International Adult Education Research Articles

CONFINTEA Vll Marrakech Framework and the Challenge of and Urgency for Active Citizenship Education

A rear-view mirror approach indicates that citizenship education and adult learning and education (ALE) for lifelong learning have been prominent throughout history, dating back to the League of Nations and continuing through the United Nations and UNESCO. The League of Nations was founded in 1920 after World War I when humanity realized that settling disputes through violence—bombs and guns—was indicative of lack of citizenship education. Central to the League’s Covenant was the need to employ “negotiation and arbitration.” In addition to the International Adult Education Conferences, UNESCO has used other forums to affirm the imperative of lifelong learning and citizenship education. For instance, in the Faure Report, there is emphasis on “education and society” and on the “complete man” ( Faure et al., 1972 ). The complete man/woman is an “educated” citizen. In The Fifth Global Report on ALE, UNESCO (2022a) connects citizenship education to the task of empowering adults for change. This article uses the Marrakech Framework for Action (MFA) that resulted from CONFINTEA VII as background to analyze and present active citizenship education as a necessary condition for human sustainability and global transformation. I conceptualize education broadly to include indigenous ways of knowing. In addition, although active citizenship education is the focus of this piece, I argue that there is a symmetric relationship between lifelong learning, adult education, and citizenship education.

Individualising processes in adult education research: a literature review

ABSTRACT Individualising processes often are prescribed as all-embracing solutions in adult education policies worldwide. Nevertheless, re-adaptation of educational frameworks to individual students’ needs may result in tensions for involved agents due to complexities of such initiatives. This literature review examines individualising processes in international adult education research and aims to identify societal needs and challenges eliciting individualising processes and how the latter materialise in policy and practice, causing transformations of adult education in different contexts. The point of departure is Swedish Municipal Adult Education, which is viewed as a collective human activity embedded in a transnational policy agenda and involving a wide array of agents. Thus, the scope of the review involves international research. The analysis of the selected literature is based on the analytical concepts of motive and object, stemming from cultural-historical activity theory. The results indicate that, in the selected literature, individualising processes are problematised within three interrelated and not mutually exclusive themes: mediating between liberation and responsibility; alleviating the risk of exclusion; and addressing student diversity. The study concludes with recommendations for further research that considers the complexity and potentiality of the topic.

Qualification, socialisation and/or subjectification – three international organisations’ prioritisation of the purposes of adult education and learning from the 1970s to the 2010s

ABSTRACT This article examines the purposes UNESCO, OECD and EU historically have attributed to adult education and learning. The aim is to explore changes in international adult education and learning policies from the 1970s until the present day and outline how different international organisations have pushed for specific conceptualisations of what ‘adult education and learning is good for’. The analysis draws on Biesta’s domains of educational purpose to demonstrate how the functions of adult education and learning have changed as the welfare state has transformed into a neoliberal competition state. Based on an analysis of key policy documents, the article shows how each of the organisations has sought to set an agenda in line with its founding visions. UNESCO pushing for an agenda centred on su bjectification and the aim of empowering the individual, but also including strong elements of both qualification and socialisation. OECD, on the other hand, having a more narrow understanding, seeing the purpose of adult education and learning as qualification for the labour market as part of a growth ideology. Finally, EU pushing both socialisation of European citizens and labour market qualifications. The analysis shows how, over the decades, adult education and learning policy has narrowed to focus on a primarily instrumental purpose, which creates new attributed meaning for both the purpose of socialisation and subjectification.

