Ever since the emergence of gifted education in the United States in the beginning of the twentieth century, the concept of giftedness has been used to marginalize, segregate, and exclude students of particular backgrounds from specialized academic programs. Among the factors that contribute to unequal access to gifted education for ethnically,…

Rooted in nearly five decades of scholarly research, transformative learning theory explores how individuals construct and reinterpret their experiences, leading to profound change. This chapter delves into the foundational principles of transformative learning within adult education, highlighting its significance and broad applications. It starts…

Purpose: The archives gathered in this collection engage in the current COVID-19 moment. They do so in order to attempt to understand it, to think and feel with others and to create a collectivity that, beyond the slogan "we are in this together", seriously contemplates the implications of what it means to be given an opportunity to…

Intergroup dialogue (IGD) is a program for facilitating conversations about social identity, institutionalized and systemic oppression, social conflict, and social justice. This article examines how IGD can contribute to adult education's socially just goals by facilitating transformative learning. An initial review of the literature, followed by…

This case examines the pressing need for systemic equity and social justice in educational structures in the society of the United States (US). The case critiques the inadequate responses to racial justice and highlights the challenges faced in enacting meaningful educational reform amidst declining patriotism and cultural schisms. Introducing…

In 2019, The Open University (henceforth, The OU), based in Milton Keynes in the UK, celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since 1971 it has pioneered the delivery of Higher Education in prisons and other secure settings. Some 50 years on, in 2021 there is much to celebrate and still more to learn. In this article we briefly review the establishment of…

Borrowing from Yale School of Management, we call this new approach the raw case method of learning. Unlike a traditional case study, a raw case is not confined in print or pages of a narrative about a challenging international business situation. It is an open, real-time information space through which case study students may wander. But it also…

This paper provides critical reflections on higher education for sustainable development (HESD) from a philosophical perspective. A theoretical framework is developed, based on John Dewey's thoughts on the aim of democracy and the critical role of education herein, and with specific focus on two constructs: 'initiative and adaptability' and…

This paper considers the importance of 'in-between spaces' within the academy for challenging dominant institutional culture and hegemonic power relations towards a 'de-colonised' university. It questions 'mainstreaming' of transformational initiatives, as this can bring about regulation, rather than the turbulence that is often what is needed for…

This article explores the Histories of Education Summer School Conference for Postgraduate Students, 2010-2015, with regard to its impact on networking and identification with the field of the history of education. It is concluded that the impact of the Summer School is transformative on the social level. The structure in which the Summer School…

Drawing on life-history interview data collected as part of a research project funded by the Froebel Trust, this paper explores the family backgrounds and educational experiences reported by nine women who attended Froebel College located in London in the United Kingdom (UK), in the 1950s and 1960s. Informed by Bourdieu's theories of habitus and…

This article describes the changes and challenges that Competency-based education (CBE) has bought to the higher education arena. Cautions are being offered about the most prominent features of the version being promoted today, particularly its hyper-individualization. CBE's recent prominence is due to better technology, a friendly policy…

This paper puts forward the model of "microcosm-macrocosm" isomorphism encapsulated in certain philosophical views on the form of university education. The human being as a "microcosm" should reflect internally the external "macrocosm". Higher Education is a socially instituted attempt to guide human beings into forming themselves as microcosms of…

This book assembles over 50 papers from the 7th Triennial European Research Conference of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA), which was held from the 4th to the 7th of September 2013 at Humboldt-University in Berlin. The title of the conference was "Changing Configurations of Adult Education in Transitional…

Ireland is in the grip of a postmodern cultural deconstruction on many levels. The traditional "grand narratives" are increasingly viewed with suspicion and disenchantment as Ireland struggles to understand its evolving identity. There is a growing need for comprehensive interdisciplinary research that will facilitate teaching and…