Over the last forty years, the International Journal of Lifelong Education has become a global leader in the field of research on adult education and lifelong learning. Drawing extensively on articles published in the journal, scholars from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Australasia and Europe reflect in two volumes on how the field has evolved over four decades, and on the strengths and weaknesses of its contributions to knowledge.
The first of two volumes, this book offers rich insights into the nature of lifelong education, its development over the forty years of the journal (and more), and what challenges the field will be called upon to address in the future. Chapters cover global trends that have influenced lifelong education; the nature of the field as reflected in publications, based on detailed quantitative analysis; why connection with radical social movements justifies continuing optimism in the field-s capacity to help make a better world; the natur
