Three College of Education faculty members –  Karen Watkins, Ronald Cervero and Sharan Merriam – will be inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame on March 6 at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

The induction of three candidates from one institution is unprecedented, said Edward Simpson, a Distinguished Public Service Fellow in UGA’s Institute of Higher Education and chair of the Hall of Fame’s board of directors.

 “There was no conspiracy to get a ‘crowd of Dawgs’ admitted,” said Simpson, who nominated Cervero. “All three were viewed as richly deserving of the honor and overdue.  I was going to do multiple nominations myself and let the good people stand on their own merits. But it became unnecessary, when others were right in there with me (nominating the other two UGA professors).”

The IACE Hall of Fame was incorporated in 1995 to recognize innovative leaders who believe passionately in the evolutionary power of education, and who are exemplary lifelong learners who have left lasting impressions on the students, institutions, and organizations they have served. There have been 101 scholars and practitioners inducted in the hall’s short history, including Simpson who was selected in its first year.

 Here’s a look at UGA’s most recent IACE Hall of Fame inductees:

Karen Watkins, professor of adult education and director of the School of Leadership and Lifelong Learning in the College of Education.

Prior to joining the UGA faculty in 1993, Watkins was an associate professor of educational administration at the University of Texas at Austin where she directed the graduate program in Adult and Human Resource Development Leadership.

Watkins began her career teaching English in secondary schools in Wisconsin and worked in faculty and organizational development both at Miami-Dade Community College and later at the University of Texas’ National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development.

Over the years, Watkins has worked on the theory and practice of many dimensions, factors and approaches to adult learning including learning organizations, action learning, workplace learning, reflective learning, informal learning, incidental learning and facilitating learning. She has published seven books on workplace learning in addition to many journal articles and conference papers.

Watkins has designed and implemented numerous curriculum innovations during her career including the weekend certificate program she developed at UGA.

She received the Distinguished Graduate Award by the University of Texas in May 2001, and voted Scholar of the Year by the Academy of Human Resource Development in 1999. She served as president of the Academy of Human Resource Development from 1994-1996.

Ronald Cervero, professor and department head of adult education.

Cervero, who came to UGA 16 years ago, has contributed groundbreaking theory and research in the areas of professional practice and program development. This work led him to publish two books that are now used as primary sources in adult education graduate programs throughout North America: Effective Continuing Education for Professionals and Planning Responsibility for Adult Education: A Guide to Negotiating Power and Interests.

His publications include six books authored or edited, 28 book chapters authored or co-authored, and 57 articles authored or co-authored. In his scholarship, Cervero has articulated the critical role of practice in developing knowledge. He lays out a model of how practice should be the cornerstone for teaching and a guide for transforming instruction in continuing education.

 A former student and current faculty member at another university agrees.

“Engaging and challenging students is what Dr. Cervero does best. To take a class with Dr. Cervero is to leave the ordinary world of higher education behind and enter a realm where genuine thinking is required.”

And a current student says, “In a department in which many of the students are older, fearful of returning to school after many years away, and trying to juggle full-time work commitments, family life and school, Dr. Cervero excels at investing his students with hope. He makes us not only want to be better students and educators, he makes us believe we can be!”

Cervero’s work has received much recognition. Three of his journal articles have received Okes Awards for Research in 2001, 1998 and 1996. His work has received the 1989 Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education and the 1990 Frandson Award for Literature in Continuing Education and an honorable mention for that award in 1991.

He has been nominated by his peers in the College of Education for the university’s highest teaching award and was voted by them the Outstanding Teacher in 1997. He has had more students – six – win the Graduate Student Research Award than any other adult education professor in North America.

In the international arena, Cervero has worked for the past five years with the Houle Scholars Program, Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the initiative identifies the next generation of young scholars from Latin America, Southern Africa and the United State within the first seven years of having completed the doctorate to work with faculty in adult education at UGA to further enhance and develop their scholarship and research.

Cervero received his Ph.D. in adult education from the University of Chicago, where he worked with the legendary professor Cyril Houle.

Sharan Merriam, professor of adult education.

One of the few women in professorial roles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Merriam has made significant contributions to the field of adult education in philosophical foundations, adult learning and development and qualitative research methods.

Scholars and practitioners have applauded her organization and lucid writing on the key themes of theory, research and practice of the field through her 20 published books, dozens of articles and chapters, and editorships over the past 25 years.

“Her scholarship in the philosophy and foundations of adult education and qualitative research methods has provided the foundational frameworks for theorizing and practicing within our field,” said the chairperson of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE). “Your work has moved us forward as we explore new concepts, ideas, and knowledge in adult education.”

Merriam received the distinctive Career Achievement Award, an honor bestowed only once every three years, from the CPAE this past December.

Along with numerous teaching and research awards, Merriam was a Fullbright Scholar to Malaysia in 1998, and has won the Houle World Award for Outstanding Literature for three different books – a distinction which she alone holds.

Merriam’s co-authored book, Learning in Adulthood, is a key organizing instructional text for graduate study and professional development in adult learning.

Merriam teaches graduate courses in adult education and qualitative research methods and is a member of the Senior Teaching Fellows program and the UGA Teaching Academy.

She has conducted workshops and seminars on adult learning and qualitative research throughout North America and around the world, including countries in southern Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

 Merriam also served for five years as co-editor of Adult Education Quarterly, the major research and theory journal in adult education.

Prior to coming to UGA in 1985, Merriam  was on the faculties of Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. She earned her Ed.D in adult and continuing education from Rutgers University.

Monday, February 17, 2003
WRITER: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu
CONTACT: Edward Simpson, 706/542-0581, egsjr@arches.uga.edu