ABSTRACT

Until this point, transformations in adult education policy have been examined at two levels of analysis. Part II considered global networks with an interest in, or capacity for, affecting adult education policy worldwide, although limiting consideration to a few intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations with a global or continental horizon for action, like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU), the Organisation of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE), and to a limited extent, the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA). Part III looked at local actions in adult education in four countries (i.e. Brazil, Argentina, the United States of America – USA, and Italy), by restricting attention to Adult Basic and Secondary Education (ABSE) as a field of public intervention. In doing so, it considered the actions by political actors with differential horizons for action (i.e. policy makers and implementers, academics, school staff and learners).1