Global Issues And Adult Education

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.

'Globalization' has become a key shorthand for describing some of the important changes affecting daily life in all parts of the world. Adult educators and trainers are grappling with the impacts of changing social relations in the economic, political, social, cultural and environmental spheres. There is particular concern for the majority of people who are poor, live in rural areas or urban slums and are marginal to decision making in their societies. This book is a collection of critical reflections on adult education and training which have traditionally had strong demarcation lines between them. A wide range of education and training strategies in different sites of practice, including civil society organisations, the workplace, and state institutions, are explored in both theory and practice. Important examples are given of practices which are challenging the dominant relations where human capital is emphasised before human values.

Whether it is earning a GED, a particular skill, or technical topic for a career, taking classes of interest, or even returning to begin a degree program or completing it, adult learning encompasses those beyond the traditional university age seeking out education. This type of education could be considered non-traditional as it goes beyond the typical educational path and develops learners that are self-initiated and focused on personal development in the form of gaining some sort of education. Essentially, it is a voluntary choice of learning throughout life for personal and professional development. While there is often a large focus towards K-12 and higher education, it is important that research also focuses on the developing trends, technologies, and techniques for providing adult education along with understanding lifelong learners’ choices, developments, and needs. The Research Anthology on Adult Education and the Development of Lifelong Learners focuses specifically on adult education and the best practices, services, and educational environments and methods for both the teaching and learning of adults. This spans further into the understanding of what it means to be a lifelong learner and how to develop adults who want to voluntarily contribute to their own development by enhancing their education level or knowledge of certain topics. This book is essential for teachers and professors, course instructors, business professionals, school administrators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest advancements in adult education and lifelong learning.

We recognize that our society and demands for lifelong learning changes rapidly, and needs to continue to be rapidly effectively infused in changing forms into the teaching and learning process. Conversations about Adult Learning in Our Complex World focuses the study of adult learning to address the issues of living and learning within a complex world- the epitome of the 21st century. Readers will find that this book is valuable for a wide variety of professors, researchers, practitioners, and students in fields related to adult learning and adult education as it reveals emerging research and trends relevant for today and tomorrow. Moreover, this publication represents some of the most innovative and thoughtful scholarship resulting from the work of the Adult Higher Education Alliance and, arguably, the field of adult education. The book is arranged thematically in five sections, each one dealing with a domain where intercultural competence and other fundamental skills may improve the learning experiences for adult learners. The sections include, The Learning Environment and Authentic Teaching, Interculturally Competent Classroom Practices, Programming for Adults—Redesigning University to Serve Adult Learners, Professional Development, Teacher Training, and Leadership Development, and Meaningful Assessment of Programs for Adults.

Global Networks, Local Actions: Rethinking adult education policy in the 21st century examines public policy developments in adult education, exploring the policy framing of adult education practice in a range of socio-cultural contexts, and contributing to the development of policy research from global and comparative perspectives. Drawing from multidisciplinary fields such as adult education, comparative and international education, and sociology, chapters analyse empirically grounded studies from the US, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Each study helps to identify how political agents interact at international, regional, national and local scales, and what the implications are for publically-funded interventions in adult education. While this book recognises the complexity of adult education policy, it argues for the need to deconstruct the false belief that what is global in adult education may be intrinsically distinct from the characteristics of geographical or social territories in which adult education occurs. Instead, it points to localised norms and ideas on Adult Basic and Secondary Education as ultimately contained in, and constituting, what is at times perceived as global, or abstracted from definite geographical or social territories. This book calls for a global sociology of adult education in response to global challenges, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of developments in public adult education policy. As such, it will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of adult education, comparative and international education, education policy and politics, sociology of education, and global studies.

This book promotes the development of nontraditional literacies in adult education, especially as these critical literacies relate to global citizenship, equity, and social justice. As this edited collection argues, a rapidly changing global environment and proliferation of new media technologies have greatly expanded the kinds of literacies that one requires in order to be an engaged global citizen. It is imperative for adult educators and learners to understand systems, organizations, and relationships that influence our lives as citizens of the world. By compiling a comprehensive list of foundational, sociocultural, technological and informational, psychosocial and environmental, and social justice literacies, this volume offers readers theoretical foundations, practical strategies, and additional resources.

This book demonstrates how processes of globalization (economic, cultural, socio-political) are creating new possibilities and inequities and are thereby creating corresponding roles for adult education and learning in the South (Africa, Asia, South America) that are embedded in multiple political, economic and cultural projects for social change.