Professor John Dirkx was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education (IACE) Hall of Fame on Nov. 15, 2016.
Dirkx was one of 13 inducted for the Class of 2016, which included educators from around the world, the 21st group to be added.
“It is a great honor to be inducted into the hall and to join the ranks of those already in the Hall of Fame,” said Dirkx, a professor in the Department of Educational Administration. “Many of those in the hall were scholars I studied while I was in graduate school, and it feels a little like ‘coming of age’ professionally. To be held, in a sense, at the same level as these bright and hardworking men and women is quite humbling.”
He was selected for his lifetime commitment to higher education, including bridging theory and practice across adult education, workplace learning and the education of adults.
He is a leader within the field of adult and transformative education. He has served on numerous journal editorial boards worldwide and is an accomplished author. He has also served in leadership roles in the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, the Commission of Professors in Adult and Continuing Education and the American Educational Research Association, among others.
In the MSU College of Education, Dirkx is director of the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program and was the Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education from 2011-14.
As a Mildred B. Erickson Chair, Dirkx built on his own experiences as a program leader and focused on the study of graduate learning experiences and outcomes associated with short-term study abroad. In conjunction with this appointment, he organized and facilitated three annual symposia that brought together academics and practitioners from MSU, as well as the U.S. and other parts of the world, to help foster a scholarly discussion of graduate study abroad.
“My career at MSU has helped me develop a deeper appreciation for the importance of the study of adult learning within higher education,” Dirkx added. “MSU has [also] helped me develop a strong international focus within my research, teaching and service. Through my international work, I have met and become colleagues and friends with a number of scholars, and these relationships have contributed to my research and teaching.”