Drawing from extensive experience as community educators, this paper discusses accreditation and its relationship to community development as informed by a cooperative inquiry conducted by tutors. Beginning with our rationale for undertaking the inquiry, it details our approach to community development and the centrality of education within this.…

The purpose of this article is to explore the role of adult education for critical democracy, in order to address the social suffering that these authors have encountered in their work as critical adult community educators. Brid Connolly and Peter Hussey explored this through dialogue, as a process of education and research. Dialogue is the moment…

This paper explores exclusion and equality through critical theory, in the context of adult literacy provision in Ireland, by investigating the sites of exclusion that exist for a group of five male adult literacy learners. A summary review of literacy theories, exclusion and equality is provided framing the reporting of data from this…

In this article, the author talks about power, pleasure and community in a learning society. He argues that the resistance against the grand narratives or universal truths of this age is best achieved through the cultivation and development of local narratives and truths which are subject to continuous debate and critical reflection within a…

This article argues that as adult educators we should not be outside the remit of our own theorising. It begins with an earlier effort to construct an ethical grammar to audit the probity of working to change others through adult education. This is situated in terms of contemporary debates about the possibility of truth and certainty in…

This article traces the development of adult literacy as a field of practice in Ireland. It examines how literacy is understood and looks at key moments in the recent development of policy showing how adult literacy has become a central focus of Government policy in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland. It concludes that while the development…

Within the course of a decade Ireland has emerged from being a country of emigration to a country of immigration. Since the mid-1990s, Ireland has undergone rapid economic expansion with the recent economic growth resulting in approximately 252,000 migrants entering Ireland over the last 6 years, according to the Irish Times (2003). While a large…

The independent Democracy Commission was established in June 2003 as a result of two think-tanks, Action for Social Change (TASC) in Dublin and Democratic Dialogue in Belfast. It was set up to consider the capacity of Irish Democracy to be inclusive, participatory and egalitarian in the twenty first century. Seeking to engage with a broad cross…

Research in Canada on the learning needs of older people looked at such issues as how to cope with changes in society, the need to make a contribution and the need to be influential. The White Paper on Adult Education "Learning for Life" notes that strategies for active ageing stress the critical importance of access to learning as a key tool in…

The Irish Economy is at an interesting and dynamic phase of its development and people are faced with major decisions that will impact on the Irish society for many years to come. These decisions are and must be made by all who are in a position to influence. Economic evolution or revolution is not new and is most certainly not new to these…