Adult Education, Personal Training and Diversity of Knowledge

Dear Colleagues,

In adult education and all social education, a fundamental issue should be the analysis of globalization and its effects, i.e., its social problems and its benefits. One major social problem is that of financial capitalism, i.e., the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits far from perspectives of social justice and life sustainability. Linking Kant’s ethical categorical imperative and Popper’s proposition that all life is problem-solving, education research should reflect how the natural interaction of human beings is adding a growing universal ethical conscience to our planet and how education can be a catalyst for that ethical conscience. Hence, how social media and cultural institutions, including schools, are called upon to develop environmental and ethical awareness and their related values and behavior.

Two major factors seem to be preventing the progress of this awareness: (1) the current affluence of goods (true or false needs?) in developed countries and their marketing; (2) pseudoscience, pervading all countries albeit in different ways. In other words, commercial affluence and mythical views hamper conscious attitudes towards the actual problems, e.g., those of illiteracy, inequality, human rights deviations. Therefore, how to prepare all people to become more scientifically literate citizens?

It seems pertinent to follow Karl Popper on the role of a scientific education towards democracy. He proposes that the most important task for scientists should be to do good work in their specific fields. But that a second task is to speak simply and clearly about science to the other citizens, thus contributing to an open and democratic society. Will this strategy or a similar one foster citizens’ interest in the diversity of knowledge, in general literacy, and in the pursuit of different and changing occupations in our evolutive society? Will this literacy assume bibliographic and digital dimensions, enhancing critical thinking regarding the multiplicity of information sources? And how can critical thinking, personal development, and personal training be subsumed in a long-term strategy of life and planet sustainability? These are some of the issues which demand attention and research.

Dr. José B. Duarte
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.