The UK Government's consultation on informal adult learning recognises the importance of self-directed learning, learning in social movements, and learning that involves the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). There is a much clearer picture of how computers and the Internet are used by people in their everyday lives and for…

What is missing from the citizenship debate is discussion of democracy, social justice, and equality. The political economy of citizenship still reflects and reinforces the major social divisions of power and excludes many. Democratic citizenship should be viewed in an expansive and nonnational way. (Author/JOW)

Looks at the changing language of adult education and argues that the social practice of adult education needs to be extracted from the middle of lifelong learning and imbued with the language of social purpose and the common good. (JOW)

Examines three factors that are shifting the role of adult educators away from normative practitioners and agents of social change to enacters of the dominant discourse of lifelong learning: professionalization, technicist pedagogy, and policies of economic determinism. (SK)

Discusses propositions about adult education: no type is neutral; it requires understanding of historical change; it should include analysis of power; curriculum is a social construction; instruction involves principle and purpose as well as technique; and adult educators should undertake critical reflection and dialectical thinking. (SK)

The discourses of citizenship in the lifelong learning agenda are narrow and economistic, emphasizing adult learners as workers and producers, reducing adult education to training for work. The discourse of democracy and social change, an adult education tradition, is being neglected. (SK)

Educators from Scotland and Spain met to exchange ideas about popular education and the role of university departments of adult education. The meeting resulted in formation of the Popular Education Network to continue the international dialog. (SK)

The new Labour government in Britain may signal a resurgence of the social purpose tradition in adult education. Interviews with 35 adult and community educators revealed some sense of hope and possibility, but the lessons of the past must not be forgotten. (SK)

"New Times"--a term recognizing recent qualitative, incremental changes in the world--present an opportunity for community education to become more central to the debate about education, the social order, and social change. The fundamental challenge is forging the politics of cultures into a coherent political culture. (SK)