Ideological struggles over the policy and practice of literacy education continue to characterise the field. This paper explores how 'new policy actors', market-orientated and profit-driven players, construct the crisis of literacy and schooling in Australia to reclaim the doxa of literacy education. The concept of doxa is employed to show how…

Essential skills, including literacy and numeracy, are increasingly crucial for life and work, for business success, and for economic growth. However, the number of adults improving these skills in England has reduced by more than 60% over the past decade as Government investment in skills is set to be £1 billion less in 2025 compared to 2010. As…

Research on factors associated with motivation to learn (MtL) is limited, particularly among middle-aged adults and immigrants. This study examines educational attainment, literacy skills, and nativity (foreign-born vs. native-born) as predictors of MtL in middle-aged adults living in the U.S. Nationally representative data of middle-aged adults…

Targeted instruction is one of the most effective educational interventions in low- and middle-income countries, yet reported impacts vary by an order of magnitude. We study this variation by aggregating evidence from prior randomized trials across five contexts, and use the results to inform a new randomized trial. We find two factors explain…

The pervasive role of digital technologies in adult learning and education (ALE) was a prominent theme throughout the deliberations of the Seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII) held June 15-17, 2022 in Morocco. CONFINTEA VII embodied the worldwide interest in digital technologies through the use of a hybrid format…

This chapter discusses three main topics: (1) volunteer as a form of civic engagement, (2) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and (3) basic skills including literacy, numeracy and digital problem-solving skills. Volunteering, STEM background, and basic skills are important social and economic indicators of societies. Yet,…

This study examines how school-level and student-level factors influence primary school dropout in Burkina Faso. School-level factors were found to have a moderate effect in grade three and a small effect in grade five, while student performance on end-of-term class tests significantly affected students' decisions to drop out in both grades. Other…

The Office of Correctional Education was created through an Act of Congress in 1991 to oversee and coordinate prison education programs as a way to reduce recidivism (Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, 1990). However, correctional education completion rates are extremely low. Therefore, we used secondary data from the…

Despite increasing demand in distance education, relatively little is known about the demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as basic skill levels of adult distance education participants at the national level in the U.S. This study analyzed the U.S. data from 2012/2014 and 2017 Program for International Assessment of Adult…

This report projects Northern Ireland's skills base through to 2030 and compares this to a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The report shows that on current trends Northern Ireland will continue to lag many other countries on a number of measures of learning and skills in 2030. These shortfalls can…

The ageing labour force, and concerns with productivity and social inclusion have driven foundation skills policy development in Australia and internationally (SCOTESE 2012; Newton 2016). However, little existing literature focusses on the relationships between foundation skills, community education providers and regional location. Thus, this…

Defined as language, literacy and numeracy, and employability skills, foundation skills are essential for individuals to participate in further education, employment and wider society. Community education providers, such as community colleges, neighbourhood houses, faith-based organisations and adult learning associations, are key providers of…