Educational Variables and Participation in Adult Education: an Exploratory Study

Abstract

The conceptual framework for analyzing continuous learning through the educative community developed by Essert and Spence was used in this study to examine six representative educational variables in relation to participation to determine whether or not the use of additional educational variables would increase the power of education to predict participation compared to consider ing only the years of school completed by the participant as is normally done. Data were obtained from interviews with 510 married male household heads resident in the rural portions of the Lower Fraser Valley in British Columbia. In bivariate analysis, each predictor variable was associated with total participation and with participation in vocational courses whereas participation in non-vocational courses was not related to educational variables. Partial correlation coefficients indicated that only the years of school completed by the wife and respondent remained as influ ences on total and vocational course participation when the effects of the six predictors were controlled simultaneously. Previous research has suggested that the educational level of the respondent is the most important single factor influencing participation, but the findings of the present study suggest that the years of school completed by the wife may also be an important factor.