This article explores the ethical dilemmas encountered by two ethnographers in adult education research in a context where neoliberalism impacts on education settings, policies, and social justice. Everyday ethical dilemmas arise in thorny situations in which the general ethical principles ethnographers are regulated by cannot help them react or…

This paper analyses emergent issues from four conceptualisers of FEResearchmeet. FEResearchmeet claims to be a free and democratic model for building and supporting engagement with research, led by practitioners. The narratives presented seek to document and analyse FEResearchmeet as a movement across the first three years since its inception…

This article explores a method of collecting "in-situ" data created by adult migrants attending English language classes to investigate the interindividual variance of vulnerability within this population. The study encourages reflexivity to evaluate and redress the power relationships present both in the research process and the daily…

World-renowned educational theorist Paulo Freire has a decades-long legacy reaching all corners of the world. In this reception study, we ask, is there a Nordic Freire, that is, have the Nordic educators and scholars recognized Paulo Freire's works in the past decades? Our reception study's purpose is not to go into depth to Freire's thinking but…

Familiarity and distance is an issue that is much discussed in ethnographic fieldwork. This paper focuses on the topic of balancing familiarity and distance when the researcher is directly or indirectly part of the field, which in the study consists of an adult education context of two different teacher-training courses for upper secondary…

This article centres upon experiences of supervising practitioner-researchers engaged in the first year of a Customised Master of Philosophy (MPhil) programme of study. This pathway resides within a larger collaboration between the University of Sunderland's Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (SUNCETT) and the Education and Training…

This paper considers how governors in the English "Further Education and Skills" (FE) sector examined their practice as ethnographers. The paper locates both FE governance and ethnography within the challenges of the performative and Panoptic environments facing English education. In doing so, the paper explores how the informants'…

This article comes out of our shared experiences of undertaking post graduate research whilst working in the further education (FE) sector. In 2014, we established a research network within our college, with the initial aim of providing opportunities for those undertaking research to meet and discuss their work. We provide insight into our…

Participation in adult education and training opportunities over the entire life-course is necessary in international and technologically advanced economies. However, there is a dearth of literature on equitable access to lifelong education opportunities, particularly for at risk and underserved adults in the labor force. Furthermore,…

Grounded in the Self-Determination Theory, this study examines the relations between teacher educators' experienced work pressure and opportunities for professional growth, their work related basic needs satisfaction (i.e. autonomy, competence and relatedness) and their researcherly disposition (i.e. being a smart consumer of research, being able…

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 paper examines the contribution of William Boyd (1874-1962) to the development of educational studies in the first half of the twentieth century. It traces his involvement in, and contribution to, many different fields of enquiry that were important in the subsequent evolution of education as an academic discipline. As Head of the Education…

The American Association for Adult Continuing Education Conference Theme Adaptability, Flexibility, and Sustainability--Adult Education in Dynamic Times is a reflection of the association's global commitment to Transforming Lives and Communities across the spectrum. For the past three years, the American Association has worked to codify and…

Vocational education and training (VET) systems differ internationally regarding how practitioners are required to hold qualifications to teach, or undertake continuing professional development. Few require the undertaking of research into professional practice, although in some cases there are strategies to encourage and enhance this. This…

This article reports on the findings of a quantitative survey of North American adult education faculty and a textual analysis of websites of adult education graduate programs in North America conducted in the fall of 2013. This study examined background information about adult education faculty and programs; the nature of faculty work interests,…