Adult education and training (AET) was always a neglected part of South African education. In the mid-1990s, the South African government sought to change this by introducing a number of policies that prepared the way for adult basic education (ABET) to become part of the formal educational system, and to attain its official status as a formally…

This qualitative research study explores key challenges and literacy needs of adults from war-affected backgrounds. Poverty, stress and anxiety, years of formal education, and lack of English language proficiency were cited by the adult learners as barriers to fulfilling their potential. This study also presents perspectives of teachers who have…

This case study examines a group of archaeologists working at a new project that strives to be more environmentally friendly and community inclusive, and positions these archaeologists as adult learners who are simultaneously creating a new vision of archaeology and learning to enact new forms of archaeological practice. Using the framework of…

Interviews, surveys, and journal entries were used to examine 41 teachers' and 6 teacher trainees' experiences with educational technology. About 91% experienced perspective transformation, most frequently through hands-on experience, discussion, and reflection. The most significant outcome was the way confidence in technology use empowered them…

Narratives of three women experiencing crisis suggest the following: (1) crisis context presents conditions incompatible with transformational education; (2) adult basic education's structure of mastery or absolute knowledge is an obstacle; and (3) the fragmented self is a more appropriate organizational structure for the concept of meaning…

This report describes the general features of "online learning communities," community organizations that have constructed learning delivery systems that effectively combine elements of the distance learning and traditional models of instruction. It discusses the online learning community framework and explains the four features of these…

A study followed for a year or more the internal experiences of learning and change of 41 adult basic education/English as a second language learners enrolled in these 3 programs: community college, family literacy site, and workplace site. It focused on learners' meanings as the starting point for exploration and used a developmental lens to…

The different perceptions of literacy that inform the work of various groups working with disadvantaged groups within society were explored in a case study in which individuals providing services to low-skilled, disadvantaged clients in an outer urban area of Brisbane, Australia, were interviewed regarding their perceptions of their clients'…

Learners' views on their progress and achievement in literacy and numeracy were examined in a study during which practitioners from eight further education colleges in England interviewed 70 adults (ages 16 to over 60 years) enrolled in literacy, numeracy, or English-for-speakers-of-other-languages programs. The metaphor of traveling on a learning…

The following are among the 56 papers included in this proceedings: "Contextual Factors Associated with Evaluation Practices of Selected Adult and Continuing Education Providers in Malaysia" (S. Ahmad); "The Professional Ethic and the Spirit of Post-Modernism" (P. Armstrong); "Transforming the Teacher-Student…

Adjustment experiences of South Korean graduate students' wives living in Georgia were examined from a feminist viewpoint. The adaptive process, its cultural meaning, and related social ramifications, was hypothesized to be an example of transformative learning. These two questions guided the study: (1) how did South Korean students' wives adapt…