In critical and feminist educational circles there has been a lively debate between those who call for more emphasis on contextualisation and concrete practices and those who defend a more generalised view of critical pedagogy. The unceasing march of corporate globalisation and neoliberalism make it absolutely urgent that educators and organisers…

This article has three primary goals centring on a re-examination of the research frameworks we use for understanding the politics of social movements. First, I detail the ideological and methodological deficiencies of the old social movement/new social movement framework. Second, I highlight the positive contributions of research that favoured or…

In the first decade of the 21st century, efforts to create alternatives to neoliberalism emerged in many parts of Latin America. Social movements across the region took to the streets, occupied abandoned factories, and started to create new democratic spaces, solidarity networks, and social economy initiatives. In one country after another,…

The article is based on activist research working in an anti-deportation social movement, and on sixteen interviews with both experienced and less experienced activists between 2009 and 2011. The anti deportation social movement made up of a range of organisations, is identified as a left social movement situated in an historic producer…

Popular education movements can be dated back to the religious heresies of the Middle Ages but only become well-formed movements following the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. In this article I outline the scope and nature of some of the most effective of these movements which have come to inform the concept of the "public sphere" advanced by…

This article explores the significance of theories of the post-human for lifelong learning. Drawing upon the works of Karen Barad and Bruno Latour, it suggests that education has focused on the learning subject as a result of an a priori assumption of a separation of matter from meaning, the object from the subject. By contrast, a post-human…

Taking its point of departure from some critical remarks about some of the most important recent theorising of learning, this article presents an alternative framework for theorising learning as a subjective process in a social and societal context, based on life history research. The key concepts of subjectivity and experience, derived from…

This article discusses the relationship between sound broadcasting and adult education, looking at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) during the period of postwar reconstruction and austerity of the 1950s. It considers in particular one of the Corporation's most innovative educative programmes of the period, "The Fifty-One Society". This…

The notion of learning community has assumed an important position in discussions about the education of adults. The vision of a network of learning communities each producing forms of social capital is actively promoted as the key to lifelong learning. Universities are increasingly being positioned within this network. This article explores and…

The philosophy underlying assessment in a New Zealand adult education program rests on four assumptions: (1) assessment is integral to life and learning; (2) assessment involves power relations; (3) adult learning culture involves self-direction, critical reflection, and transformation; and (4) assessment should be valid, fair, and appropriate.…

Assesses the contributions of Paulo Freire and considers whether his philosophy and approach can be applied in adult and community education today. Suggests that so-called radical education has not addressed epistemological questions, leaving the nature of knowledge unquestioned. (SK)

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)

Neoconservative marketplace rhetoric commodifies knowledge, learning, and culture for economic ends. The liberal-humanist tradition of adult and higher education is threatened by the consumerist mentality. (SK)

The author analyzes the collaboration between unions and universities to provide courses in "Industrial Studies" in Great Britain from the mid-1970s to the present. He states that the main problem between these two entities was one of clashing educational philosophies. (CH)

Reviews the history of the term andragogy and compares concepts in Germany, France, Holland, Britain, Finland, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. Delineates five differing schools of thought. (SK)