Non-formal education : the definitional problem

UNLIKE FORMAL EDUCATION, NON-FORMAL EDUCATION HAS NO SINGLE INSTITUTIONAL BASE ON WHICH A DEFINITION CAN BE CONSTRUCTED. FORMAL EDUCATION, WHEN CONSTRUED AS A SCHOOLING FUNCTION, CAN ALWAYS BE "DEFINED" AS WHAT IS DONE IN SCHOOL. BUT NON-FORMAL EDUCATION HAS NO SINGLE LOCUS OR SINGLE INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT. DEFINITIONAL STATEMENTS THUS TEND TO INVOLVE CONSIDERATIONS AND DIMENSIONS THAT DO NOT GET TREATED WHEN "FORMAL EDUCATION" IS DEFINED WITHIN THE SCHOOLING CONTEXT. THE THREE ESSAYS PRESENTED HERE ARE FAIRLY COMPLEX, IN THAT ALL THREE PRESENT WAYS OF LAYING OUT A FAIRLY COMPREHENSIVE STRUCTURING OF THE DOMAIN OF THE CONCEPT. WHILE THERE ARE SEVERAL SIMILARITIES AMONG THE TREATMENTS, THE ESSAYS DIFFER IN TERMS OF PROGRAMMATIC PERSPECTIVES. TAKEN TOGETHER, THEY PROVIDE A FAIRLY COMPLETE EXPOSITION OF QUESTIONS INVOLVED IN DEFINING NON-FORMAL EDUCATION, ALONG WITH A FEW TENTATIVE RESOLUTIONS OF THOSE QUESTIONS. THE ESSAYS ARE ENTITLED "TOWARD A CONTEXTUAL DEFINITION OF NON-FORMAL EDUCATION," BY KLEIS, LANG, MIETUS, AND TIAPULA; "NON-FORMAL EDUCATION: PROBLEMS AND PROMISES," BY WARD AND DETTONI; AND "AN OPERATIONAL APPROACH TO THE DEFINITION OF NON-FORMAL EDUCATION," EXCERPTED FROM "PLANNING FOR NON-FORMAL EDUCATION: AN INTERIM REPORT," OF THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES IN NON-FORMAL EDUCATION, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY.