A Perspective on the Use of Large Scale Efforts in Comparative Adult Education Research!

This paper discusses some of the merits and challenges associated with a systemic approach to comparative adult education research which builds on the use of large scale efforts. It is partly in response to an article in last year’s issue of the International Yearbook of Adult Education which discussed the future of International Comparative Adult Education Research. The article by Field, Künzel and Schemmann (2016) problematized the purpose and value of large scale surveys that relate to the field of adult education, and even questioned whether studies such as the ‘Survey of Adult Skills’ (also known as ‘PIAAC – the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies’) and the ‘Adult Education Survey’ (AES) comprise comparative adult education research at all. This raises several issues related to the relationship between large scale research efforts on adult education and the comparative adult education research community, as well as more general issues in social science surrounding the framing and interpretation of empirical data for evaluative and analytical purposes.