ELT in Brazil

I read this quote in a material I’ve been working on and it got me thinking:

“The challenge for all [pre-primary] teachers of English is to have the knowledge, skills and sensitivities of a teacher of children and of a teacher of language and to be able to balance and combine the two successfully.’’

Brewster, Ellis and Girard  2002

Sure, Brewster, Ellis and Girard have a point. For one to be a good pre-primary teacher of English one should not only master the language and its pedagogy but also understand the principles and intricacies of children, their development, and the teaching approaches that would be more effective with them.

I reckon no one would dispute that.

What about teachers of adults, though?

Following the same line of thought, shouldn’t the teacher understand the principles and intricacies of adults, their development, and the teaching approaches that would be more effective with them? We do seem to talk a lot about pedagogy – but what about andragogy?

It seems to me that adults are largely overlooked as a demographic with its very own characteristics and subgroups. To name one very obvious ‘taken-for-grantedness’ the fact that we seem to pool together everyone over 18 under the Adult Learner umbrella. However, would such an umbrella really keep everyone from getting wet?

Say, an 18yo individual has different goals, background, life experience, classroom experience, and schemata from a 60 or 70yo individual. And that’s just a start.

How else do you think adults are taken for granted?