The Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) is the coordinating organization for the Illinois Community College System and administers Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). The ICCB recognizes the importance of preparing residents with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in postsecondary education and the…

As a way to conclude, this article elaborates key themes that emerged from the collected articles in this volume. Each article carries its own important message about the role of adult education in confronting White Christian nationalism, while here, Prins and Carr-Chellman offer a thematic interpretation of the volume as a whole. These themes…

The "1919 Report" of the British Ministry of Reconstruction's Adult Education Committee, produced as the First World War was ending, reflects the optimism of its committee about the possibilities for a more socially just and democratic society and its concern to find an alternative to economic deprivation and disenfranchisement. Its…

The EU policies about what to achieve and how to achieve through the education and training of adults have developed like norms for the EU member states which they find difficult to flout. With the declaration to achieve the European Education Area (EEA) by 2025 and its targets by 2025 and 2030, the EU has laid down a framework for developing the…

Racial illiteracy is widespread in America, and as adult literacy educators our mission is to address illiteracy in all its manifestations. We teach literacies in reading and writing, numeracy, computer, speaking, listening, visual, health, and media, each vital to making sense of our world and functioning effectively in it. Racial literacy is…

Despite communities in emergency situations expressing the desire and need for education beyond schooling to support the learning needs of adults and youth, the focus tends to remain on providing conventional, school-based education for school-aged children. Taking a decolonial approach to interrogating this prioritisation of schooling in…

This paper examines how generative knowing theory reimagines adult education, highlighting a vital interdependence where differences are not erased but valued. First, two vignettes explore the complex challenges of an aging society and underrecognized attempts to marginalize older adults. Calling for adult educators to stop (re)producing systemic…

In this article we explore our collaborative practices, since 2020, in the design and facilitation of a distinctive form of research circle aimed at 'fostering community, democracy and dialogue', which has been informed by, but distinct from, those first developed by Swedish adult educators. We ask how our work and its particular form of…

We present an argument for a higher priority for art in the educational system and "make a case" for the arts--to provide a rationale for its priority in adult education. This is the plan: to provide this rationale; to present practical guidelines for the processes of engaging in art that may be transformative and critical for…

International organisations have measured adult learning participation since the 1990s, using surveys like the Adult Education Survey (AES) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). These surveys employ a 'triadic' classification of learning activities -- formal (FAE), non-formal (NFE) and informal learning…

Newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not hold back at the launch of Skills England -- a new government agency -- in July 2024. The Labour Party's 2024 election manifesto had stated that Skills England would 'bring together business, training providers and unions with national and local government to ensure we have the highly trained…

This article applies system theory to the analysis of the relationship between the EU and candidate country Serbia, with a focus on adult education policy. The study explores how the peripheral status of Serbia with its hybrid political regime combining autocratic and democratic features leads to the hybridisation of its adult education system,…

Adult education instructors frequently attend both required and elective professional development events and seminars to gain and maintain proficiency. However, as prospective learners, do instructors know exactly what the training will be about? Are the takeaways, or training outcomes, clearly stated beforehand? The answer seems to be, sometimes.…

Although some have attempted to appropriate elements of Montessori education to select groups of adults (e.g., for learning disabilities, second language acquisition, dementia patients), there have been no comprehensive attempts to validate the adaptation of this approach to the adult learner in general. This exploratory study attempts to provide…

For more than 50 years, governmental and independent reviews have published proposals for strengthening adult learning opportunities, showing a remarkable consistency in the advice offered to government. They have, however, had little more than short-term impact on policy or provision. Since the early 2000s, under the influence of neoliberal…