This article focuses on imagination and the role it can play in bringing about transformation. Through telling stories of feminist activism and teaching, we consider how imagination can extend our understanding of transformative learning. We examine how creative expression and various art forms have enabled imagination and consider the conditions…

This article critically reviews literature dealing with transformative learning and social justice. Based on a review of literature from major journals and conference proceedings concerned with transformative learning it offers an assessment of the significance of social justice research in the wider field. It describes how social justice is…

This article explores the impact of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and White rage on critical consciousness-raising. It argues for a reimagining of our democracy as a practice for collective liberation. This article then outlines a framework for social justice that moves beyond liberalism to self-interrogation, centering historically minoritized…

Teaching and learning in times of crisis like the Coronavirus pandemic is less about crisis management and more about humanizing the crisis. Restorying COVID begins with understanding our students and ourselves as whole people, and their multidimensional needs--academic, socio-emotional, and socio-cultural, including racialization, social class,…

This article discusses the interwoven disruptions caused by the multiple crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, violent incidents against persons of color, social justice concerns, and political and civil unrest. Discussion will center on how these crises impacted and continue to affect careers, schools, workplaces, and personal lives. The chapter will…

This article addresses the role of community learning within social movements and the fight for social justice and human rights. To understand contemporary social movements and their role in community learning and advocacy for social change, it is essential to contextualize them within the long history of Black women's activist labor and…

In the United States, issues facing immigrants are fundamentally intertwined with racial justice. Through a critical, human-rights perspective, we examine how immigrants engage with adult learning, paying particular attention to the history of immigration and policy as it frames lives often described as lived "in the shadows." Challenges…

As we have witnessed under the Trump Administration, policies can negatively impact adults' livelihoods. Now more than ever, it is imperative that adult education organizations coalesce their resources and efforts to promote policies and agendas that serve our most vulnerable adult learners. This article will explore a framework to understand the…

The fight for racial justice has been an ongoing battle for African Americans for centuries, a battle that is currently championed by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the latest civil rights movement in a long fight for Black equality and social justice. To understand the historical contexts and backdrop for the fight for Black lives, this…

Amidst ongoing racist violence in the United States, this article will recognize workplace-based efforts to act against racially motivated discrimination targeted at the Black community. More specifically, this article will examine anti-racist initiatives in the workplace by connecting these efforts to broader discussions of human rights,…

Adult educators are often seen as proponents of social justice but what does it really mean to be an advocate for racial justice in and outside the classroom? Draconian policies implemented by the Trump administration have placed additional hardships on Americans. The increasing attacks on education have clear ramifications for adults in formal…

This closing article urges adult educators to continue to question our role, our ideas, and our pedagogical strategies in order to renew our efforts to support social change and social justice.

Historically, black male students in the United States have the lowest college degree completion rate. This chapter describes the work of the Black Male Initiative (BMI) at Empire State College in NYC. Grounded in an Afrocentric paradigm, BMI provides a safe space for students to share experiences. In this chapter, the author describes the…

In this chapter, the editor reflects on the contributions of each chapter envisioning what social justice adult education, grounded in critical frameworks for democratic social change and social movement learning, could look like.

This chapter explores ways that incarcerated men and women in New York State prisons made use of both formal and informal educational initiatives to transform themselves and build a cadre of leaders who have played a key role in the movement for criminal justice reform--in the process raising questions about the role adult educators can play in…