In the Angel Studios 2024 movie "Cabrini" set in 1889, an Italian immigrant woman comes to America with a fierce passion for helping marginalized children. Charged with a seemingly impossible task, she perseveres through each obstacle. While watching the movie, I felt angry throughout at the injustices faced. Afterwards, I felt inspired…

Self-directed learning (SDL) has become increasingly important in today's fast-paced and ever-changing society. This paper explores SDL's historical evolution, theoretical foundations, and practical applications, particularly in online environments. SDL is defined as a personal attribute and a process that empowers learners to take the initiative…

This, the fifth Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE), is also the final monitoring report on the Belém Framework for Action (BFA), the outcome document of the sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFérence INTernationale sur l'Education des Adultes -- CONFINTEA VI), held in 2009. This report serves a dual purpose.…

The aim of the five "Global Report on Adult Learning and Education" ("GRALE") reports compiled since 2009 has been to provide baseline data on the state of adult learning and education globally for policy-makers, professionals and the public. The first report (see ED540497) was designed to inform discussion during the sixth…

The paper examines critically the dimension of empowerment in the European discourse, starting from some operational definitions used in official documents. The author analyses the shift in the European documents from 2000 to recent years, from a lifelong learning vision to an adult education approach, basically labour market-oriented, thus…

This study documented in detail teachers' voices about their working conditions, professional development needs and opportunities to cater to these needs. The study reported in this paper was conducted as part of a large-scale study that used mixed methods to assess teachers' professional development needs. The qualitative data reported in this…

2016 was a year of new challenges for Cedefop. As the Agency gears up for changes in European vocational education and training (VET) policy it aims to support the European Union's ambition to transform the "New skills agenda" and the Council recommendation "Upskilling pathways: new opportunities for adults" into actions at…

The year under review has been marked by a number of events that will inevitably have an impact on the immediate future of Cedefop and European vocational education and training (VET). The celebration of Cedefop's 40th anniversary, the Riga conclusions and the renewed ET 2020, the internal reorganisation of the Centre and Cedefop's planning for…

In this contribution, I explore how critical pedagogical perspectives can inspire adult and community education practices. The central argument is that today, in contrast with the heydays of emancipatory practices and theories, the classical critical approaches need reconsideration. The paper explores how these approaches sometimes have a…

Better links between education and training and the labour market was a main thread of the Greek and Italian European Union (EU) Presidency programmes of 2014. This thread guided Cedefop's work and demand for its expertise throughout the year. With youth unemployment rates at more than 40%, improving young people's employability through more…

At-risk student bodies in public school districts have very different cultures of learning from mainstream learning communities. Policies and practices in schools tend to isolate these student bodies for convenience in administration and instruction, and little consideration is given to whether these experiences of isolation from the larger…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to: (1) examine the profiles of teacher literacy leaders; (2) explore the empowerment of teacher literacy leaders through professional development and a distributed leadership model at the building level; (3) examine the impact of context on their leadership roles; and, (4) determine their potential…

In an environment of rapid technological change, countries in the developed and developing worlds need to improve the population's skills and competences. Since 1992, education reforms and various education sector documents and policy frameworks have been implemented to improve quality of education by getting more children into school through the…

Although human rights are often expressed as universal tenets, the concept was conceived in a particular socio-political and historical context. Conceptualisations and practice of human rights vary across societies, and face numerous challenges. After providing an historical account of the conceptualisation of human rights in Japanese society,…

When Adam Fletcher was hired as the student engagement specialist for Washington state's education department 10 years ago, it didn't take him long to realize how difficult his newly created job would prove. Fletcher said no one was talking about the roles of students other than as learners, and they laughed out loud at the proposal of students…