Stephen D. Brookfield

Stephen Brookfield (born 1949 in Liverpool, England) is a scholar in adult education who has held positions at the University of British Columbia, Columbia University, Harvard University University of Saint Thomas and Antioch University. He is currently adjunct professor at Columbia University, and emeritus professor at the University of St. Thomas. == Education == Brookfield earned his Ph.D. from the University of Leicester in 1980 and wrote a thesis on independent adult learning. == Career == In his teaching career, Brookfield has worked in England, Canada, Australia, and the United States, teaching in a variety of college settings. He has written nineteen books on adult learning, adult teaching, critical thinking, discussion methods, critical theory as well as critical pedagogy and teaching race. His overall project is to help adults learn to think critically about the dominant ideologies they have internalized and how these can be challenged. Influenced by the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory and American Pragmatism he has written extensively on how to use methods of critical reflection and discussion based teaching to uncover ideologies such as white supremacy and patriarchy. His twenty first book titled Teaching Well: Understanding Key Dynamics of Learning Centered Classrooms was published in 2023 by Routledge, co-authored by Juergen Rudolph & Shannon Tan. ''Becoming a White Anti-Racist: A Practical Guide to Educators, Leaders and Activists (co-authored with Mary Hess) was published by Stylus Publishers in 2021. Many of his ideas are influential across the discipline of adult education and beyond. In particular, his Four Lenses of Critical Reflection suggest that educators should continuously reflect on their own practice through four lenses: their own experiences, the perspectives of their students, feedback from their colleagues, and the ideas contained in scholarship. Applying these lenses to our practice can help us become more rounded, critically reflective practitioners. In Recent years Brookfield has focused much of his scholarship on issues relating to white supremacy and how this intersects with adult education and critical reflection. This work particularly emphasizes the importance of addressing power and systemic racism in our institutions and classrooms many of which remain predominantly white. == Awards == Brookfield has three honorary doctor of letters degrees; from the University System of New Hampshire in 1991, from Concordia University, St. Paul (St. Paul, Minnesota) in 2003, and from Muhlenberg College in 2010. He won the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education six times (in 1986, 1989, 1996, 2005, 2011 and 2012), as well as the 1986 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education, all awarded by the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education. At the University of St. Thomas he has won the John Ireland Presidential Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Teacher/Scholar a