Foundations Of Adult Education In Africa

This book presents key concepts, information and principles that should underlie the practice of adult education in African contexts. It assumes that adult educators should have a historical perspective on the current educational context, understand how the colonial experience has impacted on indigenous traditions and be aware of the philosophical underpinnings of adult education activities. The chapters introduce the foundations and history of adult education in Africa; philosophy and adult education; socio-cultural, political and economic environments; opportunities and access for adult learners; gender and development in adult education; adult education as a developing profession; information and communication technology; globalization and adult education; and policies and structures of lifelong learning

Presenting psychology as an applied discipline that can help adult educators be more effective in their work, this book analyses the cultural factors that influence the characteristics, behaviour and thinking of adult learners. It emphasizes the collective orientation of African cultures and the view of the self in terms of interdependent relationships within a community. The chapters provide an introduction to the psychology of adult learning and address the following: characteristics of adult learning; life span development; human motivation and participation; learning styles; facilitating adult learning; and guidance and counselling of adult learners.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Pedagogy - Adult Education, grade: A, Atlantic International University, course: The Foundation of Adult Education, language: English, abstract: This piece of work was an opportunity for us to view Adult Education from the historical point. Indeed, we tried to define what adult education is and how it emerged, developed through time and space. About time and space, we moved to the French speaking Africa, particularly to Ivory Coast to present how Adult Education, particularly Andragogy is perceived by the people and by the government. Then we tried to show how Andragogy should be understood and why it is important and urgent to incorporate andragogic principles to teachers' training. At this information technology age, continuing to be submitted to pedagogic principles refers to refuse development, but we preferred the option of progressive changes. That is why we first proposed collaboration between Andragogy and Pedagogy as a transition for all the educative community to know better andragogic principles and be prepared for the change. In order to prepare them for the change, future teachers must be exposed to the new principles that consist in learning how to learn rather than being taught. We hope that this will prepare future teachers' minds for the real change for a fully learner-centered, self-directed and auto-learning! The full use of andragogic principles must be perceived as a democratization of knowledge. To use Mark Esposito's words (2007), continuing with Pedagogy means that we decide to rely on others to tell us "what to learn", "how to learn it" and also "when to learn". How and why can we accept to be so dependent? When are we going to take the responsibility to "kill our masters", the pedagogic teachers and be our own masters, meet our own learning needs, and demand all training providers to do the same?

This book examines how adult education is influenced by and has an influence on the society in which it takes place. It presents a clear analysis of the development challenges and sociological realities of the adult education context and explores the potential of adult education to help African countries and communities achieve their developmental goals. Issues discussed include: adult education, social change and development; community education; race, ethnicity and religion; social class and gender; empowerment; democracy; health and HIV/AIDS; poverty and debt; globalisation and the environment.

This book identifies quantitative, qualitative and multi-method approaches, and is based upon existing research methods teaching in Africa. It is grounded in African adult education contexts and draws on material and experiences from research courses taught in African universities. It emphasises the importance of combining quantitative methods with qualitative research that is embedded in adult education contexts and that builds on indigenous knowledge. Examples of the contexts addressed in the book include: village communities, agriculture development workers, literacy and income generation projects, community policing strategies, brigades, vocational training centres, mass health awareness campaigns such as HIV/AIDS, work-based education and training, management development, needs analyses, and the training of adult education trainers.

Global Issues and Adult Educationbrings together seven years of cutting-edge research and analysis from the Cyril O. Houle Scholars in Adult and Continuing Education. These emerging leaders in the field investigate the importance of adult education in responding to the challenges of global issues. The book is divided into five sections, each of which examines one overarching topic—globalization and the market economy, marginalized populations, environment and health, community empowerment, and lifelong learning and educational systems. Each section begins with an introduction that provides a framework for understanding the overarching issues and summarizes the chapters in the section.

This book explores rationales for research methodologies embedded in African contexts. Issues discussed include: contexts for adult education research in Africa; philosophical and theoretical foundations of inquiry; philosophical perspectives and their implications for research; doing a literature review; getting started with a research proposal; quantitative research designs and carrying out surveys; summarising and analysing survey data; the nature of qualitative research; carrying out qualitative studies; combining qualitative and quantitative methods; research ethics; action research; feminist research approaches; and writing up and disseminating research.