A review of research in the past ten years documents adult learners' perceptions of their educational needs and their patterns of participation in adult educational activities. The populations studied include older adults, women, immigrants, native Canadians, undereducated adults, and handicapped adults. Each population is studied separately with…

By viewing women's literacy within the context of America from the Colonial period until the present, it is clear that men have traditionally shaped and controlled who shall be literate and what shall be viewed as literate, both within and outside the educational system. Women's writing from the Colonial period is virtually non-existent, and…

In 2000, approximately 877 million adults worldwide were illiterate and 113 million children did not attend school. More than two-thirds of those individuals lived in East and South Asia, and two-thirds were females. Functional illiteracy remains high in developed and developing nations alike. The reasons include weak training in how to teach…