the media of mass communication in particular have made for assimilation to urban standards, and decreased the effect of social isolation as a factor limiting cultural literacy.

Although many urban inhabitants obviously would fall below the more active western farmers in cultural literacy if a standard of measurement could be applied, there remain differences in the rural community which act to limit the opportunity for extending knowledge and participation in certain fields. The more obvious of these differences may be explained in terms of the low population density of rural areas, a condition aggravated by an economy of large-scale farming. The consequent cost of supporting hospitals, roads, and other public services results in poorer facilities. This is especially true of the institutions which have a more direct bearing on cultural literacy: in the schools, teaching and equipment tend to be poorer and schools are usually less accessible; libraries are rare or non-existent; public or commercial means for education in music, art, and the other expressional forms are much less common than in the city. In addition, the fewness of the persons who constitute the rural community is one condition limiting the type of formal associations and their programmes. This means that the experience to be gainied in many of the more specialized associations of the larger community is not available. It is to be expected that a young person growing up under these circumstances, in a community of persons with somewhat similar conditioning, would have a limited range of interests.

Nor does the social situation tend to provide the incentives for any considerable self-education along non-technical lines for either young people or adults. In terms of preparation for a limited variety of adult social roles, the training acquired during social maturation in the community includes most of the necessary skills and knowledge. Farming is essentially an indi- vidualistic enterprise, demanding technical rather than social skills. The only persons with whom the western farmer need co-operate for production purposes are those in his household unit. With this modicum of social co-operation, successful use of the means at his disposal is a matter of technical manipu- lation of the non-human environment, as well as judgment in the allocation of his means between alternative lines of production. Marketing is largely taken care of through impersonal mechanisms, although co-operative marketing enterprises demand social co-operation of at least the leaders involved. In these regards farming may be contrasted with the many urban occupations which necessitate an adequate performance in a variety of social relationships, frequently requiring participation in associations outside the economic sphere as a condition of success. In most urban occupations at least a minimum of formal education is necessary, and as the status of the occupation becomes higher the requirements in the form of other personal attainments tend to increase. For the farm person, on the other hand, there is little incentive for non-technical education in terms of the conditions of occupational achieve-



536 The Canadian Journal of Economlics and Political Science

ment, and the fact that farming involves few necessary social relationships means that the types of experience to be gained from varied personal contacts are circumscribed.

A large part of the necessary techniques for economic adjustment are furnished through apprenticeship on the family farm and in the household. However, the obvious pragmatic relationship between certain technical knowledge and farming efficiency means that further knowledge of this type is generally welcomed. The consultant services of agricultural representatives are usually extensively utilized. Such immediately relevant activities as implement demonstrations and field days tend to be universally successful, and the same is true of demonstrations and short courses in housekeeping skills for women. The leading farm journals which devote considerable space to technical problems have wide circulation, and parental approval reinforces the other attractions for young people of junior agricultural clubs. In so far as techniques advocated bring benefits in the long run rather than in the immediate future the task of agricultural extension becomes more difficult. Whereas the use of implements and measures to cope with current pathological conditions in plants and animals are of immediate significance and quickly arouse the interest of farmers, other measures such as the planting of proper shelter belts to prevent erosion show results only after a period of years and therefore gain much less attention. The same is true of other activities related to farming. While study of co-operative techniques is frequently undertaken before organizing a co-operative for which a need is felt, study of the more abstract economic and political principles involved is much less common.

Outside the occupational sphere, the requirements for social participation in the rural community are not extensive, involving as they do working in association only with persons who have a similar background of experience. Any normal person who has grown up in the community is adequately pre- pared to enter into the informal social life which develops around country- elevators, retail stores, implement shops, and other centres, and from house to house visiting. The variety of other forms of social participation depends largely on the structure of formal associations. Those associations such as women's church societies and community clubs concerned with organizing dances and "socials" require little beyond average training and, while associations such as agricultural fairs and co-operatives make greater demands, even in these the training required for leadership is usually not so far removed from the common level of attainment that it leads to self-education through books or other means; it is more commonly acquired in the initial stages of participation or through previous participation in otlber associations.

