The purpose of this article is to describe the interconnectedness of three professional development associations, the impact of various factors on collaboration and fragmentation, and suggestions for future directions. The three adult education professional associations being discussed in this article are the American Association of Adult and…

Teaching graduate students to conduct evaluations is typically relegated to evaluation methods courses. This approach misses an opportunity for students to collaboratively use evaluation skills to explore content. This article examines a graduate course, Issues in Adult Basic Education, in which students learned evaluation methods concurrently…

In the field of adult basic education, there are two strategies that have been found to be of particular value to student learning: multiple intelligences and purpose-based learning. However, putting these learning theories into practice is not always as easy as an educator might at first believe. Adult basic education teacher Dylan Emerick-Brown…

Especially in a time of economic and social crisis, besides poverty and social segregation, immigrants face an additional difficulty to get integrated in a new society: lack of oral and written knowledge of the language of the country they are now living in. This paper describes an on-going research project--Writing and Reading with Art (WRAP)…

This conceptual study examines the importance of relationships between teachers and students in court-mandated adult education settings. Although research has been done on the importance of relationships between teachers and incarcerated students, there have been no outstanding studies on the relationships developed between teachers and students…

In the second article in a series marking 90 years of NIACE support for adult learning, the author charts the changing shape of adult education in the decades following the Second World War, and the Institute's emergence as a "major non-governmental force" in the development of adult education. In 1983 the NIAE changed its name to the National…

Struck by the paucity of research into how older people use information and communication technologies, a group of "senior learners" at Lancaster University examined older adults' changing experience of technology and what motivates them to become engaged. Through group discussions, interviews and photographs they explored their changing…

Hardly anyone can have failed to pick up on the recent flurry of stories in the national press about the Big Society, sparked off by Dame Elisabeth Hoodless's remarks that funds for volunteers are disappearing at an alarming rate, and that this is undermining the very idea of a "Big Society". At the same time, under the government's radical…

The seventies and eighties saw the adult education movement renew and reexamine its commitment to opening up learning opportunities to "disadvantaged" groups. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) was now part of the mainstream of public policy making in lifelong learning and had a significant role in delivering the…

In prison, a man has the opportunity to learn something that is lacking in the world outside: respect. He respects those who respect him, because he has learned the value of respect. Another important opportunity is the chance to get on the education ladder and to earn some self-respect. The author was assessed as "illiterate" when he was jailed…

In July 2011, the Welsh Government published the first data on adult literacy and numeracy in Wales since 2004. The summary information from the National Survey of Adult Skills in Wales shows that there has been an improvement in literacy levels (though challenges still remain), but little improvement in numeracy. Discussions are ongoing with…

This article focuses on the issue of policy development for adult learning in Mali, West Africa. On January 2007, the Malian government adopted the "Adult Non-formal Education Policy Document," which was intended to regulate the adult learning sector and federate the actions of policy makers, adult education providers, and adult learners. The…

Adult and community educators have always seen themselves as agents of change, building people's confidence, sense of community and ability to take part in society as well as their knowledge and skills. All the main political parties in the UK have put issues of social justice, social mobility and citizens' empowerment near the top of the policy…

A focus on adult learning has been quietly driving an increase in local activism among those who traditionally have had the least "voice". It is precisely this kind of grassroots activity that will enable the vision of local democracy and the Big Society to be implemented. In this article, the author hopes to show how a focus on adult learning is…

In 2007, the Workers' Educational Association's (WEA) Yorkshire and Humber region was funded by the Academy for Community Leadership to deliver a programme of active citizenship learning in South Yorkshire. The programme was expected to: equip potential and existing community leaders with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to address…