This chapter considers how transitions to adulthood have been historically represented and presents alternative ways of thinking about transitions to adulthood through the context of adult basic education programs.

This chapter explores the relationship between literacy and health disparities, focusing on the concept of health literacy. Recommendations are provided for ways to bridge the health literacy gap for learners in adult basic education and family literacy programs.

This chapter explores Black men's reasons for participating in an adult basic education and literacy program through the lens of gender identity.

Building health literacy skills among adult learners has the potential to contribute to efforts to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes. Adults with limited literacy skills are more likely to be underserved by health services and at risk for poorer health. Recognition of the need for stronger health literacy skills and a desire…

Over the past decade, the field of health literacy has advanced from providing limited tools for simplifying language into the basis for a viable theory of the complex relationship between knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and health outcomes, ranging from the individual to the societal level. While roughly a decade passed between what seem to be…

In 2002, 45 percent of American adults had used the Internet to search for health information. However, according to a 2009 report, the number had increased to 71 percent of adults ages thirty to forty-nine and 46 percent of those 50 and older who had sought health information online. While the number of adults using the Internet to search for…

Since the 1980s, educators in adult basic education and special education have speculated that a substantial if unknown percentage of adults have specific learning disabilities (LDs) and have sought to identify and address effectively the needs of these learners. Two rarely intersecting bodies of historical literature on LDs provide the background…

The adult basic education field in the United States has experienced an ebb and flow of interest and investment in "worker education" over the past three decades. Although the rhetoric around workplace basic skills tends to focus on such outcomes as productivity and competitiveness, some proponents of worker basic education see it as a tool for…

Life for uneducated women involves contending with myriad barriers to economic self-sufficiency. The average income for individuals without at least a high school diploma or GED is about $18,734. That income level falls close to the poverty line established by the federal government for a family of three or more. Further compounding the problem…

Adult basic education represents a marginalized field that addresses the needs of a largely marginalized population: adults who are viewed through a deficit lens labeling them as being underprepared. This article examines particular challenges and strengths of adult learners in basic education programs (including literacy, English language, and…

Learning is an act of hope. Although adults enter learning experiences from many frames of emotion and cognitive beliefs, each views this experience as the purposeful choice for a new and different future, a future of hope and possibilities. For adult learners, the pursuit of higher education is a choice and a life-changing engagement. Given the…

This article concludes a volume on emotions and adult learning with a conversation about the book itself. In this article, the authors reflect on the ways in which the preceding articles contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of emotions in adult learning.

Assumptions about learner identity are often based on a deficit view of the working classes. This chapter illustrates an alternative discourse that shows how one family literacy program in Scotland generated useful knowledge.

To improve current civil society and achieve the possibilities globalization offers, we must incorporate an education-for-empowerment approach to lifelong learning. This chapter explores the potential, promise, and implications for local action and dialogue.