Concepts and practices of education and adult education: obstacles to lifelong education and lifelong learning?

Over the last half century, in varying degrees and under various names, there has been much interest in learning throughout life for everybody. Although what has been written has stressed its necessity and feasibility, little has been achieved. As is common to all things educational, it has lagged behind the times. Little considered and highly resistant among the obstacles to it are the current concepts, institutions and practices of education. The widespread, systematic study of education in the 19th century grew out of the need to train teachers required by the introduction of universal primary schooling. Concentration by teacher trainers on this task, and their struggle to establish their subject as a coherent discipline to be taught in institutions of higher education was such that the prevailing view of education came to be restricted not merely mainly, as hitherto, but only, to the upbringing of children and young people. Rejecting this view of necessity, adult educationalists have sought for their own field academic recognition as a discipline, emphasizing their differences from initial education. Study of current educational writings from many countries shows that the reconciliation of these two positions, necessary to lifelong education, has not gone very far. Consideration of what might be done to create a process and a habit of lifelong learning for all on the basis of current practice and theory of initial education and adult education, of which lifelong education can only be a contributory element, will require fundamental changes in both. There are few signs so far of the political will and the sense of urgency that will apparently be required.     

A foreign model of teacher education and its local appropriation: the English teachers’ centres in Spain

This article explores the implementation of the English model of teachers’ centres in the context of 1980s Spain. Originally it was a top-down plan initiated by a national government. However, from the very beginning its fate was dependent on a bottom-up educational project carried out by pedagogical social movements. The first part of the article focuses on the multiple factors, the combination of which finally brought about the mediated educational transfer of the English teachers centres into Spain. The second part analyses the role played by the pedagogical movements during the implementation of this new initiative. The article concludes by evaluating how the interaction between the bottom-up and top-down processes gave impulse to the rapid establishment of a grand variety of innovative teachers centres, in the first stage, but ultimately brought about a consolidation of a single, hegemonic model, very different from the original object of educational transfer.     

?Between rationality and politics?: autobiographical portraits of adult education programme planning

Using the author's experience as the coordinator of the Canadian Agriculture Lifetime Leadership programme as a case study, this article provides an interpretive essay about programme planning in adult education. Two conceptual frameworks are used to structure narratives of the programme planning process. The first asserts that programme planning is the rational application of a six-step decision-making model. The second claims that programme planning is the political negotiation of personal and organizational interests. Through two autobiographical narratives, this article explores how technical-rational and political models of programme planning further our understanding of adult education practises. In addition to contributing a detailed case study to the literature on programme planning, the article speaks to contemporary empirical and normative debates in adult education.     

Primary mathematics teacher education in Australia and China: What might we learn from each other?

The preparation of teachers to teach mathematics to primary school children differs across nations and cultures. This study used mixed methods to examine the basic content knowledge of trainee teachers in Australia and China. A simple test (30 questions) of content based on an international comparative study in mathematics teacher training found that many of the Australian trainee teachers struggled with material that they might be expected to teach, while the Chinese teachers largely demonstrated mastery. The significance of this finding is examined in the context of the teacher preparation programs in two teacher training institutions. Cultural commentary is added by leading academics in each institution. It was found that in the Australian teacher training institution there was a focus on generic skills and relatively limited opportunity to develop trainee teachers’ content knowledge or specific pedagogy. The relevance of the findings is discussed through the framework of different beliefs in the nature of mathematics and mathematics teaching that have been reported to dominate the different educational systems in China and Australia.     

“Growing together”: A Latvian retrospective of learning opportunities created in the cooperation among Nordic and Baltic adult educators

This article tells the extraordinary story of the cooperation among adult educators in five Nordic and three Baltic countries (NB8) which began in 1991 – the year when Latvia regained its independence. According to individuals who experienced the evolution of this cooperation from the beginning and were actively involved in the process of developing contemporary theories, policies and practices of adult education in Latvia, this cooperation resulted in the creation of a range of unique opportunities for learning and development. Latvian adult educators were engaged in many activities; they learned themselves, taught others, did research on adult education and developed a new system of adult education. What had started out as a “donorship” grew into a “partnership”. With hardly any published information about this cooperation to rely on, the authors of this article build their case using (1) their own memories of participation; (2) the information gained through interviews with key experts; and (3) a number of largely unpublished documents indicated in these interviews. Tracing the evolution of this cooperation, their study seeks to understand how learning opportunities were created and how they were used by adult educators in Latvia. Adopting an ecological (in terms of learning environment, relationships, agency, motivation and identity) sociocultural perspective on learning and learning opportunities, the authors analyse the quality of the learning opportunities created in the context of Nordic-Baltic cooperation, aiming to identify what makes international cooperation successful.     

