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This booklet provides an overview of the growing demands for adult education as well as other social services in helping migrant workers move out of poverty and succeed in cultures other than their own. Issues raised included questions about migrants' access to education and about building solidarity networks for ensuring basic human rights. A comparative view of migrant education practices in Asia and Europe and general issues relating to the problem of refugee education were also considered. The booklet concludes that it is possible to support the right of migrants and refugees to education by providing comprehensive education and training opportunities that promote their political, economic, and social participation and enhance their competence and their cultural base. Initiatives for these efforts already exist. Recommendations are made to develop and implement programs to help host populations to understand the rights and conditions of migrants and refugees and to enroll nomadic populations in education programs. (KC)

This booklet examines adult education needs and opportunities for incarcerated persons from the perspective of experts and former inmates. The booklet considers adult learning a basic human right and a crucial step towards the reintegration and the rehabilitation of prisoners and that there is a great demand for learning in correctional institutions. At the same time, conference workshop participants felt that the demand was not being met appropriately. Future strategies and the issue of the right to adult education for inmates were raised. In addition, the workshop explored ways to continue and improve cooperation and networking among those who are involved in prison education. The booklet concludes that it is imperative to recognize prisoners' right to learn and to provide programs and curricula that can facilitate their learning. (KC)

This booklet examines the role of museums and libraries in providing adult education, both as informal individual learning as well as structured learning activities for groups of learners. The booklet presents an overview of how museums and libraries offer different types of educational opportunities for adults. Most museums have pedagogical programs, including gallery talks, lectures, guided tours, and publications for distribution. In addition, visitors can engage in individual informal learning by touring the museum alone. Museums and libraries also offer structured courses and partner with schools to provide longer-term educational opportunities for adults as well for traditional-age students. The booklet concludes that museums and libraries are special sites of learning that offer open-ended learning situations that can provide a range of meaningful experiences for adults. The following recommendations are made to enhance and bring to the fore the contributions of museums and libraries to adult education: (1) such institutions need to be strengthened and appropriately funded in order to develop as adult learning resources; and (2) the conservation and use of cultural heritage as a lifelong learning resource needs to be promoted and methods and techniques for strengthening heritage and cultural learning need to be developed. (KC)

The booklet reports on a new vision of the economics of adult learning. The vision considers adult learning to be not an expense but an investment that can be analyzed and managed as such. According to the booklet, governments in many countries, therefore, are adopting a steering role and are giving more direct responsibilities to institutions at the local level in promoting effective and efficient use of adult learning resources. Individual and social benefits from adult learning that the booklet identifies include new thinking skills, economic independence, parental transfer of education to children, reduction of reliance on welfare, and rehabilitation of prisoners. The booklet concludes that adult learning should be reassessed as a productive asset and its benefits to society as a whole should be promoted. (KC)

This booklet examines adult education needs and opportunities for persons with disabilities. It reports on the following: the changing perceptions and definitions of disability in both developed and developing nations, the rights of disabled persons, the need for educational policies for adults with disabilities, and the inclusion of people with disabilities in the community. The booklet concludes that educational opportunities for people with disabilities can be promoted only by making all forms of learning and training accessible to them, fostering institutional policies that ensure equal access and intervention with appropriate learning technology, and involving agencies, as well as policymakers, that are supporting the handicapped. (KC)

The booklet reports a shift of emphasis in international cooperation from assistance to partnership, participation, networking, and mutuality. Workshop participants stressed that these concepts, which are central to adult learning, need to be taken all the more seriously at a time of increasing economic globalization and accelerating development in the field of information and communications. The booklet concludes that international cooperation will be based on existing institutions, structures, and networks. According to the booklet, the challenge of a global economy must be met through global cooperation by doing the following: (1) promoting lifelong learning, taking into account advantages in terms of flexibility, diversity, and availability at different times and in different places; (2) enhancing the new vision of adult learning that is holistic and cross-sectoral; (3) expanding the capacities of governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector; (4) promoting an understanding of international human rights as the framework for the global society; and (5) governments must act on the consensus of multinational organizations that all development projects should include adult learning components. (KC)

