This article reports on a pilot research project conducted in nine countries of Africa and Asia on some aspects of the impact that teaching literacy to adults has had on the lives of some adult literacy facilitators (ALFs). The small-scale enquiry was implemented by a team of twelve researchers in nine countries (Afghanistan, Botswana, Ethiopia,…

Teachers/facilitators in adult literacy learning programmes are recognised as being vital to successful learning outcomes. But little is known about them as a group. This small-scale research project comprising ethnographic-style case studies of five adult literacy facilitators (ALFs) in Ethiopia seeks to throw some light on these teachers, their…

This paper examines the recent increase in the concern of adult literacy for citizenship, especially aimed at women in developing societies. It looks at what is happening in this field and why; it examines some of the critiques of this range of activity; and it suggests some alternatives which in the end may be more effective in promoting both…

Examines the issues surrounding the cultural transfer of educational practices and institutions between industrialized countries and developing societies. Pays particular attention to adult education. Suggests that such transfers are most successful when the receiving society takes control of the transfer and comes to own it and to adapt it to…