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The papers in these proceedings include a number of themes such as enduring and progressive social change, good practice and positive outcomes, and strategies of survival, resistance and subversion. They are: "Achievement, Personal Development, and Positive Outcomes" (Viv Anderson); "Raising Standards" (Paul Armstrong); "Multicultural Education for Adults" (Burjor Avari); " Four Congratulations and a Caveat" (Roseanne Benn); "Issues in the Supervision of Dissertation Research Conducted by Continuing Education and Training Professionals in South East Asia towards a Masters Degree of the University of Sheffield" (Geoff Chivers); "Continuing Education and the Public Understanding of Science" (Martin Counihan); "Silver Lining" (Eileen Daggett); "Conversing Internationally" (Chris Duke); "A Study of the Competence Levels of the Heads of Adult Education in Turkey" (Ahmet Duman); "Vision, Provision, and Television" (Darrel Dymock); "Women's Studies and Adult Education" (Jane Elliott); "Living with Competence" (Paul Garland); "Where Has Schon Led Us?" (Mary Gobbi); "Using a Self-Selected Support Group as a Strategy for Survival" (Christine Hibbert, Antoinette Middling, Frances Scourfield); "Journey through the Looking Glass" (Cheryl Hunt); "Multiplying Visions and Using Similitudes'" (Christine Jarvis); "Experimental Archaeology in Education" (David Johnston); "We're Still Here" (Rennie Johnston); "Holding Up the Mirror" (William Jones); "Participative Environmental Research and the Role of Continuing Education" (David Knight); "Making a Mark" (Carol Lee-Mak, Janice Malcolm); "The Creative Management of Biography" (Danny Mashengele); "From Distance Learning to Computer Supported Cooperative Learning" (David McConnell); "Autobiography in an Academic Context" (Margaret Millar et al.); "Exchanging Places, Trading Learning" (Nod Miller, Miriam Zukas); "Fiftysomething" (Penny Muter, Peter Watson); "Happiness Is a Thing Called Subversion" (Kirit Patel); "Vision, Policy, or Accident?" (Keith Percy); "Discourse and Culture" (Julia Preece); "Democracy and Personal Empowerment" (Ian Roffe, Carolyn Inglis); "German Adult Education in East Germany after Unification" (Marion Sporing); "Starting with Self" (Alistair Thomson); "Telling the Story of the Self/Deconstructing the Self of the Story" (Robin Usher); "Two Cheers for Special Needs Provision in Adult Education" (Peter Watson); "Re-Visioning the Self" (Linden West); "Using Vocational Competences To Develop an Alternative Framework for Modern Language Teaching" (John Wilson, A. Ibarz); "NVQs [National Vocational Qualifications] and Individuals" (Jonathan Winterton, Ruth Winterton); and "Coming of Age" (Alexandra Withnall). (YLB)

This booklet, which was produced as a follow-up to the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education, examines literacy and learning strategies. After a brief overview of the workshop from which the booklet emerged, the new convivial approaches to literacy that are being developed through experimentation in many developing countries are described. The learner- and community-based approaches fuse literacy and empowering processes through a single, well-structured participatory methodology. Presented next is a discussion of the importance of basic needs and productive work support that advocates the following: (1) developing activities that respect local knowledge, promote on-the-job training, and relate to people's contexts and cultures; (2) developing an understanding of the pedagogy of the informal sector; and (3) using an integrated approach linking competencies for economic survival with the social equipment for greater effectiveness at the local level. Concluding the booklet are the following four steps toward putting participatory ideology into action: (1) decentralize the creation of books and programs; (2) promote basic learning needs through nonformal strategies; (3) recognize that in addition to reading and counting skills, adults also need functional skills to be self-reliant and productive in local economic development; and (4) promote communities' own knowledge and learning traditions. (MN)

Literacy is embedded in social practice and has social meanings. Research and practice in adult literacy are demonstrating that, in order to bring about cultural and social transformation, literacy must be seen as an activity embedded in social and cultural practice. The traditional paradigm, which considers literacy as input for development and tends to see literacy primarily in terms of measurable literacy skills to be attained and the numbers to be made literate, must be replaced by a new paradigm based on the assumption that even small communities can begin their own process of literacy and make it part of the fabric of their own way of life. The notion of societal literacy is central to the new paradigm. The extent to which a community uses literacy as an integral part of life varies greatly, depending on the local, national, and international contexts. In the future, literacy provision must reflect the specific and diverse contexts in which literacy is acquired and used. These contexts include the following: what learners already know, want, and bring to the learning experience; learners' mother tongue; learners' identities in terms of gender, class, religion, and race; and learners' social, economic, and cultural contexts. (MN)

Fourteen papers are provided from a symposium to provide general input into the 1990 Unesco International Literacy Year by reviewing and documenting existing knowledge and current issues in the field of women and literacy with special emphasis on developing countries. Specific topics are as follows: the definition of literacy; review of methods; acquisition and retention of literacy among women; impact of literacy on individuals, family, and society; post-literacy follow-up strategies and methods; and future perspectives and scenarios. These topics are dealt with in the time perspectives of the past, present, and future. The three regions of Africa, Asia, and Europe are covered. The opening address is "International Literacy Year: What Is Its Significance for Women?" (Chlebowska). An introduction (Lofstedt) summarizes the papers both by author and by topic. The 12 chapters contain the following papers: "Literacy: Towards a Theoretical Framework" (Lofstedt); "Literacy: A Tool for the Empowerment of Women? Women's Participation in Literacy Programs of the Third World" (Lind); "Women's Literacy for Development" (Caillods); "Women and the Tradition of Reading around 1700: Examples from Sweden and Germany" (Johannson); "Literacy as a Catalyst for Development with Special Reference to Women in Zimbabwe" (Mupawaenda); "Post Literacy: An Equalizing Tool. The Case of Tanzania" (Sjostrom); "Women in Literacy Programs and Underdevelopment: The Case of Tanzania" (Kweka); "The National Literacy Programme and Gender Issues: The Case of Botswana" (Gaborone); "Women and Literacy: The Sri Lanka Experience" (Jayaweera); "Education for Women's Equality: A Pipe Dream? A Case from India" (Dighe); "The Future of Nonformal Education for Women in India" (Ekstrand); and "Challenges to the Attainment of Women's Literacy" (Stromquist). A participant list is appended. (YLB)