The development of a continuing vocational training programme at the Information Satellite Systems Joint-Stock Company (ISS JSC) during the transition from the planned Soviet economy to what is now called the Russian market economy is briefly outlined. How the collapse of a planned economy led to the degradation of engineering higher education…

The aim of this paper is to explore the historical representations of adulthood, citizenship and the ideal social bonds of an individual and the society in the transforming moral orders of Finnish adult education. The research is based on a thematic reading of data, which consist of texts written during the past 150 years by theorists of adult…

The article explores how education promotes social change. Using the philosophical foundations of adult education outlined by Elias and Merriam (2001, "Philosophical foundations of adult education" (3rd ed.), Krieger) as an analytical framework, the article compares the similarities and differences between popular education forms in two…

How might an arts-informed pedagogy in a leadership development programme work to inspire, create and educate the leaders needed for creating more socially just and inclusive communities? This self-study explores how a post-secondary educator has integrated arts-informed approaches to teaching and learning in a leadership development programme at…

Starting from the premise that Paulo Freire's capacity for hope in the face of personal struggle and exile issued from his spirituality, this paper examines Freire's spirituality through the lens of Michael Dantley's concept of critical spirituality. The concept of spirituality as discussed in the literature is explored, followed by an explication…

This study examined the relationship between the 1997 UPE policy and regional educational and poverty inequality and its impact on lifelong learning through a one-year field based critical ethnography in Uganda, between June 2007 and May 2008. It drew on the Government's assumption that through UPE the twin goals of the universalisation of primary…

This paper discusses how using feature films in a graduate university subject for adult educators can pose questions about pressing social issues and develop critical thinking and consciousness. While a variety of film sources were used, the focus of this paper is on four feature films that were chosen to highlight a particular approach to…

Women's Campaign School (WCS) is a non-partisan, non-formal three-day educational programme held annually in Vancouver, to empower and inspire women to enter politics and as a means towards socio-political change. Our findings show the WCS provides excellent practical and tactical skills and an experiential learning opportunity that is highly…

The modernisation of the Western world during the last two centuries has been a mix of industrialisation/computerisation and urbanisation. Consequently, reports on the future of adult learning and adult education have been a mix on the one hand of the learning requirements that follow from industrialisation/computerisation and on the other hand,…

The focus of this article is the development of adult education. As Kjell Rubenson maintains, adult education has gone through three eras of development: the humanistic, the strong economic period and a softer version of the economic period. Based on this model, we examine whether the development of adult education has similarities across…

The aim of this paper is to examine how Korean society is being changed under the impact of migration and the kinds of learning domains that are evolving through participation in social interaction between migrant workers and local citizens in South Korea. Employing a qualitative case study, participants' changed learning areas were investigated.…

The (un)reality of open/porous borders is starkly represented/manifested in the experiences of immigrant women in lifelong learning contexts. While globalization effectively destroys some borders, it simultaneously creates new ones. State institutions respond to global reconfigurations of borders at local levels by establishing policies that…

The paper presents an enabling framework for experiential learning that connects with reflexive modernity. This framework places an emphasis on learning with others and on the role of theory, practice and reflection. A sociological argument is constructed for an alternative framework for experiential learning that derives from social theory. It is…

Despite claims that prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) can act as a transformative social mechanism and a means of social inclusion, this study reports that PLAR has become a serious barrier to adult learning rather than a facilitator. Drawing from Foucault's concept of governmentality, the study examines the difficulties that…

This article examines an important and yet neglected aspect of the relationship between higher education and the labour market in contemporary China. It does this through a detailed case study of student motivations, quality and status in adult higher education (AHE) in the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. This is a region which has seen major…