This booklet presents an overview of the growing demands for adult education, as well as other social services, because education is seen to play a vital role in enabling the growing population of older people to remain independent and lead more fulfilling lives. It reports on the following issues: the educational needs and demands of older people, the current education policies for older people in various countries and regions, and the planning of future approaches and activities at the regional and international levels. The booklet concludes that older adults have wisdom that should be valued and that efforts need to be directed towards overcoming an image of the elderly as distinct and different from the rest of society. It recommends that governments make adult education for the elderly a priority and that older people be given the right to make decisions about their own learning. (KC)

This booklet examines new learning technologies' place in providing opportunities for the democratization of education, for enhancing learner-centered flexibility, and for reaching out to unserved communities. It also raises questions as to who controls technology, and why, how, and for whom the technologies are being used. The booklet concludes that the main problem in the development of new technologies is not whether they can be used but how to ensure wide access to information. Recommendations made by workshop participants include the following: (1) governments should not reduce their support for social and cultural public services; (2) all countries should be not merely consumers but also producers of software; (3) software and courses should reflect national and local identities as well as cultural requirements; (4) new technologies and conventional ones should be integrated; and (5) the dissemination and use of information technology should be open to public debate. (KC)

Although adult literacy programs exist in almost every country throughout the developing world, comprehensive information on their capacity, performance, and impact is seriously lacking. This deficiency has direct consequences for the effectiveness of developing countries' national literacy education policies. Reasons for the lack of data include the popular character of adult literacy programs with their grassroots, bottom-up, participatory approach and the fact that, in some countries, the private sector has taken over adult literacy. The knowledge base on adult literacy programs must be improved and broadened to enable policymakers and donor agencies to understand literacy programs' context, grasp learners' needs, and discuss programs' effectiveness and relevance by capturing the continuum of literacy abilities that goes beyond the simplistic literacy/illiteracy dichotomy. Effective monitoring and evaluation are needed to ensure the quality of adult literacy programs. The International Adult Literacy Survey is a good demonstration of how to use the best of education assessment technology to gather data on a broad range of individual literacy skills and examine basic skills from a continuum or scale perspective. In assessing requests for assistance, donor agencies are interested in research, evaluation, and statistics regarding the planning and implementation of adult literacy programs. (MN)

Because of the significant political implications of first and second language policy, many decision-makers have been reluctant to review language policy in the context of literacy work. Issues that must be considered include the following: whether mother tongue literacy should be a precondition for introduction of a second language in school-based and nonformal settings; conditions under which mother tongue literacy should precede second language literacy; and effects of policies regarding language of instruction on literacy after schooling. In Latin America, the value of native languages and cultures is recognized; the value of culture in bilingual literacy is promoted; and local languages and cultures are being integrated into the educational process. In Africa, on the other hand, African languages are in grave danger, and extra support for them is needed in the schools. Among the issues that must be addressed when imparting language skills in a global language of communication are the following: learners should immediately experience the applicability of their newly acquired language skills; development of simple language units requires cooperation in international research; new didactics and methods must be developed that give equal consideration to everyday use of the language of communication and learning environments outside the school system. (MN)

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)

This booklet, which was produced as a follow-up to the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education, examines literacy in the world and its major regions. After a brief overview of the workshop from which the booklet emerged, the need to reconceptualize literacy as a tool for learning throughout life is emphasized. Discussed next are the following: the sharp differences between literacy rates in industrialized and developing countries and the relationship between illiteracy and other aspects of human and social development; literacy rates and literacy education trends and needs in Africa, the Arab States, and Latin America; lessons learned from large-scale literacy programs; the role of local communities, associations, and businesses in making literacy education a component of local development; and strategies for using literacy education to improve the situation of women and to help them gain responsibility and autonomy. The following are among the points made in the booklet's conclusion: (1) practitioners must be trained to recognize the problems in development; (2) development agencies and educators must understand each other's language; (3) institutions and structures must be created in the context of initiatives; (4) the human, financial, and institutional capital elements of local development must be emphasized; and (5) literacy must be imparted in the local and national languages before being imparted in global languages. (MN)

