This paper discusses the relationship between international agendas for lifelong learning and financial aid for low income countries, especially those on the African continent. It argues that there are subtle differences in terminology written by policymakers respectively in Europe and South Africa for lifelong learning but that international…

Much of VET policy internationally draws on a toolkit that has been seriously questioned for its logic, international relevance and effectiveness by considerable amounts of academic research. Reflecting primarily on our experiences of leading a complex, multi-country policy study, we develop an account that seeks to explore ways in which the…

This paper applies the capabilities approach to the broader debate of the role of vocational education and training (VET) in poverty alleviation. The capabilities approach provides an approach for conceptualising and evaluating VET which differs in orientation from dominant productivist conceptions. It does so by shifting the focus from economic…

The current decade has seen a significant return of interest in vocational education and training (VET) amongst the international policy community. This rise in policy and programmatic interest in VET's role in development, however, stands in contrast to the state of the academic debate. Whilst there have continued to be both policy and academic…

All over the world, international development organizations try to increase professional capacity of local staff. These attempts are thought to fail because of financial constraints, but this is just part of the story. Professional development and adult learning theories approach learning from a western perspective, while many developing societies…

Although there is a considerable body of research regarding the relationships between the sociopolitical and economic transition and its implications for the education system in South Korea, there is little known about how sociopolitical and economic factors affect labor education practice in South Korea. The premise of the study is that the…

This paper explores the ways in which policy discourses have constructed rationales for addressing adult literacy over the last 50 years. In particular, we examine how policy positions the literacy learner as citizen within discourses of rights and equity. Taking the case of the UK, we compare two key documents produced at different historical…

This paper challenges constructions of the "gendered illiterate Indian villager" as a homogenous group of people who are empowered through acquiring literacy. I strive to displace homogeneous representations of gendered "illiterate" subjects through ethnographic accounts of diverse people's realities in different villages in Bihar, India. I argue…

This essay is concerned with organisational learning and, in particular, policy learning. Sometimes, organisations learn; sometimes they do not. Sometimes they use their acquired knowledge, but this is, not always the case. Inside organisations, particular values, rules and incentive systems are developed. In addition, organisations need to…

This paper explores the role of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) in adult education as one instrument of global civil society to effect social change. Postcolonial theory is utilized to explore the complex relationships between the concepts of "globalisation", "global civil, society", and "adult education for social change". In…

Literacy policy and programming in developing countries continues to be influenced by the assumption that without literacy, an adult is unable to function on an equal basis in society and that an individual can be easily categorised as either literate or illiterate. Although this has led to prioritisation of primary schooling over adult literacy…

Successful adult literacy and basic education programs are notoriously difficult to achieve. One reason for this has to do with how the question, "literacy for what?" is answered for a given program. All too frequently, the answer to that question is shaped more by the goals of the literacy provider than it is by learners' own goals and desires.…

The current dominant account of aid to education focuses on schooling and official development assistance and talks in terms of policy work, donor harmonisation and, increasingly, budgetary support. However, this approach is limited in a number of ways. The return of international policy interest in vocational education provides an opportunity to…

This is the first detailed study of the character and particularity of China's rapidly growing education and training cooperation with Kenya. Set against the 50-year history of Kenya's engagement with China, it pays special attention to the human resources targets of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) from 2000. It argues that the…

While previous research has focused on the relationship between education and women's empowerment in the public sphere, their empowerment in the private sphere has been less fully developed in empirical studies. Drawing on a theoretical model of change in marital relationships, this article examines how women who participated in an innovative…