This background is reflected in the social logics of the rural community, which mav be somewhat grossly characterized as emphasizing apparently "practical" anid utilitarian norms and placing less value on aesthetic norms and on non-intellectual accomplishments than do many urban groups. As a result of social conditioning, in a community where opportunities and incentives for education along non-technical lines are limited, the lack of such education is not strongly felt. Consequently, organized efforts to obtain the



Adult Education and the Rural Community 537

necessary educational facilities are not common. Whereas the farm movements have pressed strongly for better medical services, roads, and electrifi- cation, there has been little demand for libraries, or facilities for encouraging music, dramatics, and art. Any demand for the latter has usually come from rural women's groups, into whose sphere they fall as a matter of secondary importance in accordance with the division of functions between the associations of the two sexes. Even in the urban area, despite wider opportunities, it is probably only a minority who manifest an active interest in the arts and in the field of ideas having no direct instrumental significance. In the rural community the type of activity envisaged by idealistic adult educators will only become feasible as the interests of the majority are broadened by the social trends resulting from improved communication, by increased subsidization of professional leadership and by better facilities of other types.

Within the broad social situation outlined above there is considerable variation between communities. Two of the factors concerned, leadership and the character of local associations, warrant detailed discussion because of their relevance to the techniques of adult education. Voluntary associations assume a role of special importance in the absence of many public and commercial facilities, which means that extension of the means of extra-curricular education depends largely upon these organizations. Young people's associations must perform the functions of such urban semi-public institutions with professional leadership as the Young Men's Christian Association, to the extent that they are performed at all. Night classes such as those provided by public schools and universities are not usually available in rural communities, although they are provided in town centres in some American states. Any equivalent training in the rural community usually takes place through study groups or other types of voluntary association. However, it is mis- leading to stress the manifestly educational functions of associations, since much of the education is derived indirectly from participation in associations with other, usually more "practical," functions. Because of this close inter- dependence, the phenomenon of leadership must be discussed in relation to local associations. The type of leadership available at least limits the potentialities of organizations in the community. These, in turn, are the media through which local leadership must derive much of its training.

In discussing leadership there is some danger of idealizing the role of personality traits in explaining the success of the individual leader and of overemphasizing the role of the individual leader in minor social innovations as well as in social change. Despite the variety of phenomena commonly included in the category, leadership proves upon analysis to be a specific relationship of influence between the unit providing leadership and a particular group in a definable social situation.\ To put it tritely, the possession of followers is the universal characteristic of leadership. In the case of individual leaders, a social group tends to give authority only to individuals with the type of personal characteristics considered valuable by the group. These criteria, and the type of activities and social movements which will be accepted, vary with the needs created by the current social situation. In the rural community, as elsewhere, "leadership" is not the magic touchstone. However, within



538 The Canadian Journial of Economics and Political Science

limitations, the availability of leadership of certain types is an important variable in the rural community. It has been observed that the role of leadership is much more extensive in a heterogeneous than in a stable, homogeneous group where co-operative functioning necessitates only a minimum of direction.4 If this is true, a greater dependence on leadership is to be expected in the changing rural community of Western Canada than in a folk society, increasing as larger formal associations steadily assume more of the functions of smaller informal groupings.

To understand the so-called "shortage of leadership," some specification of the types of leadership relevant to the situation is necessary. Leaders tend to perform certain functions in relation to their groups universally: those of group co-ordinators, planners, and educators. The first two functions are emphasized in the customary offices of most rural communities, which are usually filled by the persons regarded by others as "community leaders." Disregarding the elements peculiar to each situation, this leadership usually requires certain basic skills, such as those involved in public speaking and conducting a meeting, at least a: minimum of generalized status, and the requisite motivation. Sufficient leadership of this type to fill the routine offices is found in most communities, but there is considerable variation in the extent to which this leadership exercises a creative role. The introduction of permissible innovations requires more training than routine leadership, since it involves a greater emphasis on the educational functions.

