Abstract:

This report presents a comprehensive view of the state of education for adults and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2000 and 2005. The report is the result of a larger collective effort that included the production of a full report for each of the 20 countries under consideration in the area. A meta-analytical method was used in order to identify and analyze similarities and differences between cases using matrices as a means of organizing the report. The reports on individual countries had previously been carried out using document analysis, site visits and interviews with key informants.
Each of the latter reports considered fundamental issues such as lack of literacy, adult basic education and adult education and work. Emerging issues included the role of civil organizations, people’s education and their frequently innovative experiences, including citizenship education.
The report focuses particularly on emerging problems for the field, namely the need to provide for increasing immigrant populations, excluded ethnic minorities and people in prison.
Diversity and innovation are notable among the initiatives of national and local governments, people’s education, international agencies and emerging social movements. The field of adult and young people's education is also developing and consolidating theoretical viewpoints and working strategies. The field has grown and developed, achieving some influence in policy making. Nonetheless, the reports on several of the countries indicate that the field of adult and young people's education is still marginal when it comes to policy development and funding.
To understand the field we must inevitably consider poverty, social exclusion and educational exclusion in the region.
The present report is also the result of collective work which included individual and joint reflection by the project's group of leading academics together with the Regional Center for Adult Education and Functional Literacy for Latin America and the Carribean (CREFAL )

Keywords:

Adult education, Latin America, social exclusion, educational inclusion.