This practice-based paper provides a case study of a new initiative developed by Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board with support from South East Technological University. The My Voice, My Choice Initiative is an inclusive approach to engaging learners with intellectual disabilities in Higher Education (HE). The learners were…

This article explores the experiences of a group of women who having achieved success in education and returned to the adult learning environment again. A creative methodological approach allows the women to describe in their own words experiences of educational success and motivations to return to learning. Discussion points predominantly focus…

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed an unprecedented impact on our world. In a short period of time, it has exposed deep and entrenched inequalities between and within societies and has prompted a radical rethink of the purpose and function of education. It is clearly no longer sufficient to impart learners with mere curricular knowledge. It is…

The funding model for further education and training (FET) in the Republic of Ireland currently describes provider and learner success in narrow quantifiable terms as captured on the national Programme Learner Support System (PLSS). FET practitioners have grappled with the restrictive rigidity of these outcomes and measures of success for adult…

This paper draws on the qualitative findings of a PhD study which focused on the lived experiences of adult learners with dyslexia in Ireland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 adult learners with dyslexia in 2014 and these findings, with particular relevance to adult learning in the recently restructured Further Education and…

This paper draws on both a theoretical understanding and a semi-autoethnographic approach of the lived experience of working class adult learners in higher education during the COVID-19 global pandemic. In particular, the paper warns of the doxic notion of current working class struggles being singularly attributed to COVID-19. Rather it is vital…

Climate breakdown is one of the greatest challenges our world faces. Driven by social, economic, political, environmental and ideological forces, the climate crisis necessitates critical, creative, inclusive and impactful action across multiple levels of society. Adult learning is a core element of societal transitions to a more sustainable future…

Our article was commissioned by AONTAS, The National Adult Learning Organisation in Ireland. Using a critical and independent 'outsider' perspective, we analyse and examine the contents of The Adult Learner journal (ALJ), published in Ireland by the Adult Education Organisers' Association (AEOA) and later with AONTAS1 between 1985 and 2017. We…

In 2015, an Interdepartmental Group (IDG) examining mechanisms to support access to the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme for children with disabilities recommended the creation of a role of Inclusion Coordinator in early years' settings. LINC, an innovative competency-based adult continuing professional learning programme, is a…

A synergetic partnership of the Maynooth University Department of Adult and Community Education and the Further Education Support Services identified an educational need among Further Education and Training (FET) staff. The outcome was a jointly developed and delivered Level 9 blended learning Postgraduate Certificate in Programme Design and…

The RECOVEU project is an effort to conceive of a quality-learning programme with equity for adult learners in recovery. It emerged in the context of European recommendations that member states support recovering users to access education in order to improve their chances of achieving social integration. However, by privileging the voices of those…

Ever since Jack Mezirow introduced the incipient, and then more developed idea, of transformative learning to the discussion on adult education more than thirty years ago, the parameters of its theory and practice have been pushed out further and further. The introduction of spirituality and learning to this discussion is not a new one, but this…

This article describes a Framework that can be used to help bridge the gap between theory and practice in adult learning. The Framework promotes practice informed by three strands important to adult literacy work: social theories of literacy, social-constructivist learning theory and principles of adult learning. The Framework shows how five key…

In this paper I reflect on epiphany moments in teaching and learning and the ways in which writing such moments can serve both to refresh and revitalise what Palmer calls the inner landscape of the educator, while also offering opportunities to enliven pedagogy. I use the notion of the liminal disposition to position such writing as an agentic act…

This paper argues that there are many ways of conceptualising lifelong learning and examines EU and Scottish lifelong learning policies in order to identify their underlying assumptions. Through an analysis of these policies, it is demonstrated that they draw on a number of inter-related fallacies that prioritise lifelong learning mainly in…