The need for non-formal education (NFE), which does not result in a formal degree or certificate, is substantial as labour markets often require adult workers to take an initiative in advancing their job-related skills. Yet, NFE opportunities are more often pursued by high-income and high-skilled adults than their low-income and low-skilled…

No undergraduate or postgraduate programmes currently exist for the professional education of informal educators. The authors outline the development of previous programmes and consider the emergence of informal education as a discrete concept. The article then highlights some key failings in the professional education of informal educators and…

Types of non-formal adult education in the USA and Canada are singled out. Non-formal adult education in the United States and Canada is subdivided into basic adult education, education for professional development, education for personal development, specialized adult education, education for the development of civil society (constituents of…

This article focuses on evidence regarding cross-national patterns of participation in adult education and an interpretation of these patterns from an institutional and public policy perspective. The interpretation follows from the perspective that sustaining high and widely distributed levels of investment in the development and maintenance of…

Non-formal learning for urban youth has a long history in the United States; it remains a source of innovation. This essay draws on literature about organizations that use community ties to encourage cognitive development and identity formation. It then describes how one youth organization in Camden, New Jersey uses presentations to the community…

"Koladeras" are women who use call and response in impromptu songs that may contain proverbs, stories about the community, their life experiences, and who and what they see in their world from their own perspective. Via qualitative methods of (auto)ethnography, personal and life story narratives, and interviews, I look at how…

The Baha'i Faith, which was founded in 1863, holds as its purpose the awakening of humanity to invisible possibilities, providing humankind with conscious direction and hope vis-a-vis the challenges and perplexities of time (Rosen, 2010). The Baha'i writings explain that spiritual forces are the foundation of reality and that the Word of God is…

Research on education for sustainable development (ESD) is not a unified body of work and, much like the literature for environmental education (EE), research is published in many arenas. The trends, however, capture some of the major foci of the research that is emerging on ESD, especially in the early years of the Decade of Education for…

Most often associated with international development programs, local nonformal education, which is practiced in cultural (museums), historical (memorials, battlefields), natural (parks), and commercial (craft, home improvement clinics) settings, has received little substantive attention in the United States. In response, this case study explored…

Following a brief section on definitions of politics, political systems, and educational policy, the article reviews major systems for thinking specifically about adult learning: continuing, recurrent and nonformal education, and lifelong learning as related but distinct concepts, and the question of central control by national government.…