This Handbook provides a wide-ranging frame of reference for researching adult and lifelong
education and learning. With contributions from scores of established and newer scholars from
six continents the volume covers a diverse range of geopolitical and social territories across
the world. Drawing on the multiple heritages that underpin research on education and learning
in adulthood this Handbook addresses the inner tensions between adult education adult
learning lifelong education and lifelong learning by using current research and
theorizations from disciplinary backgrounds including philosophy psychology biology and
neuroscience anthropology sociology history political science and economics. It provides
an explicit discussion of the differences and tensions between adult and lifelong education and
learning and locates these in different policy and historical contexts theories and
practices. It explores a variety of discipline-based theoretical perspectives and highlights
how these have influenced and been influenced by research in the education and learning of
adults. The Handbook also explores the inevitable frictions and dilemmas these present and
carefully examines the role of the international dimension in researching education and
learning in formal non-formal and informal contexts beyond traditional schooling. This
state-of-the-art comprehensive Handbook is the first of its kind to explore adult education
lifelong education and lifelong learning fully as distinct activities on an international
scale. It will be an indispensable reference resource for students of education at
undergraduate and postgraduate levels and for academic researchers professionals and
policy-makers concerned with adult and community education further and vocational education
or work-based training and human resource development.
