Drawing from extensive experience as community educators, this paper discusses accreditation and its relationship to community development as informed by a cooperative inquiry conducted by tutors. Beginning with our rationale for undertaking the inquiry, it details our approach to community development and the centrality of education within this.…

The Appalachian Land Ownership Study was a participatory action research project in one of our nation's poorest regions suffering from absenteeism, poverty, powerlessness, and improper taxation. In discovering who owned the region's land, the participants sought to organize against the social, economic and environmental injustices imposed on the…

In recent years, change has become a common catch phrase. The mantra of change ushered in America's first African American president and reawakened within Americans a call to social and civic awareness as well as engagement not seen since the 1960s and 1970s. Key constituents to the change movement were college students whose experiences in higher…

The purpose of this article is to explore the role of adult education for critical democracy, in order to address the social suffering that these authors have encountered in their work as critical adult community educators. Brid Connolly and Peter Hussey explored this through dialogue, as a process of education and research. Dialogue is the moment…

Recently, a range of educational theorists have explored and extended upon popular currents in political theory through articulating "open" and "unknowing" pedagogies. Such contributions represent a radical turn away from the presumed "universals" found in proclamations of justice and emancipation and, ultimately, the centering of class analysis.…

It should be understood that the importance of adult education is to illuminate the current context in which the adult functions. This adult frames directly linked with the construct of social justice. Adult education is examined under two frames: (a) Merriam and Brockett (1997) who define adult education as "…activities intentionally…

Contrary to the concept of school readiness as achieving a particular set of attributes considered essential for educational success, this article is grounded in the assumption that all children are ready to learn, but what they are expected to learn varies widely from one cultural setting and historic period to another. The authors challenge the…

The purpose of this article is to introduce "walking in beauty," an American Indian spiritual perspective related to social justice that emphasizes beauty, harmony, connectedness/unity of experience, and imagination. Walking in beauty includes 3 processes: embodiment, creativity, and appreciation of the sublime. Recommendations are offered for…

In this keynote address, the author explains why it is important to advance the right to lifelong learning and extend education throughout life. The author stresses that the continuing development of knowledge and skills within the adult population is one of the most strategic investments that societies must make today. Furthermore, this is an…

In spite of its overall economic success, most citizens living in the remote areas of Botswana face poverty and are unemployed. The article argues that minority communities in remote areas are excluded because education programs use unfamiliar languages and de-contextualized curricula, there is no national qualifications framework to sufficiently…

This paper discusses practical and methodological issues arising from a case study exploring the hopes, aspirations and learning identities of three groups of students undertaking low-level broad vocational programmes in two English general further education colleges. Working within a social justice theoretical framework the paper outlines the…

This article examines the elusive concept of safety in liberal arts classrooms which are often contoured by a plurality of social, cultural, political, psychological, historical, and discursive forces and performances. Using select principles from adult education and social work with groups as an organizing metaphor, the article discusses the…

The construct of social justice in counseling is defined and operationalized in this article. This is followed by a discussion about the intersection between social justice in counseling and philosophy, ethics, and spirituality. A call to action for counseling professionals is offered. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article analyzes the participation of civil society in the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education held in Belem do Para, Brazil, 1-4 December 2009. As a foundation, the discussion first illuminates the important role that civil society in general plays in democratic issues and the relation between the state and society followed by…

For the last 40 years, Stephen Gaskin has been an adult educator on the fringe, working with tens of thousands of adults in the counterculture movement in pursuit of social change regarding marijuana legalization, women's rights, environmental justice issues and beyond. Gaskin has written 11 books about his experiences teaching and learning…