Much scarcer is the type of leadership required to perform explicitly educational functions: persons with specialized training in various fields. When established leaders in the urban setting are unable to provide educational leadership they usually are able to call upon specialists, on occasion hiring them as full time functionaries. In the rural community specialized skills and knowledge available for voluntary leadership are scarce, and it is seldom feasible to hire professionals to lead study groups, youth work, musical, dramatic, and other activities of an educational nature. Consequently, even where the rural community has thriving associations, their programmes of necessity tend to be circumscribed.

That the rural community should have available among its smaller number of participants fewer trained leaders than the urban community is to be expected. There are lacking the specialized knowledge and skills to be found in the varied occupational structure of the city. The majority of native inhabitants from whose ranks most of the leaders must be drawn have been limited in their training by the lack of facilities previously mentioned. The migration to the city of many of those best fitted for advanced education further weakens rural leadership, and the retired people who are in high proportion in the villages and towns usually contribute little either as leaders or participants.

However, to attribute a shortage of leaders entirely to a lack of trained persons is to overlook the problem of motivation, especially in regard to that

4F. L. Wells, "The State School as a Social System" (Journal of Psychology, 1938, pp. 119-24).




leadership where specialized training is less necessary. When leadership is of crucial importance to a group it tends to be forthcoming. Social situations which give rise, for example, to strong protest movements usually provide the motivation to bring forward the abler persons as leaders. On the other hand, there is less incentive for day-to-day leadership in groups organized on a voluntary basis. These tasks of leadership are frequently referred to by those concerned as "thankless jobs." In the small community particularistic criteria predominate in social relationships, hence the routine offices carry with them little status, and at the same time make their holders vulnerable to criticism. The lack of motivation, as well as the shortage of trained persons, is shown in the common tendency for an interested few to hold the majQrity of offices.

Although neither the space nor the data are available for an adequate consideration of motivation, a few tentative generalizations are possible. One writer observes that, "Few leaders come forward who have not already been engaged in group activities."5 The participation through which some of the necessary training is derived tends to provide motivation for further participation in leadership roles, a fact explicitly recognized by extension services and farm movements in their organization of junior clubs and young people's groups from which it is hoped adult leaders will emerge. In this process the co-operative movement has a decided advantage over government agencies. Government agencies must of necessity confine extra-curricular education largely to non-controversial technical knowledge, whereas the co-operative movement is able to give training aimed at inculcation of the system of values known popularly as "the co-operative philosophy" and can provide tangible outlets in action. Consequently, the co-operative movement has been able to motivate a considerable proportion of the minority of young people it reaches to adult leadership. In the course of these studies it was found that the persons who provided leadership in securing or seeking to secure the type of innovations regarded as "progressive" had certain characteristics in common. They were usually persons who had studied, travelled, and read widely, or who, through other means, had gained considerable actual or vicarious experience beyond the community. The consciousness of short- comings in the community seems to arise from the assimilation of new definitions of the situation with extended experience. If these brief observations are valid, they lead to the conclusion that the training which provides knowledge and skills for leadership also tends to produce some of the necessary motivation, but the degree of motivation varies somewhat with the degree of normative orientation included in the training.

The various techniques used by extension services and farm agencies all contribute in some measure to the strengthening of rural leadership, as well as perform their manifest function of increasing cultural literacy in specific fields. Persons who have taken courses of some duration outside the community (such as "diploma" courses at the university) usually fill more leadership roles than those who have not. Short courses and field days in agricultural subjects tend to be too circumscribed to have any observable influence on

5Dwight Sanderson and Robert A. Polson, Rural Community Organization (New York, 1939), p. 371.