Domestic and International Perspectives on Financing Adult Education and Training

Adult education and training (AET) over the life-course is necessary to participate in economic, social, and political activities in the time of globalization and technological advancement. However, little research has been done to identify mechanisms to fund AET opportunities among middle-aged and older adults from a comparative international perspective. Our study aimed to identify strategies to finance AET opportunities for middle-aged and older adults through an international lens, to help identify barriers and facilitators in effort to best support adult learners regardless of education background or socioeconomic characteristics. We carried out a descriptive qualitative study to facilitate an in-depth understanding of funding mechanisms available to adult learners in the selected countries, from the perspective of adult education and policy experts. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 61 international adult education experts from government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and education institutions. Our informants represented 10 countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Data included at least one in-depth phone or web-based qualitative interview per informant in addition to information gathered from written materials (e.g., peer-reviewed publications and organizational reports). We identified three financing options that arose as themes: government-sponsored funding; employer-sponsored funding; and self-funding. We found that government-sponsored funding is especially important for low-skilled, low-income older adults for whom employer-sponsored or self-funding is not available. Our results have implications for lifelong AET policy changes, such as adaptations of successful AET funding programs across global communities.

On the dark side of open access and new expectations of scientific productivity in adult education research

The aim of this paper is to explore international adult education research in the context of predatory publishing or predatory journals. The paper presents empirical characteristics of predatory journals, determines the quantitative occurrence of predatory journals in the field of adult education by means of a catalogue of criteria, takes a closer look at the authors of adult education contributions identified, and examines the content and quality of the contributions. The article deals with the phenomenon of predatory publishing, an unintended side effect of the Open Access movement, and thus operates in the context of Open Science.

Biographicity as ‘mental grammar’ of postmodern life

‘Biographicity’ is a concept that has been discussed in international adult education for more than 30 years. It has stimulated research concepts and has become a metaphor for the resilience potential of biographical learning processes in modernised modern societies. A basic theoretical foundation has so far been lacking. This article attempts to provide such a foundation. The stimulating influence of modern neurobiology will be discussed in the first section (1). Afterwards, innovations and restrictions of a systemtheoretically reformulated biography theory will be the issue (2). Its self-referentiality blockades can be illustrated clearly by the problem of the social construction of ‘gender’, in which we also reach the limits of the interactionist concept of construction (3). This theoretical discourse creates a concept of its own: the idea of a ‘biographical habitus’ as the ‘mental grammar’ of life in postmodern societies (4).

Relationships, Participation, and Characteristics of a Community of Practice in Short-Term Adult Study Abroad

This study examines the role relationships have in learning among graduate students during a short-term cross-cultural field study in Italy. During group and personal reflections, students expressed the value of relationships and engagement, and how they perceived these experiences to influence their learning. Using relational learning and communities of practice as our framework, we analyzed blogs written by master’s and doctoral students as well as interviews conducted with the nine students to determine how relationships and interpersonal interactions may have helped shape their experiences abroad. Our findings provide insight into relationships, participation, and characteristics of a study abroad program to support becoming a member of a knowledge community of comparative international adult education. Our findings also provide implications for design, implementation, and facilitation for faculty and others who conduct educational programs abroad for adults.

The homelessness of adult education: Some lessons from the folk development colleges of Tanzania

This paper re-examines the position of the Tanzanian Folk Development Colleges, a national network of adult education institutions, at a time when their long-term financial assistance by the Swedish International Development Agency has come to an end and they are being transferred from the Tanzanian Government Ministry of Community Development to the Vocational Training Department in the Ministry of Education. Two key questions are whether, under the vocational training wing of the Ministry of Education, they can continue to implement a liberal adult education programme, flexible ways of working, and a commitment to social transformation, using their sectorwide networks and links with international NGO adult education movements such as the Folk High Schools of Sweden, which have made them centres for a number of nation-wide innovations; and secondly, where they can best be located within governmental administrative and budgetary regimes.

