Despite the professional learning benefits that may be realised through participation in research, many institutions and teachers are reluctant to get involved. They (correctly) anticipate that it will require some time, effort, and commitment. They may understand that research is important for improving education practices but more direct and…

Adult educators are often concerned with the well-being of our students, but how often do we consider our own quality of work-life? The purpose of the discussion session this paper is based on was to provide a safe space for participants to "Gripe and Grow." Participants were invited to share issues (gripe) that negatively affect their…

Although there has been surge of interest in teacher research practice in English language teaching (ELT) context, few research studies seem to have shown the attitudes and perceptions of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers towards the impact of research practice on professional teaching practice. Adopting a sequential explanatory…

Kevin M. Roessger is an assistant professor of adult and lifelong learning at the University of Arkansas. He teaches courses in all areas of adult learning and development. His research interests include behavioural analytic approaches to skills-based learning and reflection as a natural phenomenon. Current conceptualisations of reflection have…

Adult education is a reciprocal relationship between adult learners and adult education practitioners. As such, it is essential to understand the experiences of adult educators and adult education practitioners as they teach adults. This study focuses on how ideas about race and racism are examined in the graduate-level classroom and the adult…

This article explores the potential of adult learning and education, its pivotal role in addressing social transformation and promoting global-local partnerships, and its relationship to the issue of sustainability. The authors' conceptual setting helps to reveal the closely connected yet contested and always power-related perspectives of adult…

This article describes outcomes of group discussion sessions that took place as part of the Commission on Adult Basic Education April 2016 conference in Dallas, Texas. Researchers and practitioners in adult education were the primary attendees of the conference. Session topics and points of discussion in this paper include: the challenge of the…

This paper reports findings from a researcher-practitioner partnership (2015-18) that examined how adult education providers in Chicago, Houston, and Miami are designing and implementing career pathways (CP) programming, particularly for immigrants and adults with limited education. This Institute of Education Sciences-funded study was the first…

This qualitative research reports on the narratives of six community educators and utilizes anatomy of story as a framework. The research question directing this study was: What can we learn from the journeys and trajectories of community educators? Supporting sub-questions included: (1) what are their efforts fostering adult education? and (2)…

Actor network theory (ANT) is used to explore how work-learning is enacted in informal online communities and illustrates how researchers might use sociomaterial approaches to uncover complexities, uncertainties, and specificities of work-learning practices. Participants in this study were self-employed workers. The relational and material aspects…

This article is based on a project that explored the practices of art and design beginning teachers (BTs) working with learners in a post-age-16 context. The aim of the project was to: explore contemporary art and design practices; explore the concept of artist teacher learner researcher; enable beginning teachers to collaborate with post-age-16…

This paper examines the results of research into the learning experiences of a group of adult learners in a university preparation programme in a college of Technical and Further Education in Sydney, NSW, Australia. The research was conducted over a three year period by the author as a teacher-researcher and is grounded in the phenomenological…

The potential of practitioner-led action research (PLAR) to contribute to professional development in adult literacies work is considered from two perspectives. First, a recent initiative in Scotland is examined to illustrate PLAR implemented as professional development. The structural factors needing to be addressed for PLAR to contribute to…

This article draws on the experience of a research project designed to bring together practitioners and researchers in further education (FE) colleges and the higher education (HE) sector in pursuit of ways of creating more accessible learning opportunities for students in colleges. Here we explore some of the assumptions underlying the…

Despite high staff turnover and a predominance of part-time positions in the field of adult education some adult education teachers create careers for themselves that span many years--even decades. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2007), teachers are the most important factor in improving student achievement. Knapp (2003) points out…