Research Handbook on Adult Learning and Education
Published on 18. March 2025
Book
Hardback
258 pages
978-1-80088-665-0 (ISBN)
Description
This innovative Research Handbook rethinks current paradigms in adult education, providing a toolkit for responding to the challenges and opportunities for adult education and lifelong learning amidst a changing world. Contributing authors analyse key aspects of the field through the lenses of democracy, sustainability, and social justice.
Adopting a non-traditional discourse approach, international practitioners and scholars collaboratively analyse relevant issues within the field, such as adult education for indigenous people, pedagogy, inclusion and the history of lifelong learning. They critically examine the global status quo of adult learning, reflecting on the purpose of education as well as the tensions that can arise in different contexts. Chapters present original research paired with empirical accounts of teaching initiatives from the Global North and South. Incorporating a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives, the Research Handbook engages with the diversity of adult learning and education, both formal and informal.
The Research Handbook on Adult Learning and Education is a thought-provoking read for students and scholars of education, university management, education policy, curriculum and pedagogy. Its practical and inspiring insights also make it a crucial resource for adult learning practitioners and policymakers.
Adopting a non-traditional discourse approach, international practitioners and scholars collaboratively analyse relevant issues within the field, such as adult education for indigenous people, pedagogy, inclusion and the history of lifelong learning. They critically examine the global status quo of adult learning, reflecting on the purpose of education as well as the tensions that can arise in different contexts. Chapters present original research paired with empirical accounts of teaching initiatives from the Global North and South. Incorporating a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives, the Research Handbook engages with the diversity of adult learning and education, both formal and informal.
The Research Handbook on Adult Learning and Education is a thought-provoking read for students and scholars of education, university management, education policy, curriculum and pedagogy. Its practical and inspiring insights also make it a crucial resource for adult learning practitioners and policymakers.
Reviews / Votes
'This is a fascinating and rich volume. Its chapters explore too-often-ignored perspectives on, and areas of, adult education, from spirituality to visual arts, and from refugees to homelessness. They bring out the potentially paradigm-shifting role adult learning and education can have as a catalyst in society, politics and people's lives.' -- John Holford, University of Nottingham, UK 'The Research Handbook on Adult Learning and Education is a rich resource for thinking and acting critically and differently. It offers a fresh, radical and important addition to existing literature in the field. Do read it, share with others and weave together theory and practice to foster and build resources for hope.' -- Iain Jones, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK 'Based on critical dialogues around the many facets of adults' learning experiences, this book unconventionally highlights ways to rethink emancipatory adult education in the contemporary world. Professionals engaged with adults' education and learning in various settings should read this book. They will find countless sources of inspiration to make education accessible and empowering for all.' -- Marcella Milana, University of Verona, ItalyMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 169 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80088-665-0 (9781800886650)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Edited by Nalita James, Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick, Kevin Orr, Visiting Professor, Huddersfield Centre for Research in Education and Society, University of Huddersfield and Sharon Clancy, School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK
Content
Contents
Introduction to the Research Handbook on Adult Learning and Education 1
Sharon Clancy, Nalita James and Kevin Orr
PART I PURPOSES OF ADULT EDUCATION
1 Critical pedagogy: what makes it happen? Research using an
innovative, positive lens bricolage 10
Paula McElearney
2 Adults, digital exclusion and media literacy: moving beyond skill solutions 26
Richard Sanders
3 Towards effective continuing education and training provisions: the
case of Singapore 42
Anthony Leow, Anh Hai Le and Stephen Billett
