Conclusion The purpose of this chapter has been to open up some of the questions about research, policy and practice rather than to write a chapter about each. It starts with a concern about the growing complexity of research itself and indicates that it is necessary for practitioners in adult education and lifelong learning to be aware of the academic debates about research as well as their being researchers themselves since in the contemporary climate there is. a sense in which they are already practitioner researchers learning in their own practice. It also points to the necessity of researchers engaging in both practice and policy. We can see that the relationship between research, policy and practice is much more complicated than it might appear on the surface, and we can see how it is necessary for practitioners to enter a critical debate about government policy about adult learning. However, this text was completed and sent to the publishers a month or o before the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education published the results of its consultation (Learning through Life, Schuller and Watson, 2009), which aims at producing an analysis of the state. of adult education in the United Kingdom and a strategic framework for future developments of lifelong learning. At the same time, this book is written for an international readership and so it was not considered appropriate to await its publication in order to write more about there, but the following brief list of the themes is intended as a guide. to those readers who are interested in seeing what aspects of lifelong learning the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education has used as a framework: prosperity, employment and work
demography and social structure
well-being and happiness
migration and communities technological change.