The American adult education and literacy movement in the early twentieth century had its roots deep in the study and practice of democracy (Ramdeholl, Giordani, Heaney, Yanow, 2010). From Lindeman, Dewey, Laubach, Horton, to Heaney and Brookfield, a persistent theme is the indispensable relationship between democracy and adult education. For…

For Paulo Freire, a democratic education could not be conceived without a profound commitment to humanity and a recognition of the dialectical relationship between cultural existence as individuals and political and economic existence as social beings. Freire believed that to solve the educational difficulties of students from oppressed…

Participatory education is a collective effort in which the participants are committed to building a just society through individual and socieoeconomic transformation and to ending domination through changing power relations. This book describes participatory practices in many environments, including educational and penal institutions,…