The 10 studies in this volume present a sampling of policy and legislation relating to adult learning in various parts of the world. The articles resulted from an international research project conducted at the UNESCO Institute for Education in conjunction with the University of Florence. They were written by the following contributors: Robb Mason (Australia), Sergio Haddad (Brazil), M'Badiala Cisse (Ivory Coast), Laszlo Harangi and Janos Sz. Toth (Hungary), Ila Patel (India), Aicha Belarbi (Morocco), Maria Luisa Canieso-Doronila (the Philippines), Carl Rohrer and Irena Sgier (Switzerland), Peter Raggatt and Richard Edwards (England and Wales), and Phyllis M. Cunningham (United States). Each study outlines the historical background and general approach to adult education programs in the country concerned and describes the legislative and policy contexts in which such programs operate. The contributors discuss trends, problems, and issues in adult education that are especially significant in their particular countries. They also address a number of shared themes: the shifting definitions of adult learning; the decentralizing or centralizing of adult education provision; the effort to expand and diversity continuing vocational education as work patterns alter; the blurring of the divide between vocational and general education; and the changing educational roles of the public and private sectors. (KC)