Inter-country Cooperation of Kominkan and CLCs in View of the International Adult Education Frameworks and Development Goals

Inter-country Cooperation of Kominkan and CLCs in View of the International Adult Education Frameworks and Development Goals

Cuba’s “Yes, I Can” mass adult literacy campaign model in Timor-Leste and Aboriginal Australia: A comparative study

In the field of international adult education, mass literacy campaigns enjoyed wide support in the 20th century, when they were seen as a way to increase the participation of previously marginalised and excluded populations in national development. Cuba’s 1961 campaign achieved iconic status, but was only one of many successful campaigns in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In the 1990s, while mass literacy campaigns continued in many countries, scholarly interest in them declined under the influence of World Bank empirical critiques of their effectiveness and increasing postmodern scepticism towards the socialist “grand narrative” of liberation which underpinned some of the more famous examples. Recently, the mass campaign model has gained new impetus through Cuba’s international literacy missions, which use an approach known by its Spanish name, Yo, Si Puedo [Yes, I Can]. This paper reports on the deployment of this model in two very different settings, one being a national literacy campaign in Timor-Leste, a newly-independent island nation in the Asia–Pacific; and the other a pilot campaign in an Aboriginal community in Australia. The authors have utilised participatory action research methods to evaluate the model in both countries, and locate their comparative analysis in the theoretical tradition of popular education.

Book Review: The Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education

Kasworm, C., Rose, A., & Ross-Gordon, J. (2010). The Handbook of adult and Continuing Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 493 pp. ISBN 978-1-4129-6050-2 (hardcover) Adult and continuing education is an expansive and rapidly growing academic and practical field. The Handbook of adult and Continuing Education provides a comprehensive examination of the cutting edge research, theoretical developments, and practice-based issues that are important to the field. The field's top scholars and researchers offer critical and insightful perspectives on various topics in adult education, from social justice and diversity to adult education in a changing global society. In addition, this 2010 edition of the Handbook serves as a critical reference for adult educators, students, researchers, and professionals who are interested in adult and continuing education. The essays in this edition not only serve as a foundation for the field, but they also illuminate the progress that has been made in the field and new directions and developments for the future. The Handbook is organized into six distinctive sections that highlight the major areas of research and practice in adult and continuing education. These areas focus on (a) adult learning and the adult learner, (b) theoretical approaches to the field, (c) adult and continuing education as a field of practice, (d) diversity, (e) social justice, and (f) adult education in a global context. The book ends with critical reflections on the major developments in the field and conclusions that illuminate new directions for research and practice in adult and continuing education. A major strength of this handbook is the depth and breadth of content that illustrates the major areas of study and practice in the field as a whole. The opening section of the Handbook centers the general topic of adult learning and the adult learner in contemporary society. These authors highlight the changing face of formal and informal learning contexts, new research in adult development, and recent scholarship on group and organization learning. Following the opening section, adult education scholars reflect on the state of theoretical production in the field. More specifically, these essays speak to the place and importance of theorizing and knowledge production in the field with a focus on policy, international adult education, histories of adult education, and interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks. …

Learning by doing: Preparation of Bahá'í nonformal tutors

AbstractThis chapter describes the development of a Bahá'í international adult education program designed so that community service is both process and outcome. Particular emphasis is on the preparation of adult tutors.

Reflections on Involvement With Six UNESCO International Conferences on Adult Education and Suggestions for the Future

