A new trajectory recently embraced by society involves efforts to redress omissions in the past to historical contributions made by marginalized communities -- such as women and people of color. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the contribution of women scholars to the field of adult education by focusing on one particular Victorian-era…

Adult education instructors frequently attend both required and elective professional development events and seminars to gain and maintain proficiency. However, as prospective learners, do instructors know exactly what the training will be about? Are the takeaways, or training outcomes, clearly stated beforehand? The answer seems to be, sometimes.…

Women's workforce and higher education participation have increased in the past 30 years. This article reviews the literature on women in "Adult Learning" from 1989 through 2022. Key findings include that women were portrayed as marginalized, deficient, learners, educators, juggling social roles, and resilient. Various positionalities…

Flexibility in distance education is often regarded as an inherently positive concept. Taking a more critical approach, this article distinguishes between "temporal-spatial flexibility," defined as enabling students to choose the time, pace and place of their studies, and "pedagogical flexibility," defined as offering education…

Adult education takes place in various contexts. Prisons are one of them. This article reports on research carried out in a prison of Portugal, which sought to understand and answer the following question: given the lack of prior academic and, in many cases, professional training that prepares teachers to work in such an educational context, how…

This article presents a general and overarching view on partnerships between adult education and STEM disciplines. Drawing from their individual STEM backgrounds, personal perspectives and experiences with such partnerships, and the science of team science, the authors consider the benefits of adult education for STEM, the benefits of STEM for…

Workplace learning is a critical aspect of both continuing professional education and human resource development. However, often providers, scholars and even the learners themselves pay little attention to the learning that actually happens in the workplace. The study sought to obtain insights into workplace learning of Adult Education and…

The various models of mentoring presented in the international literature can be placed into two main categories, namely, those based on behaviourism which support knowledge transmission, and those based on constructivism which support knowledge transformation. The model presented in this paper is based on constructivism and it has been developed…

Despite the clear and obvious need for adults to be proficient in numeracy, international studies suggest that many continue to struggle in this area. In Ireland, one of the main challenges continues to be the availability of effective adult numeracy education. This is a diverse sector, and little is known about the varied provision of adult…

A key commitment of the Adult Literacy for Life Strategy (2021) is to reduce the number of adults in Ireland with unmet numeracy needs from 25% to 12%. One of the main challenges in achieving this is the varied provision of adult numeracy education. Many numeracy practitioners are either employed parttime or are volunteers with few opportunities…

This autoethnographic study documents the stories of two adult education faculty members' experiences when their respective academic programs were closed. We situate our stories within changes in higher education economics and two theoretical frameworks: expectancy theory and psychological contract theory. Despite our isolation as the sole faculty…

This article provides an overview of major dimensions of the professional development of adult educators identified in European policy documents, relevant reports and research. The author reviews the relevant policy visions of the past two decades, aiming to determine the extent to which professional development of adult educators is visible in…

Anchored on Mondlane's biological mother's advice that he ought to 'go to school in order to understand the witchcraft of the white man, thus being able to fight against him' and on the argument that what he learned as a child informed his learning as an adolescent and as an adult, this study developed a profile of Eduardo Mondlane as a lifelong…

Adult education has a historical and ongoing commitment to fostering democratic relationships, demonstrated by the tendency of adult education to be called upon when social change and realignment are most desirable. This article considers the philosophical and pragmatic possibilities for adult education at this moment, when White Christian…

In this chapter, we provide a snapshot of critical theories with salience for adult education to illuminate their enduring efficacy within the discipline, including critical feminism, queer theory, and race-based critical theories. Critical theories seek to make individual change while dismantling the structures that suppress freedom and…