Marginalized adults have limited access to learning experiences that prioritize reflection and discourse, both considered preconditions in the Mezirow-informed field of transformative learning (TL). Using narrative analysis of a staff focus group and participant interviews over a 1-year learning journey, this study shows how a literacy program in…

This Handbook provides a wide-ranging frame of reference for researching adult and lifelong education and learning. With contributions from scores of established and newer scholars from six continents, the volume covers a diverse range of geopolitical and social territories across the world. Drawing on the multiple heritages that underpin research…

This qualitative research study explores key challenges and literacy needs of adults from war-affected backgrounds. Poverty, stress and anxiety, years of formal education, and lack of English language proficiency were cited by the adult learners as barriers to fulfilling their potential. This study also presents perspectives of teachers who have…

A study explored how adults perceived program learning; whether program learning helped them enact a particular social role; and whether they changed while participating in the program. For a year or more, researchers studied experiences of learning and change of 41 adult learners enrolled in three programs--at a community college, family literacy…

Learners' views on their progress and achievement in literacy and numeracy were examined in a study during which practitioners from eight further education colleges in England interviewed 70 adults (ages 16 to over 60 years) enrolled in literacy, numeracy, or English-for-speakers-of-other-languages programs. The metaphor of traveling on a learning…

Robert Kegan's constructive-development theory of adult growth postulates three different ways of knowing (instrumental, socializing, and self-authoring) and suggests that, although individuals develop differently, individual development can never be separated from culture. The potential of the constructive-development perspective on adult…

The following 22 research papers are included in this proceedings: "Relationships between Scholarly Activities of Teaching and the Scholarly Activities of Research" (Ahmed Khaled Ahmed and James McElhinney); "Making the Invisible Visible: British Caribbean Immigrant Women & Their Learning Experiences in Institutions of Higher Learning" (Mary V.…

This document contains 29 papers and 7 roundtable presentations from a Canadian conference on the study of adult education. The following papers are among those included: "Cultivating Knowledge" (Mike Ambach); "Subsistence Learning" (Rose Barg); "Non-Governmental Organizations and Popular Education Programs" (Bijoy P.…

The following are among the 56 papers included in this proceedings: "Contextual Factors Associated with Evaluation Practices of Selected Adult and Continuing Education Providers in Malaysia" (S. Ahmad); "The Professional Ethic and the Spirit of Post-Modernism" (P. Armstrong); "Transforming the Teacher-Student…

This handbook presents the perspectives of more than 60 leading authorities on the study and practice of adult and continuing education. The following are among the papers included: "A Selective History of Adult Education Handbooks" (A.L. Wilson, E.R. Hayes); "The Concept of Critically Reflective Practice" (Stephen D.…