Given the double risk of exclusion caused for women with a low educational level, adult education can be a fundamental element that allows them to actively participate in their social, political, and cultural environments. Moreover, because educational level has been reported by the scientific literature to be a factor that directly favors…

This paper revisits and reanalyses data from a study carried out in the further education and training sector in the Republic of Ireland to investigate (1) how adults access and participate in numeracy courses and (2) how adult numeracy provision might support active citizenship. We analysed 45 interviews with adult education providers, adult…

Interest in the field of entrepreneurship is at an all-time high; coincidentally, migration is increasingly changing the landscape of employment. Many migrants find themselves facing challenges that entrepreneurial skills can help overcome. However, little remains explored within adult migrant education, especially within enterprises.…

While the policy approach in Urban Regeneration Partnership tends to be viewed as participatory governance using an urban studies lens, this article posits an alternative theorisation that takes an adult education perspective. We draw from Lefebvre's notion of "space", Engeström's "Cultural Historical Activity Theory" and…

This article offers a critical examination of the transformative approach to education for political citizenship. The argument offered here is that the transformative approaches lacks the capacity to fully acknowledge the asymmetries of political power and as a consequence, it promotes an idealised construct of political citizenship which does not…

This paper assesses the relationship between community education and internal political efficacy. In particular it examines the association between voter/civic programmes run in advance of the 2009 local elections in Ireland and internal political efficacy amongst the asylum seeking community in Cork. A survey is used to test this relationship.…

In 2009 AONTAS commissioned a piece of research to examine the outcomes and impact of community education in relation to the three aims that the Government has defined for it: enhancing learning; fostering empowerment, and contributing to civic society. In part, the research also responds to a need to measure the wider benefits of learning (such…

University College Cork (UCC) and excluded/disadvantaged communities on Cork's Northside undertook a partnership project. The partnership process exposed real divisions and differences among the partners and stakeholders on the link between participation and partnership and on the continuum of issues ranging from the more traditionalist model of…

The role of nonformal university adult education (UAE) in revitalizing vocational education and training (VET) in marginalized neighborhoods in Ireland was examined. First, an examination of the barriers affecting participation in VET in marginalized neighborhoods identified the following barriers: situational barriers arising from individual life…

The six articles in this first issue comprise a critical discourse about theories, practices, and research with the intent of realizing the potential of adult learning to bring about social change. "Adult Education and Empowerment for Individual and Community Development" (Jack Mezirow) outlines and updates the author's transformation…

Looking back over the past 5 decades of adult education at University College, Cork, one is struck by the realities of continuity and change as the guiding rationale moved from Roman Catholic reconstructionism to community partnership and empowerment. Structures put in place under President O'Rahilly's sponsorship persisted so robustly they…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 11th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 14-17 May 2013, and papers submitted to the 1st International Distance Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre "Scientific Cooperation,"…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 12th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Sofia and Nessebar, Bulgaria, in June 2014, and papers submitted to the 2nd International Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre 'Scientific Cooperation,' Rostov-on-Don,…

In this report, the role of women's community education in combating poverty and disadvantage in Ireland over the past 10 years was examined, and future directions for policy and practice were suggested. The following data collection approaches were used: literature and policy document reviews; case studies involving regional workshops with…

This booklet examines the definition of the term "empowerment" according to academics and policymakers and the relevance of empowerment to achieving social inclusion at the national and European Union levels. The findings of a study of the theory and practice of empowerment in five Integra projects in Ireland are reviewed and used to…