Adult educators are often concerned with the well-being of our students, but how often do we consider our own quality of work-life? The purpose of the discussion session this paper is based on was to provide a safe space for participants to "Gripe and Grow." Participants were invited to share issues (gripe) that negatively affect their…

Although there has been surge of interest in teacher research practice in English language teaching (ELT) context, few research studies seem to have shown the attitudes and perceptions of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers towards the impact of research practice on professional teaching practice. Adopting a sequential explanatory…

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 qualitative research reports on the narratives of six community educators and utilizes anatomy of story as a framework. The research question directing this study was: What can we learn from the journeys and trajectories of community educators? Supporting sub-questions included: (1) what are their efforts fostering adult education? and (2)…

Despite high staff turnover and a predominance of part-time positions in the field of adult education some adult education teachers create careers for themselves that span many years--even decades. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2007), teachers are the most important factor in improving student achievement. Knapp (2003) points out…

A project in collaborative teacher-based research was undertaken at Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin as a background study for eventual implementation of teacher research in the Adult Basic Education (ABE) classroom. Personnel involved included an individual who served as both a director and consultant and five part-time teachers. The…

This document presents the personal narrative of an adult literacy practitioner who has worked with Literacy Volunteers of America and a reading center in Connecticut and who signed up for the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) Teacher Research Project on Learner Motivation, Retention, and Persistence in 1998.…

The Greater Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Literacy Council (GPLC) is a volunteer-based literacy council that provides adult basic and literacy education services to the area's citizens. The GPLC conducted an action research project to determine whether adding monthly meetings for professional teaching staff and providing opportunities for interaction…

The quarterly theme-based publication "Focus on Basics" was launched in January 1997 as part of a multipronged effort by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy to connect research and practice in the field of adult basic education (ABE). The effectiveness of "Focus on Basics" as a means of professional…

This document, which is described by its author as a "critical autobiography", traces one adult educator's 15-year journey from graduate school and into the field of adult literacy and the process of his development into what he calls "an American scholar." The autobiographical narrative is developed against the backdrop of the…

Trends in the academic field of adult education were examined by exploring the collective perspectives of 52 long-time university professors in the United States. The following data sources were used: biographical vitae; written responses to an interview guide; and semi-structured oral history interviews conducted primarily by telephone. The study…