Reflections: Based on Dr. Charters' Presentation During CONFINTEA VI Belem, Para, Brazil, December, 2009 After being in World War II as a Canadian Naval Officer, on loan to the Royal Navy serving on an invasion ship (Landing Ship Tank-LST 63) in the Mediterranean and at Normandy, I returned to a little more sedentary life of study in adult education in 1948. At the University of Chicago, I was one of Dr. Cyril O. Houle's first doctoral students in Adult Education. Returning from the First International Adult Education Conference sponsored by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Elsinore, Denmark, June 19-25, 1949, he inspired us with the vision of actively participating in the post-World War II International Adult Education movement. It was also an introduction to the recently created United Nations Organization (UNO), founded in 1945 somewhat as a replacement for the League of Nations, and UNESCO, a specialized agency of the UNO established in November 1945. Following the Second UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education, Adult Education in a Changing World, held in Montreal, Canada, August 21-31, 1960, a group of international delegates from the conference met with some Canadian and American adult educators at Sagamore (NY), a Syracuse University Conference Center located between Syracuse and Montreal that I administered as Dean of University College. It was a way for non-delegates to the UNESCO Conference from the civil society, especially from the academic sector, to acquire more information about the developments in adult education. From this meeting the International Council on University Adult Education (ICUAE) developed. In 1962, the Carnegie Corporation funded an Adult Education program initiated by Dr. David Kimball, University of Ghana, with the cooperation of ICUAE. The program followed the pattern of the Sagamore experience. It brought together four Canadian and six American adult educators from their universities to meet with one African adult educator from each of most African universities. Prior to the Adult Education Conference held in Accra in December 1963, each Canadian and American participant was paired with an adult educator from an African University attending the conference, thus able to share experiences at the conference. Following the conference, the Canadian and American adult educators went to the university of their counterparts, where they spent several days sharing adult education experiences and concerns. I spent several days at the Addis Abba University in Ethiopia. I had the privilege of participating in all subsequent UNESCO Assemblies. At the Third UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education, Adult Education in the Context of Lifelong Learning, in Tokyo, Japan, July 25 to August 1, 1972, I served as a member of the official United States Delegation. All delegates to the UNESCO Conference were appointed by the governments of the member states, although members from non-governmental organizations were sometimes appointed to the delegations. While in Tokyo, under the leadership of Dr. J. R. (Roby) Kidd, some of us, in the lobbies of the hotel and elsewhere, explored the possibility of an international organization on adult education with membership from the civil society. Partly from these discussions, the International Council on Adult Education (ICAE), a non-governmental organization, was formed in 1973. The UNESCO meeting provided fertile ground for the generation of such ideas. The Fourth UNESCO International Adult Education Conference, The Development of Adult Education: Aspects and Trends, was held in Paris, France, March 19-29, 1985. The United States had temporarily withdrawn from UNESCO, but I had an invitation to attend as a representative from the Committee of Adult Education Organizations (CAEO), later named the Coalition of Lifelong Learning Organizations (COLLO) of the United States, which continues and was involved in planning for CONFINTEA VI. …

Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Within UNESCO: CONFINTEA, Education for All, and Beyond

UNESCO and Lifelong Learning: The Road to and From Belem There can no longer be any doubt that adult education within lifelong learning is a key factor for economic and social development, as well as being a human right. New policies for adult education must now result in coherent forms of laws and legislation clearly spelling out ways and means for financing adult education. These must involve the public, private, and non-governmental organization (NGO) sectors, social partners, and individuals. As studies for CONFINTEA VI demonstrate, change in most countries is slow and not far-reaching enough, especially because of too low a public sector investment in human resources. In the current global financial crisis things are getting worse, and the gaps between those with and those without are widening at all levels. The need to reverse this trend is urgent. What is being done about it, especially by the key international body UNESCO? The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) now has 193 states and seven associates in membership. It was foreshadowed in 1942, the year after the United States entered World War II, to provide ways and means for reconstructing systems of education once peace was restored. The United States was a central partner in its formation. UNESCO came into force on 4 November 1946 after ratification by twenty countries and held its first General Conference from 19 November to l0 December 1946 with the participation of 30 governments. The first International Adult Education Conference was held three years later in 1949. The sixth conference in a series sustained over 60 years, CONFINTEA VI, was held in Belem in Brazil in 2009, with 1,125 participants from 144 countries and representatives of other international agencies, non-governmental organizations, and learner associations. UNESCO is now carrying out a follow-up strategy in an endlessly patient cycle of activity, concentrating on three aspects with actions at national and regional levels: policy development, improvement of provision and quality, and data collection and documentation of progress. UNESCO already has a schedule of activity running through to mid-term, which is halfway through the time before the next CONFINTEA is due. Most immediately, UNESCO's follow-up strategy looked to the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 20 to 22 September 2010. This meeting was embraced as a precious opportunity to disseminate the Belem Framework for Action (UIL, 2010), making the case for adult literacy and adult learning being central to the achievement of all the MDGs. What has this unceasing activity achieved, and where do we go from here? Unfortunately, the importance of quality youth and adult education, training, and learning was again not recognized as a major factor that helps in achieving the MDGs. So, challenges beckon and we still have much work to do. Some may want to start by further familiarizing themselves with the eight MDGs agreed upon by member countries at the Millennium meeting of the United Nations in 2000, available at both the United Nations and UNESCO websites. Namely: 1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education 3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women 4. Reduce Child Mortality 5. Improve Maternal Health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability 8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development For a better understanding of the goals and targets of the Millennium Declaration and the accompanying indicators for monitoring progress, see the official United Nations site for the MDG indicators (http://mdgs.un.org/ unsd/mdg). For further inquiry see also UN (2010). UNESCO became rather politicised in the difficult Cold War era; its fourth big conference, in 1985, was fraught with power bloc difficulties, yet managed to achieve significant results. …