540 The Caniadian Journal of Econotics and Political Science

leadership. T he provision of resident professional leadership is an obviously effective, though expensive, method of compensating for the lack of local leadership. The chief example of this in Canada is the agricultural representative who, in addition to serving as a technological consultant, organizes agricultural groups and in them serves as an educational leader. In some American states, leadership of this type has been provided for women's work and youth groups. Since the services of these functionaries are usually spread over a considerable area, they supplement, rather than remove the need for, local leadership. Another source of professional leadership which is still largely unexploited is that secured through giving special training' and incentives to school teachers for leadership in some educational activities and youth work outside the classroom. Other methods allied to those of providing courses and resident professional leadership might be mentioned. In so far as they have been provided they have strengthened rural leadership, but they are limited even in their ideal development. Special courses of considerable length can be given only to a minority, and the subsidization of resident professional leadership is curtailed by the heavy expenditure involved. Conse- quently, it is from among local people trained largely through experience in the associations of the community that much of the leadership must continue to appear. At the same time, these associations through their activities are the most accessible media for extending the cultural literacy of the majority. The importance of local associations for the furthering of their particular purposes has been recognized by the professional agencies in that much of their work is done either through existing organizations or special organizations formed for the purpose. Aid is lent to local associations in the form of professional help in organizing, studv materials, and speakers, as well as in the form of incentives which a movement extending beyond the community can offer, for instance trips and conferences.

The empirical research upon which these conclusions are based indicated: (q) that a community with thriving associations tended to produce a continu- ing supply of community leaders, and (b) that certain types of association contributed more to the strengthening of leadership and the broadening of cultural literacy than others. It is possible to generalize about the associations of predominantly Anglo-Saxon communities because of their basic similarity arising from the common minimal functions to be performed by them. Al- though these associations may differ in particulars, and in the way in which the necessary functions are shared among them, they are familiar enough to the reader to need little (lescription. They include the political executives and voluntary associations necessary for the maintenance of local governments, schools, and churches, also agricultural fairs and co-operatives where these exist. Women's church associations meet ubiquitous needs; lodges and special associations for recreation such as curling clubs are common. Beyond the minimal functions and the corresponding associations there is considerable variation. Communities differ in the extent to which their associations perform educational functions and provide the less common types of recreation. The incidence of these voluntary associations of an 'avowedly educational nature which professional leadership exists to establish, such as junior and senior agricultural clubs, active locals of the farm movement and Women's Institutes, is especially varied. It is precisely these which have most influence




in the development of leadership. The difference in influence of the various associations may be explained

in terms of the types of experience they offer and the numbers they reach. Local government usually gives experience only to a small number of the older males who are already more active and capable than the average; furthermore, the experience gained is confined to the extent to which the situations en- countered are routine. The routine duties of a local school board obviously provide less training than meeting the new situations involved in forming and running a local co-operative. The voluntary associations which are purely local groups, such as many women's clubs, are able usually to give less training than those which are branches of larger organizations with professional leadership. Branch organizations, such as the junior agricultural clubs or locals of the farm movement, are in a position to have more extensive education in their programmes through the aids offered by the professional leaders. It is through those associations which draw the abler individuals into participation in social movements extending beyond the community that much rural leadership has developed. Associations that give access to a hierarchy of officers on a regional, provincial, and even national basis, and have conferences, conventions, and such, provide channels whereby the more capable individuals can develop their potentialities in widening circles of experience beyond the community. This experience not only develops the skills for leadership but provides, as with added knowledge new definitions of situations tend to be assimilated, the motivation for leadership in innovations. Youth groups of this type, especially when they are closely integrated with adult associations in the manner of junior organizations of farm movements, make for a continuous supply of leadership.

Since organizations of the foregoing type are usually associated with farm movements, it is necessary to take into account some of the other factors affecting their strength. Gunnar MIyrdal has commented on "the remarkable lack of self-generating, self-disciplined people's movements in America."6 He observes that there are no movements involving a mass participation com- parable to the Scandinavian co-operatives or the British labour movements, and that their counterparts in America depend largely on the paid leadership of organizers or on a few idealists. The true people's movements have been accompanied by widespread and successful educational efforts on the part of their membership which have served to increase their solidarity, a type of self-education largely lacking in America. This weakness he attributes chiefly to cultural heterogeneity which militates against the common understanding necessary for a folk movement and to the frontier-derived faith in the existence of unequalled economic opportunity. Although MIyrdal's observations are too sweeping to be useful in more detailed analysis, his contention that class- structured protest movements tend to be comparatively weak in mass participation and educational functions appears to be valid for Canada as well as the United States. The farmers' movements in Western Canada seem to have arisen and to have received their greatest support during economic crises, instead of showing steady cumulative growth and continuous participation

6Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York, 1944), p. 712. See pp. 709-19 for observations discussed below.



