In GED We Trust? A Critical Examination of the Rhetoric and Reality of the General Educational Development Diploma
Abstract
This article explores the ways in which the General Education Development diploma (or GED) is presented by the formal and informal curriculum, teachers, and learners in two basic educational programs serving welfare recipients. I examine the rhetoric surrounding the GED, focusing on the GED's ability to achieve positive impacts in learners' lives. Findings from the two programs show that the taken-for-granted assumptions about the GED as presented in these two classrooms promote the message that getting a GED is the way to a better life. The two outcomes stressed most frequently were that getting the GED opens up "new possibilities" and that getting the GED can solve economic problems. The almost magical power of the GED to transform lives was highlighted in these classrooms, and there was very little day-to-day questioning of this rhetoric. After a presentation of the rhetoric of the GED, I discuss how this rhetoric matches what we know about the impact of the GED from various outcome studies. I conclude that the rhetoric of the GED and the findings from outcome studies present a mismatch that should be problematized by adult education researchers and teachers.
Résumé
Dans cet article, nous abordons la façon dont le diplôme d'équivalences d'études secondaires (ou GED) est présenté par le programme d'études formel et informel, les professeurs et les apprenants de deux centre d'éducation des adultes desservant des bénéficiaires de l'aide sociale. Nous analysons le discours entourant le GED, qui insiste son impact positif dans la vie des apprenants. Les resultats de la recherche montrent que les prétentions sur le GED de ces deux centres répandent l'idée que le diplôme d'équivalences d'études secondaires mène à une vie meilleure. Les deux avantages les plus fréquemment mentionnés sont qu'avoir son GED ouvre des portes et élimine les problèmes d'ordre financier. Les deux centres insistaient sur le pouvoir quasi magique du GED de transformer une vie, et cette idée n'a presque jamais été remise en question par les apprenants. Après une présentation du discours entourant le GED, nous analyserons comment ce discours correspond aux résultats de diverses études sur l'impact du GED dans la vie des apprenants. En conclusion, le discours entourant le GED et les resultats de la recherche sur son impact divergent et il serait souhaitable que des chercheurs et des professeurs en andragogie s'y attardent.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication will be required to assign copyright to the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education/L’Association canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes (CJSAE). CJSAE requests that, as the creator(s)/author(s) of the manuscript your are submitting assign certain rights to the manuscript to the CJSAE in exchange for undertaking to publish the article in print and electronic form and, in general, to pursue its dissemination throughout the world. The rights the CJSAE requests are:
- The right to publish the article in print and electronic form or in any other form it may choose that is in keeping with its role as a scholarly journal with the goal of disseminating the work as widely as possible;
- The right to be the sole publisher of the article for a period of 12 months;
- The right to make the article available to the public within a period of not more than 24 months, as determined by relevant journal staff of the CJSAE;
- The right to grant republication rights to itself or others in print, electronic, or any other form, with any revenues accrued to be shared equally between the author(s) and the journal;
- The right to administer permission to use portions of the article as requested by others, seeking recompense when the CJSAE sees it as warrented;
- The right to seek or take advantage of opportunities to have the article included in a database aimed at increasing awareness of it;
- As the author(s), the CJSAE wishes you to retain the right to republish the article, with acknowledgement of the CJSAE as the original publisher, in whole or in part, in any other pbulication of your own, including any anthology that you might edit with up to three others;
- As the author(s), the CJSAE withes you to retain the right to place the article on your personal Web page or that of your university or institution. The CJSAE askes that you include this notice: A fully edited, peer-reviewed version of this article was first published by the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, <Year>, <Volume>, <Issue>, <Page Numbers>.
BY AGREEING TO THE FOREGOING, YOU CONFIRM THAT THE MANUSCRIPT YOU ARE SUBMITTING HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE IN WHOLE OR IN PART, AND THAT NO AGREEMENT TO PUBLISH IS OUTSTANDING.
SHOULD THE ARTICLE CONTAIN MATERIAL WHICH REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION FOR INCLUSION, YOU AGREE THAT IT IS YOUR OBLIGATION IN LAW TO IDENTIFY SUCH MATERIAL TO THE EDITOR OF THE CJSAE AND TO OBTAIN SUCH PERMISSION. THE CJSAE WILL NOT PAY ANY PERMISSION FEES. SHOULD THE CJSAE BE OF THE OPINION THAT SUCH PERMISSION IS NECESSARY, IT WILL REQUIRE YOU TO PURSUE SHUCH PERMISSSION PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.
AS AUTHOR(S), YOU WARRANT THAT THE ARTICLE BEING SUBMITTED IS ORIGINAL TO YOU.
Provided the foregoing terms are satisfactory, and that you are in agreement with them, please indicate your acceptance by checking the appropriate box and proceed with your submission.
This copyright agreement was extracted with permission from the "Best practices guide to scholarly journal publishing" (2007), produced by the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ).