Policy Review on Adult Learning: The Adult Non-formal Education Policy of Mali, West Africa

This article covers the issue of policy development on adult learning in Mali, West Africa. On January 2007, the Malian government adopted a policy document termed Adult Non-formal Education Policy Document. The document was intended to regulate the adult learning sector and federate the actions of policy makers, adult education providers, and adult learners. The purpose of this article is to critically review the policy document, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. The article first depicts the context in which the policy was initiated and developed. Later on, it discusses the policy's effect on adult education practice, its limits, and its implication for the future of the field in Mali. Evolution of Adult Education in Mali: Why a Policy? Various terminologies are used to refer to the field of adult education such as literacy, andragogy, continuing education, non-formal education, popular education, adult education, lifelong education, and many more. Until the 1990s, some countries have rather stressed literacy, the acquisition of reading, writing, and numeracy skills. This activity was widespread in countries that had a very high rate of illiteracy. Meanwhile, other countries stressed continuing education through the skill development of working adults (Merriam & Brockett, 2007). The terminology of non-formal education was later used to refer to remedial educational opportunities beyond the formal school arena (Coombs & Ahmed, 1974). The concept of adult education stressing a larger dimension of learning opportunities for adults became popularized and internationalized through the UNESCO conference on adult education in 1976 (Torres, 1990). That definition was clarified further during the fifth edition of the International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA) in 1997 to include all dimensions of learning opportunities for adults in all settings. CONFINTEA is the international adult education forum held by UNESCO every twelve years since 1949. As in many African countries, the concept of adult education is not widespread in Mali. The terminologies of literacy and non-formal education are often used when referring to adult education. The first literacy programs in Mali started in 1962, just a couple of years after the country got its independence (Ministry of Education and Literacy, 2007). From 1962 to 1990, literacy activities were carried out through several programs that were experimental and low in scale. Those programs related to the needs of the young country to undertake mass literacy initiatives. An important step was reached in the 1990s when the national context was influenced by the shift to democracy which saw the rapid growth of civil society organizations and their involvement in literacy. The same era was marked by UNESCO's Education For All conference in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, setting an international agenda for adult education. The need for developing a policy document on adult learning became pressing in the year 2000. This movement was favored by both the national and international contexts. In the national arena, Mali moved to democracy and a decentralization era which called for reforms in several sectors including education. The Education Orientation Act and the Ten-Year Educational Development Program, both adopted in 1999 introduced the notion of adult nonformal education, which was supported by both technical and legislative organizations of adult education (African Platform for Adult Education, 2008; Doucoure & Diarra, 2006). The Poverty Reduction Strategy Documents adopted in 2002 and 2007 recognized the link between the low access to education among the population and poverty and the need to reorganize the adult learning sector (Ministry of Education and Literacy, 2008). The need for a policy to regulate adult learning was also inspired by the international agenda. Mali engaged in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Educational For All (EFA) frameworks adopted by the United Nations and UNESCO in 2000, which, among other objectives, stressed the need for improved adult education opportunities. …

