The authors provide a variety of perspectives on the conceptualisation of adult learning, drawing on sociology, psychology, adult education and applied research into how adults experience learning. Bringing together a number of major contributions to current debates about what learning during adulthood is for, what motivates learning, and how best it might be developed, the authors address a range of significant issues: What should be the context of learning programmed for adults, and who should decide? What are the implications in general and for women in particular of the current emphasis on learning for work, at work? How do adults learn and how is learning best facilitated? How might learning be used to empower individuals, communities and organisations?

List of Figures, List of Tables, Introduction Mary Thorpe, Richard Edwards and Ann Hanson Part 1 - Power, purpose and outcomes. 1.`Really useful knowledge' 1790-1850 Richard Johnson 2.Feminist challenges to curriculum design Susan F. Parsons 3.Competency and the pedagogy of labour John Field 4.Chile, Santiago: breaking the culture of silence 5. Unpaid work in the home and accreditation Linda Butler Part 2 - Adulthood and learning. 6.Education for adults 7. Is there any way out of the andragogy morass? Joseph Davenport 8.Adult Development Mark Tennant 9.The process of experiential learning David A. Kolb Part 3 - Learners' expcation or miseducation? Adults imagine the future Susan Warner Weil 11.Black students in higher education Verna Rosen 12.Teaching learning: redefining the teacher's role M-J. Gremmo and D. Abe 13.Developing learning skills in vocational learning Sylvia Downs 14.The interpersonal relationship in the facilitation of learning Carl R. Rogers 15.The utilization of learning objectives - a behavioural approach L.B. Curzon 16 What is skill and how is it acquired? John Sloboda