Beyond compliance: ACE and the disability standards for education in 2005.

The Disability Standards for Education 2005 make it unlawful for an education authority to discriminate against a person on the grounds of the person's disability, and providers of adult and community education (ACE) are specifically noted as education authorities in the Standards. Most ACE providers, working as they do from a community development basis, would consider themselves to be non-discriminatory. The devil, nevertheless, is in the detail, and it is one particular detail of the Standards that this article considers – Part 7: Standards for student support services. Research has indicated that this is an area with which ACE providers are likely to have problems. This article looks firstly at the place of people with a disability in ACE, and then at some of the provisions of the Standards as they relate to student support. Evidence to support the discussion is taken from three research projects into ACE provision for people with a disability. These studies are outlined before the author moves on to some of the issues indicated in the research. Further, some suggestions are made for compliance, and the need for ACE providers to go beyond compliance and consider advocacy to support the inclusion of people with a disability into ACE.

The transformative potential of adult literacy learning

This paper explores the potential of literacy education to promote transformative learning in adults. Transformative learning theory is a flourishing area of research in adult education, and is concerned with describing and analysing fundamental changes in how adults view themselves and their world. According to the leading theorist of transformative learning, Jack Mezirow, literacy education has unique transformative potential. Although there is little research on this question, the available studies suggest that there is enormous potential for literacy education to act as a catalyst for transformative learning in adults.

Adult learning experience : learning in mixed-mode forms of professional development in the Northern Territory of Australia

This qualitative research is an examination of the experience of learning within a mixed-mode teachers' professional development program. It examines how learning is affected by 'location' - geographic, institutional and personal, and how teaching may take location into account. Approaches to study, influences on learning and transformational learning are explored.

Non-formal education for women workers in Thai industry

This study focuses on non-formal education provision for women workers in industry in Thailand. It consists of a dissertation and four elective studies. The dissertation explored the possibilities to improve women workers' quality of life. The experience gained from the research formed the Participatory Approach Model called "PAM".

Encounters with silence : toward a pedagogics of silence in the education of adults

Educational theory, if distanced from experience, positions silence as a problem rather than as a site of possibility. This thesis presents and analyses experiences of silence in the lives of a composer, a novelist, a meditation teacher, an Orthodox priest, a high school teacher, an Anglican priest, an actor, a grief counsellor, and a university lecturer. It draws upon discourses of philosophy, theology, language, the arts and the environment. By focussing on silence as experience, it suggests new ways of enriching pedagogical practice.

A critical pedagogy of embodied education : learning to become an activist

Unlike any current publication on social purpose education, this book explores the differences and similarities between two groups of activists: lifelong activists who have been engaged in campaigns and socials movements over many years and circumstantial activists, those protestors who come to activism due to a series of life circumstances. Using empirical research conducted in Australia, Tracey Ollis outlines the pedagogy of activism and the process of learning to become an activist.

The Popular Education Network of Australia (PENA) and Twenty-First-Century critical education

Drawing on the philosophies and writings of Paulo Freire regarding education as activism, this paper will explore the history and activities of the Popular Education Network of Australia (PENA). The network, founded in 2009, involves educators, academics and community workers, working together on issues relating to critical pedagogy and social change in schools, communities and adult education contexts. Two symposia have been organised on critical education in Australia. In 2010, ‘Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Action’ was the inaugural gathering. In 2012, ‘Freire Reloaded: Learning and Teaching to Change the World’ featured a diverse range of workshops and Professor Antonia Darder as keynote speaker and observer. Through the perspectives and experiences of five academics involved in PENA, this paper will explore the group’s activities and reflect on the inspiration drawn from the work of Freire, Darder and others. Creating spaces for discussion of critical pedagogy affords opportunities for academics, educators, teachers and activists to reflect on their practice and also leads to further spontaneous networking and planning of action. In this paper we argue that there is continuing importance, in fact urgency, in producing places and spaces for conscientisation to occur, and for examples of critical education to be shared amongst 21st century educators.

Equity and Efficiency in Education: motivations and targets

The recently released "Educational PAC" attempts to place basic education at the center of the social debate. We have subsidized this debate, offering a diagnosis of how different education levels can impact individuals' lives through broad and easily interpreted indicators. Initially, we analyze how much each educational level reaches the poorest population. For example, how are those in the bottom strata of income distribution benefited by childcare centers, private secondary education, public university or adult education. The next step is to quantify the return of educational actions, such as their effects on employability and an individual's wages, and even health as perceived by the individual, be that individual poor, middle class or elite. The next part of the research presents evidence of how the main characters in education, aka mothers, fathers and children, regard education. The site available with the research presents a broad, user-friendly database, which will allow interested parties to answer their own questions relative to why people do not attend school, the time spent in the educational system and returns to education, which can all be cross-sectioned with a wide array of socio-demographic attributes (gender, income, etc.) and school characteristics (is it public, are school meals offered, etc.) to find answers to: why do young adults of a certain age not attend school? Why do they miss classes? How long is the school day? Aside from the whys and hows of teaching, the research calculates the amount of time spent in school, resulting from a combination between absence rates, evasion raters and length of the school day. The study presents ranks of indicators referring to objective and subjective aspects of education, such as the discussion of the advantages and care in establishing performance based incentives that aim at guiding the states in the race for better educational indicators.

Future Brazilian teachers imaginaries about physics teaching in adults education

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The impact of a computer based adult literacy program on literacy and numeracy : evidence from India

With over 700 million illiterate adults in the world, many governments have implemented adult literacy programs across the world, although typically with low rates of success partly because the quality of teaching is low. One solution may lie in the standardization of teaching provided by computer-aided instruction. We present the first rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of a computer-based adult literacy program. A randomized control trial study of TARA Akshar Plus, an Indian adult literacy program, was implemented in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. We find large, significant impacts of this computer-aided program on literacy and numeracy outcomes. We compare the improvement in learning to that of other traditional adult literacy programs and conclude that TARA Akshar Plus is effective in increasing literacy and numeracy for illiterate adult women.

Basic education in manpower programs : the R & D experience : [report] /

Includes bibliographical references.

Financing continuing education.

Mode of access: Internet.

Books for adult beginners, grades I to VII.

Mode of access: Internet.