Reasons for not participating in adult education activities

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument for identifying the adults' reasons and the magnitude of each reason for not participating in adult education activities. It was realized through five steps and the instrument was named "Reasons for Non-participation Scale (RENOPAS) " . In the first three steps items were generated through the review of related literature; interviews made with 20 non-participants and with 25 people who work in the field of adult education. In the fourth step. for the content validation of the instrument the third form of RENOPAS and the factors of situational. institutional. informational. and psychosocial barriers with their conceptual definitions. were given to a group of 25 judges. In the fifth step. for the reliability and construct validation of the instrument the fourth form of RENOPAS were administered to 325 nonparticipants. It consisted of two parts. The questions in the first part were related with some demographic characteristics. The second part of RENOPAS included 74 4-point Likert type items indicating the reasons for non-participation. For the reliability of the entire instrument. Cronbach alpha and item-total statistics were calculated. Cronbach alpha was found as .9323. For the construct validity of the instrument. factor analysis was carried out and 15 factors were extracted. These factors were found to be consistent with the classification of the judges. Then. the number of these factors were decreased to 8 and named as financial constraints, negative attitude towards educational activities, time constraints, fear and hesitation regarding the environment, low selfconfidence, communicational barriers. family responsibility and institutional barriers. Scale level reliability analysis was also carried out and its results were found satisfactory. Each of the 8 scales except one had high and very high reliability coefficients. When factors were analyzed in relation to demographic characteristics. which various relationships were found. RENOPAS was found being very reliable and valid. It can be used for identifying the reasons for non-participation and their magnitudes. There were similarities between studies done in TUrkiye and foreign countries. and also culture specific characteristics.