On 29 March 2022 CR&DALL arranged an internal seminar concerning CONFINTEA and GRALE at the University of Glasgow led by Professor Heribert Hinzen and Professor Ellen Boeren. We are now making the presentations and recording available to a wider audience since we think it provides excellent background material of wide interest on policy-making processes in adult education.

As subscribers will know UNESCO has been inviting educators to its International Conferences on Adult Education (CONFINTEA) every 12 years since 1949 when CONFINTEA I was in Helsingör, Denmark. The most recent conference was in Belem, Brazil in 2009, and the next will be from 15-17 June 2022 in Marrakech, Morocco. The processes of preparation started with the Mid-term Review 2017 in Korea, and since then country, sub-regional and regional reports on the development of adult learning and education (ALE) have been circulating.

Heribert as  one of the world’s leading adult educators, has been involved in these international processes of policy development for several decades, in particular within the leadership and management of DVV International (the Institute for International Cooperation of the Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband e.V. (DVV), the German Adult Education Association) as a provider of ALE cooperation. DVV is the largest funder of international development in adult education the world.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) and global citizenship education (GCEd) were important areas for discussion in the webinar with two principle assertions being made. Firstly, if in our age of globalization and digitalization, lifelong learning is the requirement of the day, then ALE should get higher recognition within education systems, and participation of adults increased. Secondly, it is also necessary to deepen the acceptance and understanding of ALE in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

Following Heribert’s presentation, Ellen made an initial response. Ellen, amongst much else, is the co-editor of the 2021 UNESCO Global Report on Adult and Lifelong Learning (GRALE) and it was this work that was the focus of her remarks.

The link to the recording can be found here:

https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/rec/share/5Pc-7ETFAyKPsSJfKPb0IDFqHZ1ENDJGkmfaJVcGTz33tuRv1yklK1cvk1JIH57S.ZQRnZSvvnfVyaplp?startTime=1648544678000

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