This article offers an ethnographic case study of two Adult Basic Education (ABE) teachers' characteristics and their literacy instruction. It draws on the New Literacy Studies tradition and used ethnographic tools (in-depth interviews, classroom observation and the think-aloud protocol) to explore the characteristics of two ABE teachers and…

In 1947 the Truman Commission on Higher Education accentuated the importance of adult education in its report entitled "Higher Education for American Democracy". In 1970 a new US "Handbook of Adult Education" signifying the move to a more professionalised field of study and practice was published. The intervening years encapsulate a time of…

The potential of practitioner-led action research (PLAR) to contribute to professional development in adult literacies work is considered from two perspectives. First, a recent initiative in Scotland is examined to illustrate PLAR implemented as professional development. The structural factors needing to be addressed for PLAR to contribute to…

This article draws on the experience of a research project designed to bring together practitioners and researchers in further education (FE) colleges and the higher education (HE) sector in pursuit of ways of creating more accessible learning opportunities for students in colleges. Here we explore some of the assumptions underlying the…

Donald Swanson, a library scientist at the University of Chicago, has coined the phrase "undiscovered public knowledge". As a university-based adult educationalist I am particularly interested in the "undiscovered public knowledge" which lies in the spaces beyond the academy, especially in the many associations, groups and movements involved in…

While there is a wealth of literature and research on radical adult "popular" education for social change, most of it looks forward and speculates on the educational processes best able to help the oppressed of the world overcome naive passivity and become critically aware "subjects" of social change. Within a critical education framework, this…

The article explores the relationships of feminist organisers with government policy makers and within their own organisations. Based on a qualitative study of eight directors and eight board members of grassroots feminist organisations, this paper examines how the funder (State) and the women (executive directors and board members) interact and…

Using an autobiographical narrative and the writings of Foucault, the author explores how power constructs subjectivity in learners, ways to resist self-regulation, and ways to use power ethically in adult education. (Contains 57 references.) (SK)

Auto-photography and photo elicitation are techniques that can help teachers articulate often subconscious beliefs about teaching. In auto-photography, participants, not researchers, take the pictures. Photo elicitation uses photographs to stimulate the interviewing process. Issues include research collaboration, mutual visual context,…

A study of 13 female educators working aborad found their status as professionals superceded female status in host countries; trigger events emanated from personal relationships; and trigger events had four stages: communicating with family about departure, culture "shocks" in the first 3 months, cultural adjustments, and reentry into the home…

Trainers/teachers in eight occupational areas (n=167) identified ways in which they challenge or support workplace learners. Military trainers tended more toward challenge; higher education mentors tended more toward support. Within occupational groups, individual differences in trainer ideology appeared. (SK)

Explores the topics of power and authority, teaching style and method, intention, and the personhood of participants. Concludes that, if power is misused or the teaching-learning relationship is inauthentic, then teaching can symbolically violate the autonomy of the individual. (SK)

Interviews with 26 adult/community educators, business/industry training officers, and employees in occupations requiring high education levels revealed the following preferences for an adult/community education specialization: course content based on learner needs, flexibility in courses delivery, recognition of prior learner, and formal…

Argues that humanistic approaches to group instruction make group leaders act as endlessly supportive facilitators and ignores unconscious motives and responses. Awareness of the unconscious and the depths, complexities, and ambiguities of group work can challenge and encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. (SK)

Reflects on themes of two North American adult education conferences: political economy of adult education, social construction of adult education knowledge, community-based adult education, and links among heritage, memory, and adult education. (SK)