Special Issue: Adult Literacy and Adult Education

This Special Issue of Postcolonial Directions in Education was inspired by the adult and non-formal education stream at the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies in Buenos Aries in October 2013, and our four refereed papers build on work originally presented there. This Conference provided an excellent opportunity to focus on this field, since 2014 was the fiftieth anniversary of the start of one of the twentieth centuries best-known experiments in adult education, Paulo Freire's culture circles in Brazil. Our aim in assembling this issue has been to continue the popular education tradition with which Freire is associated, but also to demonstrate the continuing relevance of that work in the twenty first century.