In the 20 years since the implementation of the Work Investment Act (WIA), federal funding for adult literacy education has remained largely stagnant, and actually decreased in inflation-adjusted dollars from FY2001-FY2019, despite the fact that the field serves fewer than 5% of those in need. Yet over these two decades, the field has moved away…

This article presents the Belem Framework for Action. This framework focuses on harnessing the power and potential of adult learning and education for a viable future. This framework begins with a preamble on adult education and towards lifelong learning.

Critical thinking is examined as a set of skills and a means for social change. It is presented as not just higher order thinking but also a search for the social, historical, and political roots of conventional knowledge and an orientation to transform learning and society. (Contains 15 references.) (LB)

Focuses upon the relationship between Paulo Freire's ideas and radical community education as a way of assessing the degree to which Freire's work may be applicable to western societies in general. (JOW)

There should not be a split between literacy of function (ability to deal with institutional procedures) and literacy of voice (expression of knowledge and experience). Acquiring functional literacy often involves voicing experience as well as questioning institutional power. Teachers and students should collaborate in bridging the gap. (SK)

The author outlines the development of adult literacy and other basic education in England and Wales in the last 10 to 15 years, places this development in the wider economic, social, and political context in the same period, highlights achievements during the past decade, and lists priorities for the future. (CT)

Freire responds to questions about the relation between philosophy of language and pedagogy, the possible importance of a "magical way" of understanding material and political reality, his literacy experiments in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, his impressions of the U.S., and the power of his methodology in practice. (RDN)

The author discusses issues of the information age that relate to education. Topics discussed include (1) illiteracy, (2) information organization and use, and (3) preservation of a common means of communication. (CH)

Includes task force recommendations on the role of the International Council for Adult Education in monitoring achievement of adult education objectives, qualitative and quantitative indicators, and diverse data collection methods. Eleven workshop reports discuss progress on adult education policy advocacy, documentation, health care reform,…

Traces changes in literacy expectations from the early settlement of Australia through the introduction of compulsory schooling to today, when most segments of Australian society require a high level of literacy. (EL)

Observations of the relationship between South Africa's universities and adult literacy are offered by a British Council consultant after a visit to South Africa. The purpose was to help university lecturers design and develop an adult literacy course and to give seminars to local literacy groups. Impressions are described on the state of…

Media statements and pronouncements by leaders in various sectors throughout the nation confirm that literacy still means the ability to work with the printed or written word. It is also evident that the term literacy includes more than reading. Literacy encompasses writing, speaking and listening, computing, and even problem-solving skills.…

The Partnership for Reading (PFR) in the United States has recently thrown its hat into the ring of adult literacy research and practice. Its information about adult literacy comes, almost entirely, from the National Reading Panel's (NRP) data on children. Building its case from the NRP data, the PFR advocates for a narrow, school-based conception…

Suggests that the means to eliminate illiteracy are available in Africa if nations devise and implement a strategy of action based on an effective political will and adopting a methodical, rational approach. Discusses the current situation, negative factors, repercussions on development, and future demands. Argues that promoting basic education…

This publication contains reports, papers, and presentations from the International Seminar on Research in Adult Education and Development. The keynote address, The Role (Past, Present, and Future) of Adult Education in Development, reviews the five-year Design for Action from the 1976 International Conference on Adult Education and Development.…