The last few years were eventful ones with regard to birth centenaries of people who have made an impact on Adult Education globally. In 2021 we celebrated Paulo Freire and Raymond Williams and last year we celebrated Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
This year will be the turn of one of Italy's foremost critical pedagogues, Don Lorenzo Milani from Tuscany. The UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education under whose aegis this journal, Convergence. An International Adult Journal in its new online format, is being produced, in concert with the International Council for Adult Education, has celebrated these events with global webcasts. A three day webcast dedicated to Paulo Freire was held in December 2021 featuring a host of top notch critical educators (key Freire scholars, collaborators and practitioners) on or inspired by Paulo Freire. They gave half an hour presentations followed by q & a sessions. We had to spread the event over three days.
Two days after the event, Raymond Williams' birth centenary was marked with presentations by key scholars of the Welshman and in Cultural Studies. The last web fest was held towards the end of last year and was devoted to former Tanzanian President and Education, including Adult Education, policy maker and catalyst, Julius Nyerere.
The web fest, as in previous years, involved a series of time differences involving East Africa, Europe and North America. Speakers were in the main from Tanzania and the rest of East Africa, besides North America and Europe, They included people who worked with Nyerere or in Tanzania during his presidency. All podcasts concerning the three events are available on the UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education website which also contains all issues of Convergence since its re-mergence, in April last year, in its new online format. Julius Nyerere is remembered in this issue, a few months after his birth centenary year, in a revealing article by Marjorie Mbilinyi, one of the speakers at last December’s Nyerere web fest. He was strongly associated with Adult Education and decolonisation, as well as rural development in the context of ' education for self reliance' and ujamaa vijijni (village socialism).
His connection with adult education was significant and his speeches on the vast area are staple readings for those engaged in this field. He also was honorary President of the ICAE and, during his presidency, Tanzania hosted, in 1976, this international organisation's first World assembly of Adult Education. This has been documented in previous issues of Convergence. We are at a time when the International Council for Adult Education is celebrating its 50th year. We are therefore planning a special issue of Convergence.
An International Adult Education Journal marking this event. Of course it will contain a couple of miscellaneous papers to avoid a backlog. We hope to have one on don Lorenzo Milani; 2023 is his birth centenary. In this regard, the articles by Chris Duke and Timothy Ireland in this issue, both stalwarts in this organisation with strong connections with this journal, are in keeping with the spirit of this momentous occasion. It might not be amiss for the UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education to host an activity to mark this 50 year event. Among the topics engaged with by the ICAE over the years and reflected in Convergence is that of Education for Sustainable Development, treated qualitatively in the article by Pierre Hili and , the latter a renowned exponent of this specific area.
Readers will have noticed the editorial decision to revert to the journal's original full name, with a slight adjustment: Convergence. An International Adult Education Journal. This is to distinguish this journal, founded by J. R. Kidd in the late 70s, from the other journals that came after and that carry the title Convergence. The subtitle underlines the journal's true identity as one focused on International Adult Continuing Education.
It is, after all, one of the oldest international journals in the area that are extant in the English language.
The Journal can also be accessed (https://www.convergencejournal.org/)
