Adult Learning

Adult Learning is a quarterly, peer-reviewed, practice-oriented journal in adult education, published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE). Established in 1989, it serves as the bridge between adult education research and the practitioners who design, manage, teach, and evaluate programs for adult learners.

At a Glance

History and Position in the Field

Adult Learning was established in 1989, nearly four decades after its older sibling, Adult Education Quarterly. Its founding responded to a recognized need within AAACE: while AEQ served the research community with theory-driven scholarship, the association's practitioner members — program directors, instructors, trainers, and administrators — needed a journal that spoke directly to the problems of practice.

Over more than three decades, the journal has published work spanning literacy and basic skills, workforce development, continuing professional education, community-based adult education, correctional education, English-language learning for adults, and the education of older adults. Its pages document how the practice of adult education has responded to policy shifts, funding cycles, demographic change, and technological disruption.

The journal is international in scope. Although published in the United States for an American association, it welcomes submissions from scholars and practitioners worldwide and regularly publishes work addressing adult learning in diverse national and cultural contexts.

Editorial Leadership

Reference sources identify the journal's editors as Davin Carr-Chellman (University of Dayton), Lilian H. Hill (University of Southern Mississippi), and Carol Rogers-Shaw (University of Dayton). Editorial teams rotate periodically; readers and prospective authors should confirm the current masthead on the journal's official SAGE page before submitting.

Aims and Scope

Adult Learning describes itself as an international, peer-reviewed, practice-oriented journal. It publishes empirical research and conceptual papers that approach practice issues with a problem-solving emphasis. The distinction from AEQ is one of orientation rather than rigor: where AEQ prioritizes theoretical contribution, Adult Learning prioritizes usable insight.

The journal's audience is explicitly defined as practitioners and researchers who design, manage, teach, and evaluate programs for adult learners in a variety of settings. This includes adult basic education programs, community colleges, workplace training units, community-based organizations, correctional facilities, military education programs, and continuing professional education providers.

Guidance published by the journal's editors for prospective authors makes the expectations concrete: manuscripts should clearly characterize who the "adult learners" in the study are — not merely by chronological age, but by the adult life responsibilities they have assumed (such as supporting themselves, building careers, marriage, child-rearing, or caring for elderly parents). Authors are advised to respect cultural variation in what counts as adulthood, to represent adult learners in their full humanity and diversity, and — because the journal is practitioner-oriented — to spell out the implications of their findings for practice. Editors also expect manuscripts to engage the adult education literature substantively rather than treating the field as a footnote.

What the Journal Publishes

Content in Adult Learning typically includes:

• Empirical studies of adult learning programs, instructional practices, and learner experiences, written with attention to practical implications.
• Conceptual papers that clarify ideas practitioners use — for example, analyses of how concepts like andragogy, self-direction, or transformative learning apply in specific program contexts.
• Program descriptions and evaluations that document innovative practice and assess outcomes.
• Policy analyses examining how legislation and funding shape adult education provision.
• Special issues on topics of current concern to the field, such as the intersection of adult education and higher education.

A 2023 editorial article by the journal's editors on the disciplinary boundaries of adult education and higher education illustrates the journal's role as a venue where the field reflects on its own identity — advising authors on how to position work that sits at the border of adult education and higher education, and when a higher-education journal might be the better fit.

Peer Review and Quality Standards

As an international peer-reviewed journal published by SAGE, Adult Learning subjects submissions to expert review. The journal's practice orientation does not mean lower standards: reviewers evaluate the soundness of the research approach, the validity of inferences, and the clarity of implications for practice. Authors are expected to follow SAGE's ethical publishing guidelines.

Abstracting and Indexing

Adult Learning is indexed in education and social-science databases. Directory records indicate coverage in Scopus and other major indexes; prospective authors checking the journal's indexing status should consult the current SAGE journal page and MIAR or Scopus title lists, as coverage can change over time. (Full current indexing list not publicly disclosed in a single verified source at the time of writing.)

Citation Metrics (Attributed)

Directory snapshots describe Adult Learning as a Scopus-covered title in education. Specific current metric values (impact factor, CiteScore, SJR) were not verified against primary sources at the time of writing and are therefore not stated here. Readers seeking metrics should check Clarivate Journal Citation Reports and Scopus directly.

Access Model

Adult Learning is a subscription-based SAGE journal. Access is normally provided through institutional library subscriptions; individual articles may be purchased. SAGE offers standard open-access publishing options for authors who need or prefer them. No author-facing fee schedule is published as the default model (not publicly disclosed).

