Helping people to better understand and respond to the complexities and multiplicities of twenty-first century realities requires higher education systems to break free from persistent hierarchical binaries and knowledge silos. Rosi Braidotti's posthuman feminist vision, rooted in radically relational ways of being, offers a generative lens for…

This commentary urges researchers and readers to rethink definitions of adulthood and its relevance in literacy research by arguing that adult readers are distinct from children and even college students. More specifically, it argues that adult literacy learners (those reading at the 8th-grade level equivalent or below and those who did not…

In the authors' conference presentation, they sought to emphasize that in his well-known book, "Democracy and Education" (1916), John Dewey's goal was to describe an education appropriate to a democracy. They point out that he also believed that his approach was a more humane way of teaching and, as many have argued since (e.g., Paley,…

This is a response to "The Ethical Knower: Rethinking Our Pedagogy in the Age of Trump" by Elana Michelson. We appreciate Michelson's critical evaluation of the appropriateness of transformative learning and the use of personal narrative, as well as the frames and tools she offers to help us deal with current challenges such as…

In this commentary, Elana Michelson responds to Chad Hoggan and Tetyana Kloubert's critique of Michelson's "The Ethical Knower: Rethinking Our Pedagogy in the Age of Trump" (2019). Michelson concludes that Hoggan and Kloubert are right to call attention to the reemergence of fascist discourse and action across much of the globe and to…

In her Forum piece, "What's an Adult Numeracy Teacher to Teach? Negotiating the Complexity of Adult Numeracy Instruction," Lynda Ginsburg set the stage of the current problem (poor numeracy levels in American adults) and the bevy of standards, legislation, and new exams that have recently been developed to address it. Ginsburg also…

The Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) results, released in 2013, have spurred researchers to engage in rich analyses. In addition to making it possible to compare skill levels among the 23 participating nations, the PIAAC data have enabled researchers to analyze relationships among cognitive literacy, numeracy, and…

Thomas Cobb's 2007 applied linguistics paper, "Computing the Vocabulary Demands of L2 Reading" dealt with whether reading alone can build an adequate reading lexicon in a second language, or whether some sort of extra vocabulary training will normally be required. In the article, Cobb proposed that in the case of adult academic ESL…

Context: It is the educator's responsibility to prepare the students to be clinicians who think and reason critically while integrating research evidence into practice. Those new to the role of faculty member, who lack clinical and teaching experience, face challenges in the classroom application of those concepts. Objective: To discuss the…

Advocates of rubrics have claimed that the inclusion of employers in the shaping of management education rubrics can help students demonstrate to employers that they have relevant managerial skills. There is an inevitable logic to this argument. Let employers determine what they want from graduates, and academics can then design programs to…

According to Debra Bragg, Amy Pickard's article "WIOA: Implications for Low-Scoring Adult Learners" (EJ1125478) offers a provocative analysis of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) that is important for any educator to read, especially educators who work with adult learners in postsecondary education. Pickard's…

In this article, Ellen Scully-Russ responds to St. Clair's analysis (EJ1072357) of the recent policy report from the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education, "Making Skills Everyone's Business: A Call to Transform Adult Learning in the United States" (MSEB) (United States Department of Education [USDoE], 2015). While Scully-Russ…

Good ideas have many parents, bad ones are often orphans. And since it is now 20 years since the first Adult Learners' Week in England, and the idea has been adopted and adapted to local circumstances in 55 countries, there must be something going for it. As the twenty-first Adult Learners' Week gets underway, the author reflects on the origins of…

This article examines the kind of space formed by philosophical discussion of education with lower-income, adult learners making their way back to structured education amidst work and life responsibilities. It explores two new social contexts that define this experience of return to education. The first is the sociability of philosophical…

This article presents the author's response to Michael Newman's "Calling Transformative Learning into Question: Some Mutinous Thoughts". Transformative learning has arguably become one of the most generative and provocative ideas in adult learning. More than 30 years ago, Mezirow (1978) introduced this idea to the field of adult education. During…