I was recently at a conference where the speaker was presenting different pedagogies, and an attendee challenged her on the word. The attendee said she thought pedagogy should be used for children while andragogy is for adults. The speaker talked her way out of it, saying that the accepted term in education is pedagogy, as it is more broad. I had not heard of andragogy and when looking it up, I found sites like this. They seem to link pedagogy with more passive teaching strategies, while andragogy is linked to more interactive ones.

How have you used pedagogy? I agree with the speaker that, at least in nursing, we tend to use pedagogy generally for all types of teaching strategies.

It makes sense. Different methods are used in teaching adults to those used with children, as that article indicates. I'm curious to know why the label became "Andragogy", though, instead of "Androgogy". Perhaps it's some sort of attempt to disguise its origins in the Greek andros, "man"? If so, it failed.

I'm curious to know why the label became "Andragogy", though, instead of "Androgogy".

I was, too. I suppose because the verb for 'to lead' in Greek is αγειν (agein). Greek παις (pais) 'child' has a genitive form παιδος (paidos, so my guess is they dropped the -os. (Same with ανηρ (anēr) 'man', ανδρος (andros).) For what it's worth, Greek had the compound word παιδαγωγος (paidagōgos) 'slave who accompanied a boy to and from school' from παιδος αγωγος (paidos agōgos), so the neologism is at least consistent with the older word.)

If you want to get picky, you could say that andragogy only applies to adult males. The proper word should've been anthropagogy. Wikipedia says the word, andragogy, was coined by a german, Alexander Klapp (link). The word is not in the OED. So, another word for you to champion, K.

I too was puzzled by the "a" instead of "o," but then I would have made an end run around the problem and said, "tutelage." That term has its own problems, however, if taken in its earlier meaning, i.e. guardianship or dominion over someone, as in "Me Duce, tutus eris." But then that seems to be the whole point of the term, "pedagogy" as it's now used..

I was shocked to learn it's not in the OED. I thought maybe, just once, I could correct z. But no. He's right, as usual. I wonder why. The conference participant who asked the question really seemed to think our speaker should be using "andragogy," instead of "pedagogy."

As far as the "o" and "a," haven't we found that the spelling of words often changes?

quote:

The proper word should've been anthropagogy

That's a little close to anthropophagy, though, "cannibalism".

That was a fascinating and wholly explains why I learned dookie in school--always being treated in a rigid "You're the kid; I'm an adult" model. All you learn in school is training; the education you do by yourself or not at all.

As an educator, I'd have to disagree with that. Good teachers and universities do educate. Training is generally what occurs in vocational schools. In nursing, for example, we educate nurses on how to think like a nurse, make clinical decisions, critically think, and to clinically reason. At least that's our goal. It's not to "train" nurses on how to start IVs and the like.