Investigation on youth and adult education: the theses of a Latin American contest

Abstract

With the purpose of knowing the situation that guards the investigation about EPJA (Youth and Adult Education, for its acronym in Spanish) in Latin America and the Caribbean, 170 bachelor's degree and postgraduate theses who participated on a contest between 2005 and 2011 were reviewed. Institutions, gender and also studies concluded by the participants and the subjects on their theses were compared in order to establish correspondence and changes in relation to the areas and subjects of investigation proposed in the regional documents prior to the V and VI International Conferences of Adult Education (Hamburg 1997 and Belen 2009). Educational Investigation on EPJA is minimal, absent in many countries and unequal, concentrated in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. It is made in public universities through bachelor's degree and postgraduate programs in education, educational sciences, pedagogy and psychology, but they co-exist with a variety of programs attended mostly by women. Thematic diversity emphasizes as a feature of investigation on EPJA, replacing literacy campaigns and basic education. Bachelor's degree and postgraduate programs on EPJA are limited and do not constitute a consolidated research line, with Cuba and Brazil as exceptions. Reactivate analysis that transcends the term EPJA from the lifelong learning perspective can no longer be postponed.