Research Handbook on Adult Education Policy

Group Submission Type: Book Launch

Description of Session

Adult learning and education policy is a “matter of concern” (Latour, 2004) for policymakers, social partners, professionals, community organisations - and consequently for researchers. Concerns include what problems, and which solutions, are pursued through public policy and private initiative, what actors contribute to policy formation, adaption, and enactment in different localities, how this process is governed, and to what effects for learners, adult teachers and other professionals, educational institutions, workplaces, and civil society. Understanding the processes of adult education policy is of double interest. On the one hand, it helps unveil the character and the effects of current policies; on the other hand, it assists in understanding how the mechanisms of existing institutional settings operate and how they influence the array of possible policy solutions on which policymakers can draw in the future (Béland, 2010; Desjardins, 2017).
Adopting a multidisciplinary approach and bringing together an impressive array of esteemed and emerging academics from Europe, Africa, and the Americas, the Research Handbook on Adult Education Policy addresses how adult learning and education policies are made and the theories and methodologies which can be mobilised to study its developments.
Overall, this work shows that adult education policy is a complex field, displaying in some ways limitations and stagnation, in other ways renewed political attention and promising developments. The momentum for policy developments that adult education, especially adult literacy, experienced in the 1990s has long gone in many national contexts. This is evident in North America, South America, India, and Eastern Europe. Still, over the last decade adult learning and education have received new political attention on a global scale (cf. Benavot, Hoppers, Lockhart, & Hinzen, 2022). The effects of the global pandemic of COVID-19 on the lives of millions of citizens, and on the world of work, have also thrown new light on the potential of learning and education among the adult population for healthier and productive societies (Milana & Mikulec, 2023). Thus, the Handbook shows that many challenges ahead, such as global migrations, climate change, increased digitalisation, the use of Artificial Intelligence, and unforeseeable pandemics – to mention a few – call for increasing policy and political attention towards adult learning and education.
Looking ahead, contributing authors make vital recommendations for future avenues of research in this continually evolving field. Questioning what territories remain for future adult education policy research to unveil, the contributions to this Handbook point to a few that merit attention.
First, it is necessary to further explore the interaction between political regimes and the often ‘instrumental’ use of adult education policy. While several contributions to this Handbook expose or critique the instrumentalist approach that pervades adult education policy, the politics embedded in policy making, especially the role of political ideologies and party competition, at national and international levels, remains one of the elephants in the room.
Second, there is a need to advance knowledge about the interest in adult education policy beyond direct stakeholders, i.e. those involved in adult education's day-to-day concerns and activities. Several contributions to this Handbook show that adult education policy often suffers from poor political attention and commitment or partial implementation at regional and national levels. Yet, we know very little about what kind of support adults and learning education receive beyond the state and the market, for instance, among citizens, the media, and civil society.
Third, it is necessary to focus on under-researched policy actors that act as intermediary organisations advocating for adult education policy or appropriate, re-interpret and/or resist adult education policy.

Sub Unit

• Book launches and Workshops / Book Launch

Chair

• Maren Elfert, King's College London

Book Launch Presenter

• Maren Elfert, King's College London

Non Presenters

• Alexandra Ioannidou, German Institute of Adult Education - Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning

• Gloria Hernández

• Marcella Milana, Universita` Degli Studi Di Verona

Discussant

• Richard Desjardins, UCLA