Budd Hall

Hall of Fame Class of 2005

For more than 35 years, Budd Hall has devoted his professional career to mobilizing the international adult education movement worldwide. He has devoted his professional life to the creation and nurturing of organizations, networks, and structures of adult education in the international arena. Born in the United States, Dr. Hall served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria from 1965-1968, as head of Research for the Institute of Adult Education in Tanzania 1970-75 and then moved to Canada.

In Toronto, Dr. Hall served as secretary-general of the International Council for Adult Education and served as chair of the Adult Education Department at the University of Toronto, and he currently serves as Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, which reaches out across the world in so many diverse ways. Over the years he has worked closely with adult educators in more than forty countries from every continent.

Dr. Hall has either founded or led a variety of organizations and networks, including the International Participatory Research Network, The North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education, The Tanzanian Adult Education Association, African Association for Adult Education, Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education, Canadian Network for Democratic Learning, Latin American Council for Adult Education, and the International Task Force on Literacy. From 1997 through 2002, he served as chair of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization working group on University Based Lifelong Learning.

Dr. Hall is a living archive for the international adult education movement. His life works are an inspiration for generations to come. His legacy spans decades and has touched the human condition worldwide. In both scholarly and practical endeavors Dr. Hall has modeled respect and eagerness to learn from multiple perspectives and epistemologies, honoring and valuing the various forms of knowledge and ways of knowing. As administrator, researcher, professor, and grass-roots activist he has played multiple roles in ensuring the vitality and solidarity of continuing education as a field of both study and practice in the global community.