An interview with an elderly person now living in Miami provides valuable insights on some of the problems of organizing for social and political changes and the pressing concerns of senior citizens. (Author/AM)

Reviews historical facts and figures and provides a social record of Asian Americans in the U.S. (AM)

Organized labor must merge the interests of the black freedom movement with its own agenda for social reform to promote economic advancement for workers and greater racial equality. (JOW)

In postmodern societies, oppression shifts from centralized, explicitly coercive forms to decentered, subtle processes, inducing individuals to regulate themselves. Foucault's concept of power can assist adult educators in moving from empowering individuals to escape or transform oppressive structures toward helping them resist the disciplining of…

Three books examine works of Paulo Freire and the concepts of critical pedagogy and emancipatory education as they relate to current world political situations: dominance of neoliberal politics on one hand and Brazil's election of a working-class president on the other. Freire's thinking can be a foundation for a new leftist "common…

Describes initiatives in Scotland intended to reinvigorate the tradition of social purpose and political commitment in adult and community education: Concept, the journal of contemporary community education practice and theory; the Really Useful Knowledge program; and the Edinburgh biennial adult education conference. (SK)

An approach to integrating casework and community development includes the practices of empowerment, community building, and social action. The aim is to give disadvantaged people more choice and control over their lives. (Contains 14 references.) (SK)

Traces the role of the Workers' Educational Association since its founding in 1919 and its participation in political activities and in the development of the trade union movement in Finland. (SK)

Principles of feminist community action--working against inegalitarian social relations, promoting egalitarian working relations, self-reflection; and evaluation--are explained and demonstrated with the example of the Greenham Commons Women's Peace Movement in Britain. (SK)

Posits that narrative can provide a basis for a pedagogy of social action--one that enables students to understand the workings of power and cultural reproduction in professional settings and that fosters reflection, critique, and dialogue. Reviews narrative theory that supports this claim. Concludes by discussing the concerns about and the…

Muintir na Tire was founded in 1931 as a cooperative society for rural development in Ireland. From 1937-70, it shifted to a vocationalist mode; 1970 to the present focused on restructuring the movement. Currently, it needs to press for its share of available funding for community development. (SK)

Action learning often challenges existing rules, experiments with truth, questions the efficacy of mediating institutions, and leads to significant personal and social change. Examples are found in the behavior of different people with widely varying backgrounds and motivations who embarked on paths of action learning that led them to change. (JOW)

Extramural departments of university adult education have thrived in the margins. Placement in the mainstream may stifle commitment to social purpose education. (SK)

Early stages of the development of educational philosophy in the United States involved the social reform movement of the 1890s, populism, progressivism, social science, literary history, muckraking, Hull House, and the work of Herbert Spencer and John Dewey. (SK)

Interviews with 24 women change agents who experienced feminist consciousness raising led to these findings: (1) emancipatory learning involved a transformation from alienation to agency in knowing; (2) knowing centered in authenticity was essential to critical reflection; and (3) the knowledge they constructed motivated their action for social…