This article applies system theory to the analysis of the relationship between the EU and candidate country Serbia, with a focus on adult education policy. The study explores how the peripheral status of Serbia with its hybrid political regime combining autocratic and democratic features leads to the hybridisation of its adult education system,…

This paper examines emerging discourses and practices of quality assurance in English Further Education (FE), a sector currently undergoing significant change. Using a broadly ethnographic approach and Foucauldian theories of power, we discuss how 'documentisation' contributes to governance techniques in a specific institutional context.…

This paper performs a critical examination of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF), which was accompanied by an Inspection Handbook for Further Education and Skills, and argues that this policy document reinforces the neoliberal project in education. Drawing on concepts from Michel Foucault's analysis of the nature and effects of…

Certain environments are 'outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality' (Foucault, Diacritics 16, 22-27, 1986, p. 24). Foucault calls such places 'heterotopias' and offers six principles to help define them. Here, we propose that Chinese adult higher education is a heterotopic space. Chinese adult…

Civil society organisations were well organised in the sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) held in Belém in 2009, and influential in framing a powerful agenda for transforming adult education. Despite some successes, however, there were also frustrations in the drafting of the Belém Framework for Action (BFA). Drawing…

At a time of the British government's heightened interest in Further Education (FE) college governance, this paper explores Academic Staff Governor (ASG)'s professional and power status at three colleges in England. The study draws upon relevant literature to identify concepts related to ASGs' power and professional status in governance. An…

Human resource development (HRD) is no longer about simply acquiring the skills needed to perform a task and is now a tool which can shape society and the ways in which we interact with one another. At the forefront of this transition are new ways of imagining HRD, including critical human resource development (CHRD) and critical management…

Refugee Background Mature Students, with many having come from the global South to seek asylum, form a minority group in higher education. This qualitative study uses a Critical Race Theory framework to examine the lived experience of four Refugee Background Mature Students from Angola and Nigeria with a focus on microaggresions, the everyday…

Professionalism in the English Further Education (FE) system has been traditionally discussed in terms of superior teaching practices, attitudes and behaviours. The concept of 'good work' is therefore central to this paper's analysis. Following a Bourdieusian tradition, professionalism is treated as a 'site of struggle' between FE teachers and…

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…

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against Nigerian nurses in the US is a complex issue intersecting gender, occupation, culture, economics, and migration. This study adopts an intersectional feminist and adult learning framework to explore the causes and potential solutions. Drawing on a thematic analysis of ten media reports and commentaries on…

This study utilizes the personal critical narrative of myself, a woman from the Chaoshan region in China, as the primary data source to explore the impact of traditional gender roles and patriarchal values on women's personal growth transformation through a feminist lens. Integrating feminist and transformative learning theory, it encompasses my…

This article identifies new arrangements between the state and non-state actors in the public sector, one that extends current understandings of education privatisation, the transformation of public services 'by substitution' and, specifically theories of the 'shadow state'. Drawing on data from the Political Economy of Teacher Education (PETE)…

Global education policy discourse is based on an unshakable belief that more and improved skills will promote economic prosperity, global competitiveness and social inclusion. In England, the Further Education and Skills sector (FES) has emerged as the vehicle to deliver these skills. However, the portrayal of FES as focusing primarily on…

This small-scale research project explores policy and staff perspectives which affect student parents in higher education at an English further education college. Drawing on Nancy Fraser's work on the welfare state and the social organisation of care work, the paper examines approaches to a marginalised student group. Qualitative data were…