542 The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science

on the part of the mass of their members. Within Western Canada there are perceptible differences between the provinces. Rural Manitoba has been less vulnerable to the economic fluctuations which make for agrarian radicalism than the other two provinces, and its manifest conservatism in the contemporary period is reflected in the weakness of its farmers' movements. The Manitoba Federation of Agriculture and Cooperation has little direct membership, while the co-operatives upon which it is dependent have not received the popular support that they have in Saskatchewan. The Pool elevators have been widely accepted as an economic instrument but the activity of local directorates and of the members has not been great. Further discussion of farm movements is not necessary to conclude that the popular support ac- corded them depends upon many social conditions beyond the control of leadership, however skilful. Their relative strength is indicative of the interest in self-education in economic and political questions among rural persons, since the social situations which give rise to strong protest movements seem to lead to organized efforts to obtain relevant education.

Participation in farm movements is one aspect of the more general problem of participation in social activities of all types. The close relationship between such participation and cultural literacy has been stressed above. As a means of securing extracurricular education, the importance of the individual's participation in social activities for other than educational ends is contrasted with the small role of manifestly educational activities, both in terms of the meagre development of the specifically educational and the problem of motivation. Some correlation is to be expected between the extent of participation in group life and cultural literacy. However, the variety of social groups and their differential acceptance of cultural patterns means that some evaluation of these patterns is necessary, unless all types of literacy are to be regarded as equivalent. For this purpose the dominant cultural patterns provide the most useful standards, since literacy along these lines is a condition for the widest participation and the groups concerned tend to have the greatest influence. By these standards the systems of knowledge sanctioned by established institutions represent greater cultural literacy than deviant systems inconsistent with these, for example the types of knowledge disseminated by universities as compared to the occult lore disseminated by certain deviant religious sects. Similarly, participation in the forms of group life that have wide acceptance and authority in the larger social structure are both evidence of, and a means of acquiring, greater cultural literacy than participation in groups represent- ing minor deviant tendencies. From this same viewpoint, the cultural literacy of ethnic persons bears a direct relation to the extent that such persons participate in the group life of the dominant society.

Within the Anglo-Saxon community participation is closely linked with other elements of status. The most active participants in community affairs, particularly in leadership roles, tend to be those who are more prosperous, better educated, and who belong to the established churches rather than the smaller sects. These persons who hold a majority of the leadership positions constitute, as has already been indicated, a minority in the community, and it is this group which proves most ready to participate in adult education.

The transition to the town-centred community, with better transportation, tends to alter the nature of participation. Whereas the hamlet or ruLral




neighbourhood usually included most of the community in its comparatively narrow range of activities, participation in the larger associations of the town- centred community becomes more specialized and selective. The associations of many smaller communities have been weakened as local people have become less dependent upon the social satisfactions to be found at home. The social cleavage between town and country is reflected in the fact that membership in the associations of the larger centre usually is not substituted to an extent that is commensurate with the loss of associational life in the overshadowed smaller centres; the urban "spectator" type of participation tends to become more common. At the same time, account must be taken of the fact that subsidized professional leadership is increasing in all agricultural regions and improved transportation is rendering communities more accessible to such leadership; the effect is shown in the growth of the specialized agricultural organizations sponsored through agricultural extension.