China's cooperation in education and training with Kenya: A different model?

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 growing popularity of China as a destination for both short- and long-term training for Kenyans, and the increasing interest by Kenyans in learning Chinese, cannot be separated from the wider involvement of China in Kenya's infrastructure development, the growth of Chinese business and foreign direct investment, and Chinese migration to East Africa.     

Gender differences in adult numeracy skills: what is the role of education?

Previous research suggests that as societies empower women educationally, gender differences in numeracy skills will decline. Using direct measures of 56,142 adults’ numeracy skills from the Programme for International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this article studies whether this claim is evidenced across 20 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Results show that in many countries, as education has equalised over generations, gender differences in adult numeracy skills have indeed declined. However, women’s advances in education have not always been matched by a reduction in the gender difference in adult numeracy. Contrary to expectations, gender differences in fields of study in further and higher education cannot systematically explain gender differences in adult numeracy. This suggests that to achieve gender equality in numeracy skills, societies must do more than empower women educationally. More research is needed on the educational policies, contextual, and life course factors contributing to gender differences in adult numeracy in post-industrial societies.     

A future for adult lifelong education in Aotearoa New Zealand: neoliberal or cosmopolitan?

This paper sets out to answer two questions ‘Given the policy settings for lifelong learning for adults in Europe and much of the western world, what are the policy settings and experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand?’ and ‘Will the future of adult lifelong education there be neoliberal or cosmopolitan?’ The article first examines some of the roots of post‐compulsory education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last 30 years. In particular it considers trends in philosophies and practices about educating adults as well as some of the varied policy discourses prevailing over this period. Next it reviews the ever‐changing policy landscape, in particular unresolved tensions between social and economic goals, the acquisition of skills for learning for living and dialogic social purpose learning, and attainment of social cohesion and recognition of diversity. Finally the paper attempts to preview how these tensions may play out in an uncertain future.     

Financing education: why should tax justice be part of the solution?

This forum seeks to problematise issues related to the lack of resources to adequately finance public education systems. It explores potential solutions based on increased domestic resource mobilisation through progressive taxation in order to meet the growing financing gap needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. While many governments in poor countries are already demonstrating a strong commitment to funding education, the papers will argue that they could raise more money by broadening their tax base – for example, by reducing the prevalence of harmful tax incentives or tackling tax avoidance. Steven Klees’s contribution examines the proposals made by the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity as well as the potential for global taxation mechanisms to be used to finance the education and other SDGs. David Archer argues that SDG4 requires a rebuilding of confidence in the capacity of governments to finance good-quality public education through progressive taxation. Finally, Maria Ron Balsera’s contribution uses Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda as case studies to analyse the effect of the inadequate financing of education and to explore sustainable and equitable solutions.     

What predicts adult readers’ understanding of STEM texts?

The current study examined the relations among key variables that underlie reading comprehension of expository science texts in a diverse population of adult native English readers. Using Mechanical Turk to sample a range of adult readers, the study also examined the effect of text presentation on readers’ comprehension and knowledge structure established after reading. In Study 1, ratings of situational interest, select reading background variables, and select measures of readers’ knowledge structure accounted for significant variance in comprehension. In Study 2, the knowledge structure metrics of primacy, recency, and node degree as well as several text ratings were found to be comparable across text presentation formats. Participants who read the text sentence-by-sentence obtained higher scores on measures of comprehension and provided higher ratings of situational interest than those who received the whole paragraph text at once. Knowledge structure measures for the sentence-by-sentence and paragraph formats were similar (68% overlap). We discuss implications for future research examining factors that underlie the successful comprehension of science texts.     

Expanding education through user charges: What can be achieved in Malawi and other LDCs?

Two features mark the education sector in many LDCs today: first, education is publicly provided; and second, governments are faced with severe financial constraints. As a result, enrollments are confined to low levels, and there is excess demand. To mitigate these adverse outcomes, we consider user charges as a means to mobilize additional resources for education. Under the circumstances that characterize mosts LDCs, we show that (i) families are willing to pay for education: (ii) the resources collected through user charges could finance a sizable expansion of education: and (iii) scholarships can offset the equity effects of user charges.     

“An inseparable aspect of citizenship”: marking a centenary in “universal and lifelong” adult education

Contradictory forces are operating in society. One model of the learning society sees it as futuristic, more democratic engaging citizens in the process but at the same time the structures of local government that enable democratic participation have been weakened in the United Kingdom. Drawing on work from his doctoral thesis, the author traces some of that decline.