This article is written from a pro-choice perspective. Through a radical, inclusive feminist lens, I examine educational aspects of the Irish repeal movement; a 35 year long, grassroots movement that forced the hand of reluctant politicians into calling a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment. I draw from websites and media interviews, my own…

Research poetry, valuable for its poignancy and creativity in analysing and presenting data, can enhance comprehension of research content, move political policy by drawing on readers' emotional connection to participants, inspire social justice activism, and increase accessibility to disability research. The field of adult education acknowledges…

Studies highlight online education's effectiveness; however, few examine theoretical frameworks for guiding pedagogy in online MSW programs. Patriarchal systems create policy and program inequities in higher education, hindering student achievement. Confronting these inequities is essential in designing successful online MSW programs. This…

In the context of the popular Women's March on Washington and sister marches elsewhere, we analyze the tension between the marches as a valuable political act and a perpetuation of feminism as a space for white, middle-class women. We present short narratives of our own varying experiences with the Women's March--and with white…

This article focuses on the feminist design, content and pedagogical impact of a multi-media research exhibition I curated entitled "Disobedient women: Defiance, resilience and creativity past and present." Through the conceptual frameworks of feminist adult education and feminist exhibtionary praxis, I discuss the development and design…

This paper traces the evolution of discourses around the role of critical social theory in the field of lifelong education that have played out in the pages of the "International Journal of Lifelong Education" and elsewhere in the field, beginning with early critical theoretical discourses, a consideration of the impact of some key…

This paper discusses a piece of qualitative research that explored the narratives of a group of mature women when they discussed influences on their post-16 educational decisions. This encompasses their initial vocational education and training (VET) and their choice to study higher education (HE) programmes in England. The research draws on Nancy…

In this article, the author discusses a study that she launched to open up conversations about age. She set out to collect and record the "opinions" of older women. She had been a returning student, and as a teacher at a community college with nontraditional-age students, she found herself perpetuating the cycle of silence about age in…

In recent decades, adult and community education has emerged as a distinctive discipline in its own right, based on scholarship in the quest for real equality and social justice. This distinctive discipline is already characterised by "really useful practice", that is, critical, creative pedagogy, heavily influenced by women's studies…

Under the research radar, and yet highly influential in transformation of practices concerning the social understanding and enactment of gender, are women-led non-governmental organizations (WNGOs). Their continued efforts to reconfigure gender identities and their impact on public policy formation have expanded notions of citizenship and…

Social work is uniquely situated among helping professions, as the clinical practice is an extension of ethical responsibility to pursue social justice. Whether in mental health, addictions, child protection, intimate partner violence services, youth and adult homelessness programs, or any number of social work services, the individuals, families,…

This inquiry considers the role of emotions and conflict in education practices which align with social justice. The classroom is a significant location to learn and practice resourceful responses to conflict and to the emotions that accompany conflict, and can itself be considered a site of conflict intervention. This research questions how U.S.…

This article considers how a group of migrant women in the town of Shepparton, Australia, understand their futures in the spaces created by globalising forces. Shepparton is a "case study" of globalisation, at the centre of the movement of peoples, skills and capital globally. The issues it faces are compounded by profound climate…

This paper presents an autobiographical narrative of two aspects of my history; two events that permeated my moral consciousness and influenced my political development and a sequence of changes in my dominant theoretical and epistemological perspectives. The two events were, as a teenager, the intense experience of briefly witnessing Apartheid…

The term "critical literacy" refers to use of the technologies of print and other media of communication to analyze, critique, and transform the norms, rule systems, and practices governing the social fields of everyday life (A. Luke, 2004). Since Freire's (1970) educational projects in Brazil, approaches to critical literacy have been…