ABSTRACT

We approach this final chapter from Bent Flyvbjerg’s (2001) assertion that it is not enough for social researchers to investigate where society is going, who gains and who loses, and by what mechanisms of power. A critical approach, he argues, should also ask ‘is it desirable?’ and ‘what should be done?’. In short, social research has a moral obligation to contribute to the general flow of public debate on our collective future. In this spirit our final chapter goes on to consider what aspects of adult learning in the digital age could, and should, be changed. It also discusses how any changes may be engineered. Our research has brought up many questions-for example, what aspects of adult education policymaking and practice should be altered or introduced anew and which aspects should be discarded or retained? Which government interventions should be allowed to continue as uncontrolled ‘experiments’ in the knowledge that they may well fail (Trow 1999)? To what extent will adult learning with ICTs simply continue to take place on an informal basis beyond the direct influence of the government or education community? We have tried to fashion responses to these issues which are reasoned and warranted, as adult education has a history of being hampered by rather too much change based on too little evidence. Since researchers, practitioners and policymakers inhabit relatively different worlds, it is not easy to pass on conclusions from research evidence (St Clair 2004), but based on the body of the empirical evidence that we have presented throughout this book, we feel in a better position than most to offer some suggestions.