The Challenges of the Adult Education and Solutions for Improvement: Grounded theory

The present study aimed to "identify the adult education and solutions for improvement." In order to achieve the goal of the research, the researcher used the qualitative method of the grounded theory. The participants of the study consisted of experts on adult education, local reference groups, managers and experts of the Literacy Movement Organizations in Zones and Cities, managers and experts of the Department of Education and Training of province, educators and learners and 72 participants were interviewed using "targeted approach", “snowball method" and “theoretical saturation criterion". The data collection method was semi-structured interview. 905 open codes, 99 concepts and 14 categories were derived from the interviews based on the data foundation theory process through three open, axial and selective coding steps. In the final stage, the items were categorized under the basic components of the grounded theory including the pivotal subject (the challenges of the literacy movement), the causal conditions (content problems of the courses, educational problems and the economic problems of the learners), environmental conditions (structural problems of the literacy movement organization), Intermediate conditions (cultural barriers, the problems related to instructors and learners), strategies (curriculum revision, legal measures, provision of facilities for educators, increased resources, facilities, and revision of the educational course) and outcomes (acceleration in the development process). The finding showed that literacy movement organization should consider the contextual, environmental and causal factors, and these factors should be regarded in the future revisions. It should be noted that literacy movement organization and literacy centers are dealing with contextual, environmental and causal factors at micro and macro levels; however, these factors are ignored in their current plans and even the strategies which are mentioned in the present study, will also be affected by these factors.