From adult education programs to adult learning and education in 40 years

Abstract

The present civilization crisis has led to a series of events – agendas, conferences, commissions, reports – which seek answers to the emergencies being faced by humanity and the planet. All agendas point to education, in the perspective of lifelong learning and education, as fundamental to overcoming challenges posed by humanity itself. Within this contemporary international backdrop and based on the articles published in the journal Em Aberto, we outline how the concept of adult education has evolved over the last 40 years. Our argument is that, throughout this period, youth and adult education has been treated as compensatory education or as a process of continuous training/adaptation of competent “human resources” for the labour market, despite other influences gestated in the heart of civil society and oriented by a more critical and emancipatory understanding of the role of education in society. Facing the crisis demands a paradigm shift; consequently we understand that the new narrative of adult education will need to be guided by an ecopedagogy which reestablishes the equilibrium between human beings and nature.