A Historical Look at the Adult College at Fordham University, Est. 1944

Glen Redpath, Fordham University

Abstract

This qualitative study took a focused look at Fordham University’s adult college, now referred to as Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies. The study explored the history of Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies, first established in 1944 as the School of Adult Education and followed it through its 78-year history and four name changes. This inquiry identified the trends in adult education that led to the establishment of several adult colleges in the New York City area around the same period, 1934 to 1947. Three constructs of investigation were used to develop an in-depth look at Fordham’s adult college. First, a thorough examination of the archival history of adult education at Fordham. Second, interviews were conducted with former school deans to support the historiographical framework and narrative methodology and to get a better understanding of their time at Fordham. Oral histories from As I Remember Fordham: Selections from the Sesquicentennial Oral History Project (1991) were also used to obtain a perspective of deceased members of Fordham’s community. Third, my personal reflexivity framed the findings and proposed areas of relevance. As an employee within the adult college of the university, I applied a task-oriented lens in the analysis of data.

Subject Area

Adult education|Education history|Educational leadership

Recommended Citation

Redpath, Glen, "A Historical Look at the Adult College at Fordham University, Est. 1944" (2022). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI29261990.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI29261990

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