The global socio-economic crisis puts the discussion on the role of adult education and the policies that develop around it high on the global agenda: approaches, paradigms and concepts need to be critically reflected and rethought. The way this is done most of the time does not promise affirmative change because it contains a logical fallacy which shows the deep lack of understanding between policy making and educational practice. It is this lack of understanding that this book brings to light – I think more than any other recent publication in the field – as it discusses from a varied yet consistent spectrum of consequences of the current crisis by relentlessly posing the same question: What can adult education as theory, policy and practice can offer in today’s structured by neoliberalism state of affairs. In this respect, this book serves as another critical leverage against those who exert the function and influence of ‘skill’ in today’s global economy.
The issues the book delves into are not as broad as the reader would expect from what the title may promise. The contributions, however, seem to be finely tuned to the main book idea which is to explore the recent changes in national and international policies of adult education and lifelong learning, and the various ways these intersect with parallel developments in higher education. The content does not disappoint as the three parts of the book investigate issues of adult education policy development with relevance to higher education, community development, youth, active participation, cultural diversity and democratic citizenship. Milana and Nesbit seem to have coordinated the contributions in such a way that the final result does justice to what their initial target was despite Milana’s assertion in the first chapter that ‘interpretations vary extensively, based on sociocultural and political environments within which authors live and research, and they are dependent upon the specific perspectives that guide their work’. This is always given in volumes of such caliber. Yet, the aforementioned issues are thoroughly discussed by a large number of well-known scholars and active researchers in the field – with specific cases and examples from Europe, the Americas, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as some critical reflections on the role of international organisations like UNESCO, OECD, World Bank and the European Union – in a way that explains how adult education globally has ‘developed’ – if this is the accurate term to be used here – from a field of practice known for its user-friendliness and its compensatory and remedial functions, to a leverage of international, national and institutional policy that largely focuses on evidence-based, highly instrumental field of operations.
In summary, it can be stated that the book casts more – but not necessarily new – light on the already established position of adult education being a means to increase socio-economic efficiency. As a result, the book suggests that learning in itself is not at the centre of educational policy; instead, it becomes only relevant in a particular and limited purpose. This intended form of learning serves the purpose to create economically meaningful active persons, who feel responsible for their own employability. The description of the development of adult education policies and the reconstruction of what I would call ‘Social Imaginaries’ (i.e. skills, learning outcomes, qualifications, credentials and indicators), which emerged in the policy discourse, show that all political attempts of developing a comprehensive system of adult education cannot overlook anymore the fact that the core of values which could carry or prevent such a system is being shaped by social discourses and learning processes of individuals. This creates new issues for the field. The book concludes that adult education has an ethical dimension which requires an increased attention to ethical learning processes and their methodical framing, organisation and monitoring, which are the key elements of all teaching, learning and counselling interaction.
Overall, this is a work of great richness, depth, and insight. As a congenital optimist, however, I was looking for a few more rays of light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of criticism. There were not many to find. The book does end though in a slightly positive vein with what Nesbit suggests by asserting that the various examples analysed in the book chapters ‘may not signify an overall shift in adult education policy development, but they do provide signposts to the future and the possibility that adult education can continue to help to create a future that we want, rather than one that is dictated to us’.
George K. Zarifis Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece [email protected]