Paulo Freire, a radical Brazilian educator, developed a libratory pedagogy that contributes to an important discussion on the imagination, though this aspect of his work is not emphasized in critical pedagogy and adult education literature. Theorizing a Freirean imagination as a productive educational faculty connects with the work of philosophers…

The opportunities paradigm assumes that participation in lifelong learning is positive and voluntary, yet discourse analysis reveals pervasive pressure to be permanent learners. Recent research suggests that learners may switch between discourses of compulsion and self-realization, and they may combine participant and nonparticipant identities.…