Unit 1: Historical Foundations of Adult Education

Informal adult education has been around since the dawn of human civilisation but adult education became a medium of knowledge dissemination with the rise of the industrial society. It was used as the means of training of manual labour for newly developed technology and also promoted national unity.

By the turn of the 19th century, adult education, in the form of schools and  professional training centres for adults or young workers, was an established field of practice. Adult education and the methods that it used spread from country to country, especially through period of war. When colonialism changed hats and the phenomenon of globalisation occurred, adult education in many parts of the world focused on cultural and theoretical horizons, rather than national ones.

The Unit will enable the reader to understand:

• the emergence of adult education as a field of practice
• the most influential social, economic, and political factors for adult education
• the internationalisation of adult education