Those planning a voter education programme will want to make use of good theory and the best practice of general education for children and adults.

This section deals with aspects of educational theory for those who have been given the voter education portfolio without previous adult education experience:

• Adult Learning provides insights into working with adults.
• Ideological Considerations discusses the need to make explicit the values underlying the educational programme.
• Cultural and Social Considerations looks at differing stakeholder interests in what the programme should achieve.
• Legitimacy and Credibility suggests opportunities and constraints educators face in any particular context.
• Educating Leaders and Citizens provides an educational direction seldom used yet crucial for democracy.
• Language offers a range of methods for dealing with multilingual contexts.
• Public Education Principles considers best practices and lessons learned in the realm of public information campaigns

While it is true that there are important programmes for children in schools and in more formal settings (see Institutionalising Civic Education), the primary concern of this topic area is for developing good practice with adults who are eligible to vote.

There is some evidence to suggest that adult education theory, with its emphasis on the autonomy of the learner, the presumption that adults already have life experience, knowledge of their own, and critical faculties that enable them to interpret the world around them, and that they should be treated with respect by the educator, is an approach that is necessary at any level. But the discussion that follows will focus primarily on individuals who can be approached and should be approached as adults.