This booklet reviews the current situation of women's education in different formal and nonformal educational settings, in different regions and contexts. Section 1 looks at the continuing gender gap in educational participation. It discusses the following reasons for the imbalance in South Asia: (1) little attention is paid to implementing reforms; and (2) tensions between the allocation of a special status to gender issues and the integration of these issues into adult education. The following reasons are cited for Africa: (1) literacy programs are not linked to women's and girls' multiple roles outside the educational field; (2) insufficient attention is given to social and cultural barriers; (3) poor curricula; (4) inadequate textbooks; (5) ill-trained teachers; and (6) badly managed programs. Section 2 stresses the need for strong advocacy for the girls' and women's education movement. Section 3 focuses on adult education in nonformal settings and uses the Women's Institute in Chile as an example of an organization in which adult learning deals with women's issues in an interdependent and interdisciplinary way. Section 4 emphasizes that adult education should recognize the experiences of women at the local level, taking into account the forces of globalization that are creating more competitive relations among people, groups, nations, and regions. Section 5 discusses the importance of subjectivity in adult learning. (YLB)

This booklet reflects issues raised at a workshop on women's education and empowerment held at the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education. It focuses on promoting empowerment for women in educational contexts ranging from formal education systems to literacy and poverty alleviation programs. Section 1 discusses two perspectives on women's empowerment: one that advocates improving women's position and equity without radically altering the existing structure of gender relations and another that sees women's advancement as necessarily involving the transformation of an excessively male-dominated society. Section 2 focuses on how educational opportunity is not necessarily translated into personal, social, and economic gains for Caribbean women. Section 3 uses the women's program, Mahila Samakhya, implemented in the Banda district of India, as an example of empowering women through participatory adult learning. Section 4 deals with new radical discourses in adult literacy work dealing with the issues of violence and creating safe adult learning environments for women. Section 5 highlights the following challenges for adult learning: (1) giving a voice to women who have suffered violent experiences; (2) informal learning; (3) the learner's role in determining the curriculum; (4) breaking discrimination barriers; and (5) connecting formal and nonformal systems of women's adult education within the perspective of lifelong learning. (YLB)

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)

This booklet, which was produced as a follow-up to the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education, presents examples of key areas where research is currently being conducted by various public and nongovernmental agencies and recommends ways to enhance communication among researchers. The first 75% of the booklet reviews recent research on the following topics: participation in adult education; gender issues; lifelong learning; teaching and learning processes; adult basic education in industrial countries; staff development; and learning attainment. The examples cited are drawn from Spain, India, Japan, and the United States. The trend toward diversification of theoretical frameworks, approaches, and methodologies in research on adult learning is examined. Discussed next are the following: prerequisites for international dialogue among educational researchers, barriers to the development of adult education research, and new developments in adult learning that must be reinforced in research on adult education. The following are among the six recommendations for future cooperation among adult education researchers that conclude the booklet: (1) consider the diversity of approaches and trends in adult learning research around the world; (2) avoid imposing research formulae; and (3) seek new ways to promote debate on adult education among researchers, practitioners, and institutions.(MN)

This document contains seven papers about and from the International Seminar on Women's Education and Empowerment, which was convened to give women educators and researchers from diverse sociocultural backgrounds an opportunity to examine collectively different education practices and their theoretical implications for empowering women. The following papers are included: "Preface" (Carolyn Medel-Anonuevo); "The International Seminar on Women's Education and Empowerment" (Carolyn Medel-Anonuevo, Bettina Bochynek); "The Theoretical and Practical Bases for Empowerment" (Nelly P. Stromquist); "Some Reflections on the Empowerment of Women" (Lucita Lazo); "Women's Literacy and Empowerment: The Nellore Experience" (Anita Dighe); "The Organization of American States Multinational Project on Education and Work: An Experience of Popular Education for Women's Empowerment in Colombia" (Miryan Zuniga E.); "Educate to Empower: An Asian Experience" (Namtip Aksornkool); and "Thinking about Women and Literacy: Support and Challenge" (Jenny Horsman). A list of seminar participants is also included. Several papers contain bibliographies. (MN)

These proceedings contain the following papers: "The International Seminar on Women's Empowerment" (Anonuevo, Bochynek); "The Theoretical and Practical Bases for Empowerment" (Stromquist); "Some Reflections on the Empowerment of Women" (Lazo); "Women's Literacy and Empowerment: The Nellore Experience" (Dighe); "The Organization of American States Multinational Project on Education and Work: An Experience of Popular Education for Women's Empowerment in Colombia" (Zuniga E.); "Educate to Empower: An Asian Experience" (Aksornkool); "Thinking about Women and Literacy: Support and Challenge" (Horsman); "Background Paper on the Women, Education, Development Research Group at the University of Dar es Salaam" (Brock-Utne); "Women's Education and Empowerment: Empowerment for What? Reformation or Transformation?" (Mannathoko); "Women's Health and Health Education Programs in the Caribbean" (Rodney); "Women's Adult Social Education: A Palestinian Community-Based Experience" (Khreisheh); "Empowerment of Women through Education" (Ali); and "Literacy Work in the Syrian Arab Republic" (Al-Jabi). Concluding the proceedings is a list of seminar participants. Several papers include substantial bibliographies. (MN)

