Stephen Brookfield

Dr. Brookfield’s contributions to ACUE’s Community of Professional Practice include:

• Delivering an Effective College Lecture Through a Student’s Lens
• Stephen Brookfield’s Advice on Teaching From the Back Row

His recent publications include:

• Teaching Race: How to Help Students Unmask and Challenge Racism (Jossey-Bass 2018, forthcoming)
• Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, 2nd Edition (Jossey-Bass 2017)
• The Discussion Book: 50 Great Ways to Get People Talking (Jossey-Bass 2016)

Brookfield holds the John Ireland Endowed Chair at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota where he won the university’s Diversity Leadership Teaching & Research Award and the John Ireland Presidential Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Teacher/Scholar. He serves on the editorial boards of educational journals in Britain, Canada, and Australia, as well as in the United States.

Since beginning his teaching career in 1970, Brookfield has worked in England, Canada, Australia, and the United States, teaching in a variety of college settings. In 2002, he was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University. He has written, co-written, or edited 17 books on adult learning, teaching, critical thinking, discussion methods and critical theory, six of which have won the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education. His work has been translated into German, Korean, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Farsi, and Albanian.

Brookfield also won the 1986 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education, the 2013 Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature in Continuing Higher Education awarded by the University Professional Continuing Education Association, the 2001 Leadership Award from the Association for Continuing Higher Education for extraordinary contributions to the general field of continuing education on a national and international level, and the 2008 Morris T. Keeton Award of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning for significant contributions to the field of adult and experiential learning. In 2009, he was inducted into the international Adult Education Hall of Fame, and in 2010 he received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Muhlenberg College. He was also awarded the Coin of Excellence from the General Army Staff Command College.

Brookfield earned his BA from Lanchester Polytechnic Institute. He holds an MA from Reading College and a PhD from the University of Leicester. In 1991, he was awarded an honorary DLit from the University System of New Hampshire for his contributions to understanding adult learning. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary DLit from Concordia University.