AAACE: Where are we going and where have we been? The Future of AAACE in light of its Past

The American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE)--the umbrella organization for the diverse field of adult and continuing education--is undergoing a transformation, and with it comes the opportunity and the challenges to define itself and its purpose for the twenty-first century. As we, the board of AAACE, contemplate our future, we share with you a critical reflection on our past in order to shed light on fundamental issues, as well as the pitfalls to avoid and promises to embrace. We hope this will encourage your participation in the ongoing and dynamic process of growing and refreshing the association. Formative and Early Years AAACE is the latest incarnation of adult education associations dating back to 1921 when the National Education Association (NEA) formed its Department of Immigrant Education. In 1924, this became the Department of Adult Education. Originally, as the name suggests, this group served the teachers of immigrants; however, it was soon expanded to include teachers of adults within school-based programs (Knowles, 1994). In 1926, the American Association for Adult Education (AAAE) was established through funding by the Carnegie Association. This Association was founded to advance a particular vision of adult education, one that was community-based not school-based, and that was also non-vocational and non-utilitarian. However, this vision was never entirely clear, and it was subsequently undermined, first by the Great Depression and later by World War II (Rose, 1989). By 1941, the AAAE was withering, with its activities curtailed. In 1949, a new burst of activity led to the merger of the two groups and the formation of the Adult Education Association of the USA commonly referred to as AEA. However, this marriage was not an easy one, and in 1952 the National Association for Public School Adult Educators (NAPSAE) was founded. As with its earlier incarnation, its mission was to work with teachers in school settings. The name was changed in to the National Association of Public and Continuing Adult Educators (NAPCAE) in 1972. In 1982, the two organizations merged (again!) forming the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE). At the time, AEA was a broad umbrella group of adult educators while NAPSAE was made up primarily of Adult Basic Education (ABE) and General Educational Development (GED) educators and administrators. This merger worked well for almost twenty years, bringing together two groups with intersecting histories (and some animosity). The ABE/GED teachers maintained a separate identity (and conference) through the Commission for Adult Basic Education (COABE). However in 2000, COABE broke away from AAACE to become an independent organization. Recent Past Since 2000, AAACE has gone through profound changes. These changes were not entirely due to the departure of COABE, but rather by the financial problems that precipitated COABE's exit. Membership dropped from over 5,000 to under 300 and the staff of the Association was reduced significantly. When the two groups split, COABE continued separately, and AAACE was left to reconsider its central purpose. With a much reduced membership, the principal issue was survival. The Association's activities were reduced to running the conference and publishing two journals, Adult Learning and Adult Education Quarterly (AEQ). While AEQ continued publication without problem, Adult Learning, lost its staff editor. This led to problems with publication that plague us still, although great improvements have been made in recent years. Another problem revolved around the conference itself. With reduced membership, there was a smaller pool of individuals interested in attending. The mainstays of the conference were the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE), the Commission on Military Education and Training (CMET) and the Commission on International Adult Education (CIAE). …

Third-Space Practitioners: Women Educating for Justice in the Global South

This article builds on qualitative research with 13 women (9 from Canada and 4 from Asia and Africa) doing international adult education in the Global South. The author examines the cases in light of the postcolonial literature of Bhabha, Spivak, and Khan, giving special attention to their theory of third space. The 13 participants are third-space practitioners who challenge the binaries of North/South, religion/development, and local/global. As development workers and educators, these women trouble existing categories of identity to practice progressive politics in the public sphere through third-space strategies of ritual, listening, negotiation, and subversion. This article’s main contribution is to show how these adult educators use and practice this radical position within the shifting (postfoundational) sands that are so often denounced as apolitical, noncommittal, or lost in linguistics.

