Introduction: Global Outlook on Adult Education and Learning Policies

This chapter provides a conceptual rationale for the following chapters. From a public policy perspective on adult education and learning, it argues that legislative frameworks and rationales at federal, state or municipal levels are an essential feature for adult education and learning opportunities to flourish or perish. Further, it acknowledges the importance for adult education and learning policies of governance beyond and across the purview of governmental structures that operate within single countries, where state-led institutions and non-governmental international organizations play a key role. Finally, it explains why analyses that are either institution- or country-focused still constitute a pre-condition for governance studies on adult education to grow in future years.