Prof. Emmanuel Jean Francois
Dr. Emmanuel Jean-Francois is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Xavier University of Louisiana (New Orleans, USA). His most recent books include: “Artificial Intelligence for Inclusion and Equity in Education” (2026, “Transnational perspectives on innovation in teaching and learning technologies” (2018), “Perspectives in Transnational Higher Education” (2016), “Building global education with a local perspective: An introduction to global higher education” (2015), “Financial sustainability for non-profit organizations” (2014)”, “Transcultural blended learning and teaching in post-secondary education”. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Comparative Studies and International Education (JCSIE).
- Transnationalness, globalness, and international comparative education
- Adult learning and human resource development
- Interculturality and transculturality
- Scholarship of teaching and learning and technology
- Leadership for sustainability, inclusion, equity, and social justice
CG5: Digitalization in Adult Education and Learning: Policies and Implementation
Digital transformation facilitated the emergence of new educational practices, created demands for new educational offerings/programmes/strategies, and changed educational organizations in all areas. This resulted to changing demands in adult education, including the development of competencies related to the need for critical mindset, reflection, inclusive diversity and equity, dignity, and collaboration in an ever digitally-mediated and glocally connected world. Organizations and educational institutions have used various digital technologies to facilitate adult education and learning to facilitate a better learning experience for adult learners. Such phenomenon is called digitalization of adult education and learning. Although such digitalization started decades ago, the lockdown caused by the global pandemic corona virus (COVID-19) and now Artificial Intelligence (AI) with its generative tools have produced an increasing digital acceleration at the mega, macro, meso, and micro levels. The impact of digitalization is present in nearly every aspect of individual lives, from the way people communicate and work to how they access information, entertainment, and learning. Consequently, digitalization has had a profound effect on adult education, with new opportunities but also different challenges. The digitalization of adult education and learning affects, if not all, most countries in the world. However, the policies, guidelines, approaches, and practices may vary based on socio-cultural, socio-economic, and/or socio-political contexts of nations and regions of the world. This module intends to enable participants to critically analyze the digitalization policies, and their implementation in adult education and learning in national/cultural and cross-national/cross-cultural contexts.