This document contains a synthesis of the debate on the significant developments since 1986 and on the future agenda for literacy education, held at a seminar attended by 40 participants from 21 countries. The synthesis summarizes workshops on models of literacy practice, national policies, development of partnerships, evaluation, and research, citing achievements and limitations in each area. An agenda for the future is proposed. The following seminar papers are included: "Literacy in the USA: The Present Issues" (Hanna Arlene Fingeret); "Functional Illiteracy in Latin America" (Isabel Infante R.); and "Sociocultural Dimensions of Literacy: Literacy in an International Context" (Brian Street). An appendix contains country reports from the following: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia/Slovak Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Korea, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as from the European Community and UNESCO. A list of participants' addresses is also included. (KC)

This report of the 40th anniversary meeting of the Unesco Institute for Education (UIE) discusses the Institute's program which has consistently reflected a concern with education as a lifelong phenomenon. Current priorities are the promotion of literacy and adult basic education, the extension of educational opportunities to children and young people out of school, and education for international understanding. In 1992, a major emphasis of UIE's research work is again on adult education. This report consists of the texts of four lectures. Included is Maria Montessori's address to the institute from June of 1951. The areas discussed include the tragedy of humanistic education, the purposes of education, the history of the institute, a formal celebration held in 1991, and the role of adult education. The four main lectures are presented in the original language of either French or German as well as in English. The lecture discussing the history of the institute divides the group's activities into three periods. The first from 1952-65 were spread over a range of topics of everyday educational importance. The second period from 1966-89 concentrated more on international outreach. From 1972 UIE adopted lifelong education as the framework on its research activities. The third period begins in 1990 with increased cooperation with UNESCO and new emphasis on research in adult education. The lecture on the purpose of education emphasizes the importance of the role of curiosity, history, individuality, and education for liberation. The lecture on humanistic education suggests that education has always been profoundly linked to the tragic vision of life and death. (DK)

This report describes presentations and discussions at a seminar to bring together research initiatives in the area of functional literacy and to explore appropriate ways of developing policy-driven research in all countries. Opening remarks by representatives of the European Community, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Unesco are summarized. They explain organizational objectives and programs regarding functional literacy. Issues raised in discussions of appropriate strategies for the assessment of adult illiteracy and analysis of the factors and dimensions of adult illiteracy are listed. Outlines depict the situation of different countries in research on the subject of functional literacy. Each outline has these topics: why research is necessary, available data, and future projects. Outlines for these countries are included: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and Soviet Union. Seminar conclusions are discussed, and the state of progress of five projects is reported for Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Soviet Union. (Appendixes, amounting to almost three-fourths of the report, include a list of participants; program; the Canadian report on assessment strategy, "Direct versus Proxy Measures of Adult Functional Literacy" by David Neice et al.; and the Unesco Institute for Education report on the analysis of the factors and dimensions of adult literacy, "Illiteracy: From the Myth to the Reconstruction of the Facts" by Jean-Paul Hautecoeur.) (YLB)

This report summarizes the deliberations and presents the proposals which were the products of a UNESCO-sponsored round table conference. Representatives from 15 countries and several regional and international organizations attended the conference. The objectives and expected outcomes of the conference are listed, and its organization and development are described. The proposed agenda and some guiding questions for discussion are listed. The initial plenary session debated several issues, including the flexible approach of nonformal education, the eradication of illiteracy and the universalization of education, and the education of girls and women. Working groups analyzed specific themes, including allocation of resources, training of teachers, and the specific characteristics of nonformal education that have contributed to its effectiveness. Recommendations for the consideration of member states were made, on such topics as: (1) national policy commitment to nonformal approaches to education; (2) materials and methods for both formal and nonformal education; (3) publicity and public relations on behalf of the need for nonformal approaches; and (4) community participation and self-management. Areas for further research were suggested. Special recommendations concerning women and children were made. A list of participants is included. The opening address by A. V. Ordonex, which is partly in English and partly in French and asserts that everyone has a right to education, is also provided. (BC)