Professor Chad Hoggan Inducted into International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame

As NC State College of Education Professor of Adult Education Chad Hoggan toured the University of Oklahoma building that houses the International Adult and Continuing Education (IACE) Hall of Fame,he had a surreal feeling knowing he would soon be counted among them when he was inducted himself on Nov. 8.  As he perused the plaques with photos of more than 430 people who have been inducted over the past three decades, he noted the names of scholars and practitioners from all over the world, many of whom he described as his “academic heroes in adult education,” including Paulo Friere, Myles Horton, Maxine Green, Malcolm Knowles, Jack Mezirow and Sharan Merriam.

“I don’t believe there is a higher honor in my field,” Hoggan said. “To be on the wall alongside these greats elicited more than a little imposter syndrome. And yet, the members of the Hall of Fame who were in attendance were so warm and welcoming.”

Hoggan’s research focuses on transformative learning, or experiences that impact the way in which people experience, conceptualize and interact with the world around them. His selection for inclusion in the IACE Hall of Fame focused on the impact of his contributions to transformative learning theory, describing him as “the most influential author in transformative learning theory over the last decade,” and including his role as the longest-running editor of The Journal of Transformative Education. 

His role as an editor of The Journal of Transformative Education, Hoggan said, is one he has been especially proud of, even as he plans to step down from the position at the end of the year to take on an editorship role with The Good Society: A Journal of Civic Studies. 

“It has been a genuinely rewarding experience, and I will deeply miss the collegial engagement with authors and reviewers,” he said. “My greatest sense of accomplishment probably stems from the opportunity I had to steer the theoretical development of transformative learning theory.”

In selecting him for the Hall of Fame, the selection committee also noted Hoggan’s 2020 Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Adult Education, his recent development of the Theory of Adult Civic Learning and his ability to bridge scholarship and practice through ongoing projects. 

Hoggan, for example, holds an annual Institute of Civic Studies and Learning for Democracy, a 10-day seminar and residential retreat in Augsburg, Germany, that brings together an international group of practitioners, graduate students and scholars to explore the role education, institutions and individuals all play in developing and sustaining democratic societies.

Additionally, he co-founded the NGO Deutsch-Ukrainischer Dialog to facilitate the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in Germany, advising local officials on the needs of Ukrainian refugees, providing translation services as they complete required paperwork and facilitating their integration in the country. 

He has previously served as a visiting professor at the Zentrum für Flucht und Migration (Center for Flight and Migration) at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany and in the Department of Psychology at the University of Padua in Italy, and as an editorial board member of the UNESCO Chair of Lifelong Learning in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

This post was originally published in College of Education News.