The fonds consists of the textual records and photographs of the International Council for Adult Education, documenting its activities to promote adult education around the world by organizing conferences and seminars, sponsoring research and studies, and developing programs and projects. It includes records of the Secretary-General, program officers, and office staff; meetings of the Board, Executive, and other committees; world assemblies, conferences, and seminars; interaction with UNESCO, other NGOs, national organizations, and educators; ICAE publications and reference material; and other records relating to the ICAE.
International Council for Adult Education : The International Council for Adult Education (ICAE) was created in 1973 as a global partnership of NGOs, regional and national associations, and individuals to promote adult education and lifelong learning. The ICAE would achieve its objectives by advising and cooperating with NGOs, governmental bodies, and organizations involved in adult education, and by promoting research, conferences, seminars, training, and publications on adult education. It was affiliated with UNESCO and the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The ICAE's creation reflected, in many respects, the growing international cooperation in adult education in the postwar era and, in particular, the efforts of founder J. Roby Kidd, a leader in the development of adult education in the 1950s and 1960s, and its first Secretary-General from 1973 to 1979. Kidd, a Canadian, had chaired UNESCO's International Committee for the Advancement of Adult Education from 1961 to 1966 and founded Convergence, a journal of adult education, in 1968. Convergence became part of the ICAE in 1973. The ICAE was governed by a General Assembly, composed of representatives of the member national organizations, and a Board of Directors to direct and manage its programs and activities in between meetings of the assembly. Along with Kidd as Secretary-General, the officers of ICAE's first Board included President Malcolm Adiseshiah, Vice-Presidents Paul Lengrand and Paul Mhaiki, Treasurer Helmuth Dolff, and Edward Hutchinson, Editor of Convergence. The Board also included several national members. It was replaced by a smaller Executive Committee in the new constitution adopted in 1979. Generally, the Board and Executive Committee met annually while the General Assembly met every three or four years, often during the world assemblies on adult education. The ICAE's head office was in Toronto, Canada from 1973 to 1991, when it moved to Montevideo, Uruguay. Budd Hall, another Canadian educator, was the ICAE's second Secretary-General from 1979 to 1991.