How to Publish in Adult Learning

Authors should start at the journal's official SAGE page for the submission portal and author guidelines. The editors' published advice offers the most useful orientation:

• Read recent issues to calibrate the journal's expectations for focus and caliber.
• Define "adult learner" functionally (adult roles and responsibilities) rather than by age alone, and attend to cultural differences.
• Make practice implications explicit — this is the journal's defining requirement.
• Ground the manuscript in the adult education literature, engaging more than the standard touchstones.
• Consider whether the manuscript's setting and questions genuinely concern adult education; work centered on traditional-age undergraduates may fit a higher-education journal better.

Distinguishing Adult Learning from Related Journals

• Adult Learning vs. Adult Education Quarterly: both are AAACE journals published by SAGE; AEQ is the research-and-theory journal, Adult Learning the practice-oriented journal.
• Adult Learning vs. Journal of Transformative Education: the latter focuses specifically on transformative learning theory; Adult Learning ranges across the full span of adult education practice.
• Adult Learning vs. Australian Journal of Adult Learning: entirely separate journals — the Australian title (ISSN 1443-1394) is published by Adult Learning Australia and should not be confused with the AAACE/SAGE title.
• Adult Learning vs. Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal: the ProLiteracy journal focuses specifically on adult literacy, language, and numeracy; Adult Learning covers adult education broadly.

The Practice Domains Adult Learning Covers

The journal's problem-solving orientation plays out across the diverse settings where adult education happens. Recurring domains in its pages include:

• Adult basic education and literacy: instruction for adults building foundational reading, writing, and numeracy skills, including the well-known episode featuring Belzer and Pickard's research reframing adult literacy learners from "heroic victims" to "competent comrades."
• Workforce development: training and upskilling programs, sector partnerships, and the education dimensions of labor-market policy.
• Continuing professional education: how licensed and credentialed professionals — nurses, teachers, engineers — maintain and extend competence.
• Community-based adult education: programs run by nonprofits, faith communities, and neighborhood organizations, often serving immigrants, returning citizens, and other underserved populations.
• Correctional education: learning programs in prisons and jails, and reentry education.
• English-language learning: adult ESL/ESOL instruction and its intersection with workforce and civic integration goals.
• Older adult learning: educational programming for adults in later life, from encore careers to creative aging.
• Military and veterans' education: programs serving service members, veterans, and military spouses.

The Journal and the Profession's Identity Work

Adult Learning does more than report studies; it hosts the profession's ongoing conversation about what adult education is. The 2023 article by Hill, Rogers-Shaw, and Carr-Chellman — the journal's own editors — on the disciplinary boundaries of adult education and higher education exemplifies this role. Writing for prospective authors, the editors addressed a practical dilemma: much research on adult learners happens in higher-education settings (community colleges, graduate programs, continuing-education units), and authors must decide whether their work belongs in an adult education journal or a higher-education journal.

Their guidance is instructive about the journal's identity: read past issues to understand the journal's focus and caliber; characterize adult learners by their adult roles and responsibilities rather than by age; respect cultural differences in the meaning of adulthood; represent learners in their full humanity; make practice implications explicit; and ground the work in the adult education literature — which, the editors note, extends far beyond andragogy and Malcolm Knowles. This is the clearest available statement of what the journal wants, written by the people who decide.

Relationship to AAACE and the Field's Infrastructure

As an AAACE journal, Adult Learning is embedded in the association's infrastructure: its annual conference, its commissions and special interest groups, and its advocacy work. Conference presentations often mature into journal submissions, and the journal's special issues frequently grow out of conference themes or emerging policy concerns. For graduate students and new professionals, publishing in Adult Learning is a recognized way to enter the field's scholarly conversation — the journal's practice orientation makes it more accessible to first-time authors than the theory-driven AEQ, while its peer review maintains scholarly standards. Many established scholars in adult education published their first journal article in these pages.

Reading the Journal Strategically

Different readers use the journal differently:

• Program administrators mine it for evaluated models and implementation lessons they can adapt.
• Instructors and trainers look for instructional strategies with evidence behind them.
• Policymakers and funders find analyses of how policy environments shape provision and participation.
• Researchers use it to stay connected to practice realities that should inform theory — and as a venue for work whose contribution is primarily practical.
• Graduate students find in it accessible entry points to the field's literature and debates.

Landmark Content and Special Issues

Over its run since 1989, Adult Learning has published work that shaped practice discourse. The Belzer and Pickard article on adult literacy learners — reframing learners from "heroic victims" to "competent comrades" — is frequently cited as an example of the journal's capacity to shift how practitioners see the people they serve: from deficit framings toward asset-based understandings. The journal's podcast and SAGE features have amplified such pieces beyond the subscriber base.