Forging the Family of Humankind Through International Adult Education

As authors of this special issue on international adult education, we have been asked to address the following questions: How we developed an interest in and originally became involved with international adult education; in what countries we have worked and with whom; lessons learned; and suggestions for others. As far back as I can remember I have experienced comfort, energy, and hope in thinking about and feeling part of the greater family of humankind. From a young age, I heard distant voices calling to me from cultures and countries that I had not yet encountered. My attunement perhaps was due, at least in part, to growing up knowing that I had cousins across the sea whom I knew through pictures but had the opportunity to meet only decades later. Upon reflection, my global interests dearly appear to have begun in youth. My responses to the above questions, however, are framed by key concepts that in retrospect have grown with me and defined my experiences, lessons learned, and suggestions for others. These concepts are automaticity, identity, paradox, integration, and resonance. They appear in bold when defined and discussed throughout the article. One more example from my youth should set the stage--remembrances from family gatherings, which in the Greek-American culture of those years, were often. Christmas, Easter, name days, and birthdays, were all causes for extended family gatherings. I remember the fluidity with which my relatives were able to toggle back and forth between English and Greek without even being aware that the language had changed. More than the words of the language, however, I witnessed tones, gestures, movements, and ambiance with the language contributing to the communication and way of being. Some feelings and expressions were untranslatable and conveyed best in Greek; others in English. I witness that even now, particularly with my work in Europe where colleagues switch back and forth between many languages simultaneously. Some are just speaking the language, but a few others are of the ilk that I observed as a youth, having transcended the language, per se. I refer to this phenomenon as one of automaticity, an understanding of which has become a key concept in my practical as well as scholarly development as an international adult educator. For me, its meaning is no longer restricted to language but plays out in ways of thinking and being in and with others around the world. Automaticity is an incremental process. One evolves, moving from a mere engagement in external behaviors of adaptation to internalizing anything from cultural gestures to values, that is--from merely action (what you do) to a natural part of who we become and how we continue to navigate as internationalists. As discussed later, a cultivation of inner silence speaks volumes in this regard. My Unfolding I first became aware of the international aspects and activities of adult education while matriculating for my master's degree with Malcolm Knowles at Boston University. My part-time study and full-time employment, however, precluded any active involvement at that time. Years later, when I was ready to pursue a Ph.D., I carefully chose a program with a concentrated international population. At that time, few could rival Florida State University. I immediately became immersed and involved in learning about the greater terrain of the field around the globe. Curiously, the country of Greece was missing both from the literature and from discussions, thus launching me on a treasure hunt. I did find fugitive documents from UNESCO consultants who were there during the 1960s and early 1970s. I contacted one (Edward Townsend-Coles) who lived in Oxford, England, and continued communications with him for decades. Once I accepted a faculty position in 1980, I was able to further formalize a research agenda which continues to this day. While in England during 1984, as part of the first North American British exchange of professors, I branched into British library resources on Greece, conceptualizing adult education very broadly. …

Reaching Beyond the United States: Adventures in International Adult Education and Human Resource Development

