This paper examines and critiques existentialist interpretations of being within Paulo Freire's educational theory. The principle supposition of the paper is that through engaging in adult education, the adult learner can heighten their understanding of their lives, metaphysically. The paper also posits that adult education can develop the will;…

This article is based on our two narratives through which we explore how Freirean thought had an impact on our respective praxis as academic activists in apartheid South Africa. We reflect specifically on the influence the work of Freire had on informing and advancing our respective struggles against apartheid education. This article therefore…

This paper engages in a critical analysis of the educational theory of Paulo Freire. It is based on qualitative research which explores Irish adult literacy practice. The research harnesses the ontological aspects of Freire's theory; his interpretation of how human reality is constructed. Using this as the theoretical foundation for inquiry,…

The contributions to education of one of the great Latin American thinkers, Paulo Freire, have been enormous. His voice and wisdom have inspired educators globally. Three particular contributions--to emancipation, to literacy, and to dialogue--are explored in this article through a critical lens. From a gender perspective, Freire's path to…

This research investigates learners' responses to the use of literature as a means of literacy learning in level 2 Functional Skills in English. Data were gathered by way of observation, questionnaire and informal dialogue with learners. Teaching and learning was underpinned by the philosophy of critical pedagogy and was therefore learner-centric.…

This Handbook provides a wide-ranging frame of reference for researching adult and lifelong education and learning. With contributions from scores of established and newer scholars from six continents, the volume covers a diverse range of geopolitical and social territories across the world. Drawing on the multiple heritages that underpin research…

The development of socio-cultural understandings of mathematics combined with policy interest in adult numeracy as a result of international studies, which compare skill levels in different countries, have impacted adult education practice in recent years. In Scotland, a "social practice approach" is espoused and adult numeracy tutors…

While the anglophone academic literature has long engaged in analysis of the role of privilege in the work of educators in the Global North, this article represents an initial foray into such analysis in non-formal educational settings in the Global South. Through a cultural-textual document analysis of 12?months of personal journal entries…

Women Reading for Education, Affinity & Development (WREAD), a reading discussion group geared toward African American female adult-literacy students with self-defined histories of trauma, was an outgrowth of research identifying links between trauma, women's struggles with literacy, and the need to be conscious of emotional health…

This interdisciplinary paper is about applying Adult Education methods of learning and teaching to higher education. I argue that higher education students need to be stimulated via interactive methods that improve their motivation and lead them to question the value system/s that exist around them. A Freirean approach as used in the teaching of…

Background/Context: Educational researchers have long sought to understand the factors that enable or constrain persistence in non-formal family literacy and adult education programs. Scholars typically posit three sets of factors influencing persistence: situational (learners' life circumstances), institutional (programmatic factors), and…

The equality framework developed in the Equality Studies Centre, University College Dublin (UCD), provides a useful base for thinking about literacy from an equality perspective. Neo-liberal, critical and situated approaches to literacy have made minimal impact in the Irish context where only 6 per cent of those with unmet literacy needs…

Critical practice in adult literacy education offers many interesting and important challenges, including creating a situation in which learners and instructors can communicate across their differences.

Based on ethnographic, participatory research in two Salvadoran villages, this article analyzes how features of the sociocultural setting bred discord and mistrust among the participants in an adult literacy program and other community residents, thereby undermining the program's goal of equipping "campesinos" to work together to improve…

This article explores how planning the Botswana National Literacy Programme aided the state in maintaining its power and control over the past two decades. Using critical educational theory as the theoretical framework, it demonstrates how the planning of literacy education promotes conventional views of literacy and perpetuates state hegemony. It…