Learning, particularly learning English is presented as a key part of integration for adult migrants in the UK. England and Scotland differ in how their policy approaches to integration include adult learning. This article aims to explore and uncover the ways in which adult education, particularly for refugees and asylum seekers is embedded and…

This research aimed to examine the community stories of the Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe (EPALE) to understand and manage the de facto learning needs of adults in Europe and whether it has the functional capacity to be considered an innovative tool. The EPALE demands high-quality publication and provides users with six key…

This study discusses the continuously growing threat to senior citizens*), later called seniors, who can be isolated from society if their digital competencies and experiences are too poor in today's digital world. To cope with one's pursuits, seniors need to actively construct and maintain their capabilities in flexible ways in the world of…

This article examines the experience of six participants in the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) delegation program. Human rights education is central to this program that operates between Canada and Guatemala. Key findings from this research include participants' rethinking of their own power and privilege upon returning to…

Literacies are the social processes that emerge and sustain, from everyday life, representing and transforming the mundane and repeated activities which resist the unequal power adjustment in society. In this regard, informal learning and literacies cultivate critical reflexivity of people to perform like activists. This paper aims to explore…

This paper outlines adult learning in a rural campaign to prevent mining for coal seam gas in Victoria. In central Gippsland, largely known as the food bowl in the State of Victoria in Australia, a campaign against fracking for coal seam gas has managed to gain a permanent ban on fracking. This policy change would not have been possible without…

This article highlights the current collapse of adult learning opportunities and the key importance of adult learning to a new public education in a fast-changing world, and makes practical proposals for Labour's National Education Service.

The literature regarding the social organisation of 'adult' learning opportunities throughout the life course postulates different significations of policy concepts such as 'lifelong education', 'permanent education', 'recurrent education', and 'lifelong learning' in the 1970s. This paper examines policy formation processes in France during the…

The origins and focuses of adult education across Western countries are often about meeting adults' needs, and for purposes they have nominated, not those compelled by others. Unlike other sectors (e.g. schools, vocational colleges and universities) that were mainly initiated and sustained by church or state, adult education has long been grounded…

This paper aims to explore transformative learning processes of parents involved in informal, parent-established democratic schools, which are novel educational initiatives in Poland. The author argues that the distinctive educational ideology and the practice of such schools expose parents to new understandings of education, the child and the…

Our article was commissioned by AONTAS, The National Adult Learning Organisation in Ireland. Using a critical and independent 'outsider' perspective, we analyse and examine the contents of The Adult Learner journal (ALJ), published in Ireland by the Adult Education Organisers' Association (AEOA) and later with AONTAS1 between 1985 and 2017. We…

Discourses on adult learning and education (ALE) and in particular the GRALE Report generally have limited coverage of popular education as part of its ecology. Given both the long history of popular education globally as a necessary approach towards affecting transformation and the socio-economic-ecological transformations that are needed, we…

This article introduces Kominkan and its practice on Japanese social education and how it facilitates Japanese adult education and lifelong learning in local communities. Historically, social education was understood as all education that promotes social development and societal progress. Kominkan, as Japanese social education institutions for…

The article presents a retrospective analysis of adult learning development in Poland in the 20th century. Based on the study and analysis of historical and pedagogical literature, normative documents of the official bodies of Polish government, the periodical press of the 20th century, several stages of adult learning development, in the…

"Healthy, Wealthy and Wise: The Impact of Adult Learning across the UK" identifies a range of economic and social policy challenges confronting the four nations today and argues that adult learning can make an important contribution to addressing these and promoting a fairer and more inclusive society. Published in 2017, the report draws…