Academic writing is a long and tedious process often requiring long hours of concentration and dedication to come up with a good piece of work. It requires reviewing the literature to analyse gaps and come up with synthesised and weaved information on a chosen topic. This provides the reviewer of the literature with a deeper understanding of the topic of interest and gives a thread through the written piece of work. The search for the relevant literature requires the authors to look at reports, peer-reviewed articles and books in that field. Often searching engines provide authentic literature that an author can trust to provide a good review of the work of other authors. The authors of the edited book by the Department of Adult and Community Education at Makerere University will need to provide their audiences with information that provokes action to promote Adult Learning and Education (ALE) in Uganda in a manner that convinces the audiences of the need for ALE in their communities.
The process of writing an edited book of Adult Learning and Education themed ‘Contemporary Issues in Adult Learning and Education in Uganda’ by the Department of Adult and Community Education at Makerere University has gone through numerous stages. It began with an idea mooted by a department's senior staff at a departmental meeting. Members welcomed this idea as a way of growing the discipline of adult education but also as a way of encouraging staff who had graduated with doctorates to engage in academic writing for career growth. This beautiful idea went into a sleeping mode and could not be immediately affected by the department for lack of finances. However, during the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University, there was recognition of the efforts of the first five authors in each college of the university by the Vice Chancellor’s office. The analysis showed that none of the first five authors in the College of Education and External Studies were from the discipline of Adult Learning and Education. This promoted the Principal of the college to provide funds to the department to start the process. The funds that he provided were not enough to finish the process of a book project until publication. This prompted members of the department to search for more funding to supplement the book project. A senior member of the department approached DVV International for more funding which they agreed to. This supported the book project by increasing the funds provided by the office of the Principal.
The Chair of the department sat down with the senior member of the department who agreed to be the coordinator of the book project to start on the actual process of the edited book. The two agreed on a committee to speer head the book project. A meeting was called by the Chair of the Department to start on the discussions of the modalities of this project. The process started with some meetings by the committee on some basics about the project. One of the first assignments of the committee was to agree on the theme and then draft the different sections (sub-themes) of the book. These sections needed to align to the discipline of ALE. There were a number of sub-themes suggested by the committee but they agreed on five sub-themes. The different sub- themes speak to the general theme of the book. The coordinator of the book project had already agreed with two scholars to be editors of the book. These are respected people in their fields with different expertise to have a peer reviewed book.
The editors were invited for the first meeting with some of the potential authors from the Department of Adult Education at Makerere University. The two editors had a discussion with the potential authors on the actual process of the book project and how their writing should align with the book theme and contribute to the growth and practice of the discipline. At this meeting, the sub-themes were concretised. In addition, the members agreed on the timelines and that the advert for the call for proposals should be issued and circulated to all stakeholders in the adult education fraternity in Uganda and internationally. From the call for abstract for book chapters, the committee received twenty-six (26) abstracts from the academia, SCOs, government departments and NGOs. The authors of these abstracts were called for a stakeholder’s meeting at Makerere University which was well attended by the Commissioner of Community Education and Literacy, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr. Everest Tumwesigye, the Vice Chancellor, Gulu University Prof. George Ladaah Openjuru, the Regional Director DVV International East/Horn of Africa Ms. Frauke Heinze, the country Director Mr. Caesar Kyebakola, the Principal College of Education and External Studies, Prof. Anthony Muwaga Muggaga, the Dean School of Distance and Lifelong Learning, Dr. Harriet Nabushawo.
Each section should have at least a book chapter. As authors write they must ensure that their chapters are contributing to the overall theme of the book which is ‘Contemporary issues in Adult Learning and Education in Uganda’.
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