The journal regularly organizes special issues around pressing concerns — workforce policy changes, the professionalization of adult educators, technology in adult learning, and the adult education/higher education boundary. These issues function as state-of-the-field snapshots useful to administrators planning programs and to researchers scoping new projects.

For the field's history, the journal's archive offers a ground-level record of practice: what programs existed, what problems practitioners named, and what solutions they tried, year by year since 1989. Historians of adult education treat it as a complement to AEQ's more theoretical record.

The Journal's Contribution to Professional Standards

Beyond individual articles, Adult Learning has contributed to the infrastructure of the adult education profession. By consistently publishing evaluated program models, the journal has helped establish shared expectations for what quality adult education looks like — in instructor preparation, learner assessment, and program design. Its pages have carried discussions of professional standards for adult educators, the credentialing of the adult education workforce, and the working conditions of the largely part-time instructional workforce that delivers adult basic education in the United States.

This workforce dimension is one of the journal's distinctive concerns. Unlike K-12 or higher education, adult education in the US relies heavily on part-time and volunteer instructors, often with limited access to professional development. The journal's attention to instructor support, communities of practice, and sustainable program models reflects the material realities of the field it serves — scholarship grounded not in abstraction but in the conditions under which practitioners actually work.

The journal also serves an agenda-setting function through its choice of special-issue topics. When the editors commission an issue on a theme — whether workforce policy, digital learning, or the adult/higher education boundary — they signal to the field what deserves collective attention. For researchers deciding where to direct their next project, these signals matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Adult Learning peer reviewed?

Yes — it is an international peer-reviewed journal.

Who publishes Adult Learning?

SAGE Publications, on behalf of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE).

What are the journal's ISSNs?

Print ISSN 1045-1595; online ISSN 2162-4070.

How often is it published?

Quarterly.

What is the difference between Adult Learning and Adult Education Quarterly?

Both are AAACE journals from SAGE. AEQ emphasizes research and theory; Adult Learning emphasizes practice-oriented scholarship with explicit implications for practitioners.

I'm a program director, not a researcher. Can I publish here?

The journal explicitly welcomes practitioner-authors. Systematic accounts of program practice — with clear description, evidence of outcomes, and transferable lessons — fit the journal's mission, though manuscripts still undergo peer review. Co-authoring with a researcher or evaluator can strengthen the methodological framing.

Does the journal publish special issues?

Yes — themed issues on current concerns appear regularly; prospective guest editors should contact the editorial team.

Does the journal charge authors?

No default author-facing fee schedule is published; it operates primarily on subscriptions (further detail not publicly disclosed).

What is the acceptance rate?

Not publicly disclosed.

Is it the same as the Australian Journal of Adult Learning?

No — that is a separate journal (ISSN 1443-1394) published by Adult Learning Australia. The two titles are sometimes confused because of their similar names, but they have different publishers, editorial teams, and scopes; always check the ISSN when citing.

Further Reading and Related Resources

Readers who want to go deeper have several natural next steps. The journal's archive on SAGE Journals is the primary resource — browsing a decade of tables of contents gives a faster education in the field's concerns than any single review article. AAACE's website provides context on the association's conferences, awards, and special interest groups, which often preview the themes later taken up in the journal's pages.

For orientation to the field's literature, the editors' 2023 guidance article on disciplinary boundaries (Hill, Rogers-Shaw, and Carr-Chellman) doubles as a map of how adult education defines itself against neighboring fields. Doctoral students may also benefit from reading AEQ's bibliometric self-studies to understand the field's publication ecology before choosing where to submit. Finally, the journal's sibling titles — Adult Education Quarterly for theory-driven work and the Journal of Transformative Education for transformative learning scholarship — complete the AAACE publishing landscape.

Sources and Verification Note

Core facts (founding year, publisher, frequency, ISSNs, ISO 4 abbreviation, editorial team, practice-oriented mission) were verified against reference records for the journal and the editors' own published guidance on submitting to Adult Learning (SAGE, 2023). The AAACE's three-journal structure is documented in the association's published materials. Indexing details beyond directory-level Scopus coverage were not confirmed from a single current primary source and are flagged accordingly. Fields marked "not publicly disclosed" reflect the absence of a verifiable public source.

A Note on Citing This Journal

When citing Adult Learning, use the ISO 4 abbreviation Adult Learn. and the correct ISSN for the version consulted: print ISSN 1045-1595 or online ISSN 2162-4070. Because the title resembles several other journals with "adult learning" in their names — including the Australian Journal of Adult Learning and various literacy titles — including the ISSN in reference lists and library requests prevents confusion. Librarians cataloging the title should note its publisher history (SAGE on behalf of AAACE) and its 1989 founding date to distinguish it from similarly named publications.