SURVEYING ADULT EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

Abstract

One of the results of a lack of overall co‐ordination of adult education in Australia is a very incomplete record of activities. Attempting to use existing data for research can be a very frustrating business. The form of the material available varies from State to State, is incomplete and uneven in quality. The peripheral nature of adult education in relation to education as a whole often results in only brief mention in official reports or no comment at all. The voluntary area, due for the most part to the spontaneous and informal nature of many agencies, is particularly poorly recorded. This paper discusses some of the problems facing researchers and brings together existing studies which have attempted to survey arrangements for the organisation and administration of adult education on a national basis.

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Marianne Devin

Principal Information Officer and Head of the Information Services Division, N.S.W. Department of Technical and Further Education. Reprinted from ‘Unicorn’ Vol. 7, No.1 February 1981 (Bulletin of the Australian College of Education) with kind permission of the author.