The purpose of this study is to analyze research trends of adult education by
investigating research papers published in Korean academic journals and to
identify the characteristics of Korean adult education studies and its future
direction. To investigate the research trends of the journals, the researcher
reviewed 489 articles published in Andragogy Today, and The Journal of
Lifelong Education, which are the two representative journals in adult education,
from 2005 to 2012. Synthesizing related preceding studies, the framework used
in this paper includes the regional distribution and field of the first author,
research areas, subjects, and methodologies.
As a result of the study, most first authors came from universities in Seoul
and Gyeonggi-do and 'lifelong learner' was the most popular research area.
Organizations were the most subject of study and literature review was main
research method. Based on the review the academic journals, the researcher
concludes the main characteristics of Korean adult education research and
suggests tasks for Korean Adult Education as an independent research area.