[ Preface ]
[ Overview of the Conference ]
International perspectives on adult learning are critical for a world growing more interdependent, mobile, and skill-driven. In all countries today adults face the challenge of rapid change in work, communications, and social relations. Many countries serve as home to migrants and refugees who must learn new languages and customs even as they introduce social change to their new lands. Everywhere, longer life spans, in combination with an unprecedented pace of change, threaten to exclude the old from the rewards of progress and widen the gulf between old and young. The International Conference on How Adults Learn, held in April 1998 in Washington, DC, brought together experts from Europe, Asia, and North America, and Australia to reflect on the meaning of these conditions and to identify shared directions for enhancing adult education. The papers published here bear witness to the importance of lifelong learning not merely for the well-being of individual learners but for the good of societies as a whole.
The conference drew upon the collective outlooks of an international group of researchers, teachers, and policymakers. Just as program participants identified many common conditions facing adult learners in a complex world, they also emphasized that all learning takes place in local contexts. Respect for diversity and local nuance — and above all the active participation of learners — appear important for expanding access and success. At the same time, the conference participants saw wisdom in continuing to build international networks by which to share information, instructional know-how, and research results.
The Department of Education was pleased to cosponsor this conference with the OECD and to make the proceedings available to a wider readership.
C. Kent McGuire
Assistant Secretary
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
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[ Overview of the Conference ] |
This page last modified November 16, 1999. (lvb)