Adult education has a rich history in Iowa of providing services that assist adults in improving their skills, achieving their educational goals, and transitioning to further education or employment. Instruction is designed for adults functioning at the lowest levels of basic skills and/or needing English language instruction to advance their…

In the 2012 PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills of 23 industrialised countries, the UK (England & NI) scored below average on adult numeracy. Several recommendations focus on the need for (some) individuals in the population to undergo training. Yet, even in "high-performing countries" like the Netherlands, many adults (1.5M) score at or…

Since it was signed into law, the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) has been the subject of continuing scrutiny. One commonly shared concern is that the evaluation metrics of the Act (e.g., employment, salary, etc.) may incentivize programs to work with learners who will more readily meet expected outcomes (Pickard, 2016). Others…

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) prepares the "Global Report on Adult Learning and Education" ("GRALE") every three years in order to strengthen understanding of 'where we stand' as a global community, and to address the growing need for youth and adult education. The present report draws on data from…

In the field of adult education, literacy is a contested concept, so it is not surprising that terms like food literacy are also highly debated. While some associate food literacy with individual food shopping and preparation, others look to it as a means to engage with larger issues of global import. Given that food literacy is a fairly new term,…

This article focuses on the implementation of the Cuban "Yes, I Can" adult literacy campaign in Indigenous Australian communities in north west New South Wales (NSW). It examines the interplay between empowerment, disempowerment and commodification in education in Australia in order to assess what new elements the Cuban "Yes, I…

The recent focus on preparing K-12 students to be college and career ready has increased the attention to college-level literacies but has almost ignored career and technical courses as part of the landscape of adolescent literacy. This article explores literacies embedded in career and technical education courses, provides examples from…

The Department of Education, Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation, is preparing this report in response to the Skilled Iowa and Job Creation Fund for the state appropriation for Adult Basic Education and Adult Education Literacy (AEL) Programs (260C.50) This report was coordinated by the department with the assistance of Iowa's…

In the context of educational globalization and increasing dominance of supranational organizations in educational governance, least developed countries (LDCs) have faced a new level of tension about whether their educational policies should follow the global educational models or seek solutions of their multifarious problems by promoting local…

This paper examines the different views about the definition of "literacy" and how it is applied in the Zambian context. It argues that the absence of a contextual definition of literacy or illiteracy has raised some doubt on the magnitude of the problem and the extent to which success has been achieved through various literacy…

This paper analyses research that has impacted on Australia's most recent national policy document on adult literacy and numeracy, the National Foundation Skills Strategy (NFSS). The paper draws in part on Lingard's 2013 paper, "The impact of research on education policy in an era of evidence-based policy", in which he outlines the…

The Adult Education--Basic Grants to States program authorized under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act of 1998 (AEFLA), enacted as Title II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) (P.L. 105-220), was the major source of federal support for adult basic education (ABE) and literacy education programs for the 2013-14 program year…

The Adult Education--Basic Grants to States program authorized under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act of 1998 (AEFLA), enacted as Title II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) (P.L. 105-220), was the major source of federal support for adult basic education (ABE) and literacy education programs for the 2014-15 program year…

This article explores whether looking at adult literacy teaching through the lens of Lave and Wenger's "community of practice" approach to learning provides useful additional insights into adults learning to read, especially the role of the adult literacy facilitator. Using some case studies of facilitators from the Ethiopian Integrated…

Using novel adult skills surveys, this article analyses cross-country patterns in skill achievement and labour market returns, comparing the outcomes for a subset of developing countries with the results previously found for high-income economies. Apart from displaying lower average cognitive skills, developing countries also exhibit wider…