Rethinking Adult Education for Development. Compendium. First Edition.

Overview & Synopsis

This book presents the views of 88 experts on adult education from 32 developed and developed countries, compiled through a mailed survey. (Respondents represent about 45 percent of the 195 experts who were mailed surveys; about 16 percent of the respondents were female.) The survey participants' answers to the following six questions are included in the book: (1) How do you understand adult education today? (2) What are your views on the relationship between adult education and education of children and youth? (3) Have the philosophy and practice of contemporary adult education changed so significantly that its basic concepts need redefining? (4) What place does adult education have or should have in the society? (5) To what extent is adult education a matter of an individual's personal interest? To what extent is it a responsibility of enterprises and organizations, communities, or the state? and (6) Which idea or goal do you find most worthwhile pursuing in adult education? Each of the questions included subquestions to guide respondents' writing. The book also contains the following: an introduction, "Potential Future: Implications for Adult Education" (Allen Tough); "Outstanding Experts on Adult Education: A Synthetic Presentation of the Main Stands Proceeding from the Investigation" (Zoran Jelenc, Ana Krajnc, Metka Svetina); four plenary papers--"Reconceptualizing Adult Education for Development: A Western European Perspective" (Peter Jarvis), "Adult Education from the Viewpoint of Developed Industrial Countries of the Far East" (Makoto Yamaguchi), "Adult Education in Latin America" (Francisco Vio Grossi), and "Rethinking Adult Education in the Former Socialist Countries of Europe" (Jozef Polturzycki); and a list of contributors and their affiliations. (KC)