Global perspectives on adult education and lifelong learning policy

The authors suggest that the key factors for the project planning and implementation to react to these challenges might include critical issues such as the possible contribution that adult education/ lifelong learning could make, community acceptance of informal/non-formal learning and prior learning, technologies that could be applied to promote meaningful learning engagement, enhanced involvement of non-governmental and international agencies, increased cooperation and competition amongst different providers as well as a demand for a more responsive education system and its operation. & Tiedao Zhang zhangtd@mail.bjou.edu.cn 1 Beijing Open University, Beijing, China http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11159-016-9585-2&domain=pdf Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11159-016-9585-2&domain=pdf Web End = Global perspectives on adult education and lifelong learning policy 123 820 T. Zhang It is before this background that co-editor Marcella Milana, in her introduction to this book, describes the overall global perspectives on adult education policies and thus sets a conceptual rationale for the chapters included in this book. [...]adult education seems to be caught in the gap between rhetoric and practice and has thus been traditionally and chronically neglected and under-prioritized (p. 239, citing Medel-Aonuevo et al. 2011). [...]a series of concrete initiatives, such as improved quality of adult learning programmes, continued development of learning cities and regions, International Adult Learners Weeks and learning festivals, and increased use of information and communication technologies in educational settings are proposed to strengthen ongoing adult education and lifelong programmes.