ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a general overview of participants and providers of adult education in the United States. Educational participation of adults in the United States is a multi-faceted phenomenon that defies accurate description. Changing conditions associated with increasing technological advances and social complexity have contributed to the steady and continuous emergence of adult education. The contemporary scene is even more complex. Education of adults is provided by all kinds of community, volunteer, professional organizations as well as educational institutions, business and industry and governmental agencies. Participation of adults in education is one of the most popular topics in the literature of the field. Participants in adult education were more likely than the general population to be in the labor force. The scope and range of adult involvement in education is difficult to accurately describe because of its very nature. It is a complex, pluralistic, diverse and dynamic enterprise.