Travel adventures originated way back in my life when I was a young grade school boy in Southwestern Michigan. My father and mother talked about our family making an automobile trip to California; this was immediately after World War II. The closest we came to California was traveling to Kansas City for the purpose of bringing my oldest sister home for the summer from college. However, on the way home, the boxes of her belongings fell off the top of the car in the middle of the night. We stopped to pick them up and went on home--quite an adventure it was! Developing an International Interest In high school, my two sisters and I traveled as a musical evangelistic team to various churches in six Southeastern United States. I also traveled to Chicago many limes to visit my sisters during their time in college. During my college days in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, I went on a wonderful month-long choir tour in 14 Western states and Mexico--my first international venture. Through my theological seminary male chorus and quartet, I toured in six Midwestern states. I also heard about my seminary professors' international study visits to the Holy land. My honeymoon travels took my wife and me to 13 Eastern states in the United States and to Canada. Our pastoral ministry also found us in other new places. My preparation for becoming an adult educator moved us from central Illinois to Boston University, and my curiosity was piqued as I heard adult educators and human resource developers describe their international work. All these adventures stirred my penchant for travel and interest in international adult education, but my inclination incubated for a number of years. Highlights of My International Work After many years in the field, I was afforded my first and second international opportunities in adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD). The year was 1985, and the countries were Brazil, through the Partners of the Americas; and Germany, through the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) and The German Adult Education Association. In the ensuing 22 years, exponential growth of my international AE and HRD work has taken me on 30 different journeys to 14 countries, where I primarily focused on andragogy--the art and science of helping adults learn (Knowles, 1980). I have also had numerous foreign students in my adult education courses at the University of Missouri. Thus, I have worked with adult learners from 76 countries. My international AE and HRD work in multiple formats includes presenting papers at international AE and HRD conferences and presenting papers about my participation in international AE and HRD at conferences in the United States. I have facilitated numerous AE and HRD courses, workshops, seminars, conferences, concurrent sessions, and keynote addresses in various international countries, as well as conducted adult learning courses, workshops, seminars, and conferences for various foreign delegations coming to the United States. Furthermore, in 2004 and 2005, I chaired the Commission on International Adult Education (CIAE) Pre-Conference of AAACE. I am a member of the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame (IACEHOF) and serve on its Strategic Planning Committee. Countries and Learner Organizations With Whom I Have Worked I have been fortunate to work in numerous countries, including Brazil, Germany, Peoples' Republic of China, South Africa, Canada, Slovenia, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, United Kingdom, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia, and Italy. Groups I have worked with in various countries include university and college faculty, corporate AE, HRD, and health care professionals, correctional educators, municipal judges, community, church, and other religious leaders, public and private school teachers, and business and industry executives, just to name a few. …

Perspectives on International Adult Education

In recent years, adult has emerged increasingly as prominent force on adult horizon. Although many adult educators have been conducting adult programs for numerous decades around world, Commission on International Adult Education (CIAE), formerly unit of American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE), has been most important catalyst for raising awareness and interest in adult education, stretching around globe to help adults learn in various cultures, contexts, and countries. The seven articles in this international adult education themed issue of Adult Learning (our journal of theory and practice) draw upon group of authors who share their experiences and broad spectrum of active engagement in facilitating adult learning through multiplicity of adult programs. Come with us on delightful trip as criss-cross globe! In first article, Roger Morris, from down under in Australia, reflects on his numerous significant adult encounters. He has done this during 30-year period of time to overcome what some call the tyranny of distance that separates Australia from other parts of world, including Asia, North America, Europe, and South Pacific. Roger has been deeply involved with United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Council of Adult Education (ICAE). In second article, Gretchen T. Bersch from Alaska describes in glowing temas how her grandmother and parents (because of their energetic, adventurous, and visionary penchant for travel) inspired in her lifelong interest in work throughout many parts of world. Asa consequence, Gretchen built figurative bridge flora Alaska over Bering Strait to Magadan, Russia (in far Eastern Siberia). She poignantly describes work she has done since iron curtain fell in 1988 between Russia and Alaska, and how she has helped destitute people in region where daily life is challenge often filled with unimaginable sadness. In third article, Peggy Gabo Ntseane from Botswana, Southern Africa, tells of her excitement for adult education, arising from Setwana Proverbs: we learn from one another, and a bag of locust can only be lifted if all lift it. Combining cultural socialization and indigenous learning models of collective learning with individualized learning models of United States helped Peggy focus her adult work on function of spearheading global social justice. In next article, Qi Sun takes us to Peoples' Republic of China. She developed her interest in adult through Scientific Research Institute of International and Comparative Education (SRIICE) at Beijing Normal University and discovered its connections with Russia, Eastern Europe, France, Germany, Japan, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and UNESCO. …