In Western Canada the most apparent non-participating groups are those of various ethnic origins. In mixed communities studied, it was found that Anglo-Saxons predominated in leadership and active participation in the associational structures not peculiar to the ethnic group. An examination of the distribution of the active locals of the farm movements and Women's Institutes showed an overwhelming majority of these to be in Anglo-Saxon communities, and in the provincial and regional leadership of the farm movements persons of British origin predominate; for example, the present provincial directorate of the Manitoba Federation of Agriculture and Cooperation consists entirely of persons of Ontario and British Isles origin. The degree of participation is a rough index of the more inclusive process of assimilation, and tends to vary with the other social factors affecting assimilation. The extent of differences in language and religion from the dominant culture, and differences in the period and nature of settlement make for considerable variation between ethnic groups.7 The institutional leadership of the church and closeness of settlement enables the rural French-Canadians in Manitoba to maintain a strong separate stibsystem of institutions and associations. Al- though split by political and religious cleavages, the subsystem of the large Ukrainian Canadian group is also strong owing to numbers and homogeneity of settlement, as well as to the wide difference between its cultural background and that of the dominant cultural group. In contrast, the weaker subsystem of the Scandinavian groups has tended to disintegrate as the Scandi- navians have been drawn more rapidly into participation in the larger society. The religious communities which have settled on a village-congregational basis represent a distinctive problem, since their tenets usually specifically forbid many types of participation. Among the Mennonites, economic individualism has led to the breakdown of the village system and made for gradual assimnilation, whereas, among the Hutterites, producer and consumer communism supported by religious sanctions has meant that small changes have been absorbed in their internal social structure with little increase in participation outside the community. However, the internal changes indicate that even in this extreme case assimilation is slowly taking place and will

7Cf. W. Lloyd Warner and Leo Srole, The Social Systems of American Ethnic GrouPs (New Haven, 1945), pp. 283-96.



544 The Canadian Jouernial of Economtics and Political Science

eventually result in wider participation if outside persecution does not lead to migration of the entire group.

Common public education, informal personal contacts, and other forces making for assimilation are inevitably having a cumulative effect on most groups, although varying in their impact with the factors mentioned above. The result is greater participation on the part of younger ethnic persons in the associations of the larger society and, at the same time, the integration of more elements of the dominant culture in the closed associations of the ethnic group. The role of adult education sponsored by outside groups is of necessity limited in the early stages of this process. Not only do ethnic persons tend to. feel more at home in the associations of their own group, but the function of these associations in maintaining the identity of the ethnic group and per- petuating its culture means that resistance to efforts which appear to be deliberate attempts at assimilation is likely to develop. However, the strong orientation of most ethnic farmers towards accumulation of productive capital as a means of security makes a knowledge of agricultural techniques of particular interest to them, and to the extent to which it has been offered this type of education seems to have met with considerable response.

The role of adult education in the rural community can be understood only in relation to other characteristics of the social structure, a few of which have been treated in general terms in this paper. The significance of these generalizations for the practical techniques used in extracurricular education is already implicitly recognized by most professional leaders working in these fields, and their limited development is due more to lack of subsidization than misdirection. The manifold nature of the factors affecting cultural literacy points to a variety of miethods through which it could be influenced by conscious leadership in so far as these factors are susceptible to manipu- lation. The broadening of cultural literacy must be viewed as a long-run process involving the meeting of certain basic deficiencies of the rural communities and an appeal to immediate practical interests as conditions of further success. The chief deficiencies in terms of cultural literacy lie in the lack of facilities for acquiring training and stimulating interests in non-technical fields, although this statement is not meant to imply that agricultural education has reached its fullest development. The provision of better formal education, libraries, and professional leadership to perform primarily educational functions meets these deficiencies directly. In order to affect larger numbers measures aimed at training local leaders are also necessary. Courses and other special training contribute to this end, but the strengthening of local associations is the method capable of most widespread application; and associations which are integrated with larger structures beyond the communiity have the greatest potentialities in this regard. It is obvious that participation in associations, or in other forms of sponsored activity, depends largely on their relevance to problems that are defined as practical in terms of the social logics of the rural community. A narrow interpretation of the type of activity that is "educational" is not justified in view of the important role of varied types of narticipation in increasing cultural literacy.

P. J. GIFFEN

The Uiniversity of Manitoba.



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Adult Education and the Rural Community