This article, a conceptual and theoretical piece, opens a window on "playful learning" as a philosophy of education and a suite of diverse pedagogical approaches, methods, and techniques. The paper criticizes the serious ambience of adult education with its high levels of instrumentalism and performativity. It argues for playful learning…

Despite efforts, education has failed to provide meaningful solutions to the global inequality crisis. In response to the crisis, education policymakers remain committed to human capital approaches among other flawed policy paradigms. This paper advocates for explicit teaching about labor unionism in schools as a tool for enabling young people to…

Critical theory and transformative learning are two seminal theories that have incited a deluge of literature, fueled many discussions, and triggered much debate. Their relevance is enduring, and they are undeniably a great asset to the scholarship of adult education, but the two theories are far from fully developed or explored. Our purpose in…

Critical pedagogy as an instructional approach to teaching and learning focuses on democracy, freedom, and the opportunity to challenge oppressive power structures founded upon hegemonic ideologies. This article presents a critical pedagogy approach to support the instruction of adult English language learners. Such an approach should adopt the…

Adults from deprived backgrounds face daunting barriers when it comes to the discovery of intrinsically motivating aspirations and the discovery and development of talents consistent with those aspirations. In contrast, privileged young people enjoy ideal conditions for establishing productive, purposeful life trajectories spiraling up toward…

Biblical texts and ancient Near Eastern pictorial images and material culture are separated by thousands of years from people living in the 21st century. This not only represents a temporal divide, but also a significant ideological (or worldview) divide. Following a brief introduction to important principles of adult-educational theory, this…

This article problematizes the role of autobiographical narratives in adult learning and suggests that the life histories produced by adult learners in our classrooms are, in important senses, fictions. Rather than being the free expressions of experience and selfhood, students' narratives are multiply overdetermined, both by the cultural frames…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the concept of career success has been subject to reification, and identify potential implications for individuals, organizations, and societies. Design/methodology/approach: The current paper offers an in-depth analysis of the different contextual forces contributing to the…

This profile celebrates and chronicles selected themes and highlights of the ideas, scholarly accomplishments, leadership, humanity, and work ethic of Edwin L. Herr, one of the major forces in the counseling profession, for purposes of archiving elements of his history and stimulating continuity of his ideas, achievements, and dedication.

This article has three primary goals centring on a re-examination of the research frameworks we use for understanding the politics of social movements. First, I detail the ideological and methodological deficiencies of the old social movement/new social movement framework. Second, I highlight the positive contributions of research that favoured or…

The third issue of PiE for 2009 is the second general issue of the year. The interested reader will, as usual, encounter a fascinating collection of national, international, transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions. Separately, these contributions represent the fruits of hard work and dedication. Together, they provide an impressive…

Globally, Physical Education (PE) carries the stamp of neoliberalism and as a field we are keen, it seems, to accrue more of the vestiges of this ideology. While neoliberal positions and practices are not necessarily harmful to the long-term interests of the field or the students we teach, indeed it may be strategic to take them up, the field…

Discourse analysis can be used to understand and interpret culturally and socially produced meanings regarding work and to outline how specific rules and conventions can configure meaning production of work in context. The implications of some core concepts in discourse analysis pertinent to career counseling are explored, including discourse,…

Once a passionate advocate for injecting greater competition and accountability into the U.S. education system, the New York University scholar Diane Ravitch realized three years ago that her views had evolved to a point where she was contradicting herself on a regular basis. Like any good historian, she decided to set the record straight. Her…

Educational disadvantage is an essentially contested, political concept. At the same time there is a "phoney consensus" surrounding the issue, i.e., policy debates on the topic often fail to reflect this contestation. This lack of awareness of the political context to the debate is evident in relation to the targets and measures set for…