Adult and Continuing Education in Australia

Adult education in Australia is a significant part of the post-secondary education sector, and its importance is coming to be more widely recognized as skills and knowledge need to be updated in a period of rapid social and technological change. First published in 1991, Adult and Continuing Education in Australia gives a clear picture of the role and purpose of adult education in the Australian society.

The contributors, all practising adult educators in a position to influence development in their field, discuss the scope, nature, and possibilities of a range of adult education activities. Focussing on the relationship between adult education and the state, they look at the conflict between the providing agencies and the prevailing political and economic climate, with its emphasis on the utilitarian outcome of education and closer links with industry and commerce. Most of the chapters concentrate on identifiable groups of users—such as women, migrants, rural dwellers—and explore several issues and concerns from their perspective. Other chapters focus on providing agencies, such as universities, technical and further education colleges, and delivery systems, like distance education.

The collection as a whole reaffirms the traditional concern of Australian adult educators with unemployment, illiteracy, migrant education, human rights, aboriginal education, the geographically isolated, women, and the aged.