Object Concern Baced On Social Justice: A Research Programme Of Adultology

Educational research is a kind of scientific activity. In this article, I use science philosophy as a functional tool, which makes whole article to be a organism with uniformity. Lakatos(1922 - 1974)is a famous' science philosopher. His theory ---research program is employed in the process of my thinking. In my opinion, the research program of scholarship (junzixue) must be replaced by adultology because modern education is approaching a learning society and life-long education for all. Downward approach is the hard core of adultology, which is a new research program in relation- to the developing education in plural era.Based on the society oriented understanding, this dissertation deals with the theme mainly in two parts. In the first part (there are three chapters in it), based on a historical review, I divide Chinese history of adult education into two phases: mass phase (qunshiqi) and public phase (huashiqi).These descriptions related to social education in modern times in China or adult education. And in second part, there are five chapters for arguing for the adulology as a research program in educational sciences. By criticizing Confucianism, I try to pound the old elite education system with a downward approach. I define adults as the disadvantaged in education, in the second part, the theoretical system is analyzed from two aspects: positive justice and negative justice.As adults are the main body of our education world and labor world, I hold that adult education is a glorious course based on social-justice. Contemporary philosopher John Rawls expressed his justice theory that in the unfair society, the unfairness must benefit the disadvantaged at first. Hence adult education should be designed especially for lower-level social.group in its essence. Such kind of adult education may include immigrant education, community education, correspondence education, e-learning in society today.Adult learners are not voiceless group, so adult education is the education for promotion and knowledgeably advancing.When I claim that the scientific androgogy should take the place of andragogy of escapism, I see adult education as tendency culture.The achivement of adult education based on social juetice is equal to education for all and life-long education.