4 Supporting learners in the Black community and learners with lived and
living experiences of homelessness through adult and lifelong education 56
Tanya Matthews and Jayne Malenfant
5 The ESOL Manifesto: activist professionalism in a sector under attack 64
Rob Peutrell
6 Adult education: learning to do, or learning to be? 72
Nicola Robertson and Vijayita Prajapati
7 Adult education and spirituality 82
Cheryl Hunt
8 Unlearning embodied separation of humans from the more-than-human world 95
Shirley Walters and Sharon Clancy
9 Green Changemakers: a paradigm shift in vocational education 101
Juliet Atuguba, Helen Cresswell, Lou Mycroft, Dawood Sadiq and Jenny Willis
10 The personal curriculum: the developmental pathways of experiences
across working life 113
Stephen Billett
PART II SETTINGS FOR ADULT EDUCATION
11 Using Bourdieu to understand (non-)participation in university higher
education throughout the lifecourse 127
Wayne Bailey and Kate Lavender
12 Community, university, and democracy in Ireland and the UK: a dialogue 141
Sharon Clancy and Thomas Murray
13 'Spaces where my thoughts have power' - engaging with communities
using transformative pedagogy: universities and radical adult education 151
Fiona Chapel
14 Feminist adult education in museums: curating critique and possibility 164
Darlene Clover
15 Engaging the 'wounded' adult learner: lessons learnt from critically
reflective, community-based, visual arts practice 179
Nic Dickson
PART III TENSIONS AND COMPROMISES BETWEEN CAPITAL
AND RADICAL EDUCATION
16 Exploring community gardens as critical and complicated sites for adult
education 192
Mitchell McLarnon
17 Practitioner identity and practitioner networks in the field of adult
literacy in Canada: a dialogue 202
Stacey Crooks, Paula Elias and Annie Luk
19 Adult education as a process of research and critical public pedagogy:
knowledge co-production alongside refugees in the UK asylum system 211
John Grayson
19 Putting glitter on the shit: working in-against-and-beyond adult
education in Scotland 225
Sarah Galloway, Sarah McEwan, John Player, Helen Reid, Michael Harris
and Derek Keenan
Introduction to the Research Handbook on Adult Learning and Education 1
Sharon Clancy, Nalita James and Kevin Orr
PART I PURPOSES OF ADULT EDUCATION
1 Critical pedagogy: what makes it happen? Research using an
innovative, positive lens bricolage 10
Paula McElearney
2 Adults, digital exclusion and media literacy: moving beyond skill solutions 26
Richard Sanders
3 Towards effective continuing education and training provisions: the
case of Singapore 42
Anthony Leow, Anh Hai Le and Stephen Billett
4 Supporting learners in the Black community and learners with lived and
living experiences of homelessness through adult and lifelong education 56
Tanya Matthews and Jayne Malenfant
5 The ESOL Manifesto: activist professionalism in a sector under attack 64
Rob Peutrell
6 Adult education: learning to do, or learning to be? 72
Nicola Robertson and Vijayita Prajapati
7 Adult education and spirituality 82
Cheryl Hunt
8 Unlearning embodied separation of humans from the more-than-human world 95
Shirley Walters and Sharon Clancy
9 Green Changemakers: a paradigm shift in vocational education 101
Juliet Atuguba, Helen Cresswell, Lou Mycroft, Dawood Sadiq and Jenny Willis
10 The personal curriculum: the developmental pathways of experiences
across working life 113
Stephen Billett
PART II SETTINGS FOR ADULT EDUCATION
11 Using Bourdieu to understand (non-)participation in university higher
education throughout the lifecourse 127
Wayne Bailey and Kate Lavender
12 Community, university, and democracy in Ireland and the UK: a dialogue 141
Sharon Clancy and Thomas Murray
13 'Spaces where my thoughts have power' - engaging with communities
using transformative pedagogy: universities and radical adult education 151
Fiona Chapel
14 Feminist adult education in museums: curating critique and possibility 164
Darlene Clover
15 Engaging the 'wounded' adult learner: lessons learnt from critically
reflective, community-based, visual arts practice 179
Nic Dickson
PART III TENSIONS AND COMPROMISES BETWEEN CAPITAL
AND RADICAL EDUCATION
16 Exploring community gardens as critical and complicated sites for adult
education 192
Mitchell McLarnon
17 Practitioner identity and practitioner networks in the field of adult
literacy in Canada: a dialogue 202
Stacey Crooks, Paula Elias and Annie Luk
19 Adult education as a process of research and critical public pedagogy:
knowledge co-production alongside refugees in the UK asylum system 211
John Grayson
19 Putting glitter on the shit: working in-against-and-beyond adult
education in Scotland 225
Sarah Galloway, Sarah McEwan, John Player, Helen Reid, Michael Harris
and Derek Keenan