Ten Years On: Adult Education & Development in Timor-Leste

This paper is based on in-country research I have been doing with my colleague Deborah Durnan since 2004. Our research utilizes the theoretical framework of political economy, adapted for the study of adult education in developing countries by our colleague Frank Youngman of the University of Botswana (Youngman 2000; Boughton & Durnan 2005). Our methodology is participatory action research, which means that we conduct our research in partnership with local Timorese adult education leaders, and our focus is on action – specifically, the design, delivery and evaluation of adult education policy and programs. One of our goals is to help local adult educators in Timor-Leste develop their own analyses and understandings of the national adult education system as it is emerging, and to make decisions, based on the evidence we help to collect, about the directions in which the system should be heading. Following a brief given to us by the previous FRETILIN Minister for Education, Rosaria Corte Real, and confirmed by the AMP Minister Joao Cancio after he took office, the work has divided into two main tasks. Firstly, we have assisted the government to plan, deliver and evaluate the national adult literacy campaign which was launched in 2007 (Sekretariadu Nasional KNA 2007; see also Boughton 2008; 2009). Secondly, we developed a draft strategic plan for non-formal adult education for the period 2008-2015 (Boughton and Durnan 2008).