A review of the state of the field of adult learning

This is an area that all of us are deeply committed to and value; consequently, an opportunity to delve further into the issues and to bring our own thoughts and ideas into conversation with the sources and the actors in the field was invaluable. [...] A second challenge is the de-politicization of the term gender to the point where it is difficult to identify gender as a primary and meaningful category of analysis in many government reports and websites, as well as in journal articles and funding categories. [...] The category of gender is linked with the theory of social constructivism, the assumption that how we behave and see the world as male and female is shaped by our experiences of family, society and culture. [...] While feminist theory focuses on the lives, experiences and realities of women and aims to gain social legitimacy and value to them, Gaskell, McLaren, and Novogrodsky (1989) clarify that feminism aims to make all women’s concerns part of both policy and practice and to transform the whole so that the both men and women are reflected more accurately. [...] The International Journal of Lifelong Education is also an important publication for this field as is the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, Studies in Continuing Education and Studies in the Education of Adults.