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The decline in foreign language learners in tertiary education is a concern in many countries. While factors influencing students' persistence in second language learning have been explored, there has been limited discussion on the potential of language programmes that develop students' self-formation alongside language learning. This study aimed to understand student experiences in a tertiary Japanese language programme that incorporated language learning with self-formation, and how these experiences influenced the students' post-graduate life choices. The study was conducted qualitatively, primarily through semi-structured interviews with three students from unconventional educational backgrounds. Data were thematically analysed using transformative learning theory as a theoretical lens. The results revealed key elements of transformative learning, such as disorienting dilemmas, reflection, critical dialogue, and taking actions for change. The process of change was recursive and evolved over time, leading to students' increased confidence and proactivity. The impact was evident in their post-graduate career choices, which were based on their new perspectives. A supportive environment, exposure to different cultures, and a curriculum combining real-life experiences with socio-cultural discussions effectively facilitated student growth. While this study was conducted in the context of foreign language education, its implications may be applicable to other disciplines.

This article traces three key critiques (insufficient consideration of emotions, insufficient attention to social interaction, and insufficient theoretical foundations) of Mezirow's theory of transformative learning in the field of adult education, with emphasis on discussions that have played out in the pages of the "International Journal of Lifelong Education." This article then shows how these critiques played a larger role in the evolution of the literature of the theory, and then it points to fruitful future directions of theory development.

Research in disparate fields of education, psychology and neuroscience suggests that emotions play a central role in learning. We critically examine research at the intersection of emotions, adult learning and neuroscience. First, we review studies in the "IJLE" related to emotions and adult learning. In particular, we focus on the impact of an "IJLE" publication that argued using neuroscience research for the important role of emotions in transformative learning theory. We then highlight recent developments in neuroscience of emotions with links to transformative learning, before reflecting on ways to move forward by combining neuroscience research with transformative learning theory.

Within current interfaith dialogue scholarship, perspective transformation towards the religious other is one of the most desired outcomes. However, exactly how such transformed perspectives come about and the characteristics of this transformation have not been adequately researched. In this study, we examine transformative learning within interfaith dialogue. Using a theoretical framework that combines Buber's philosophy of dialogue and transformative learning theory, we equate the transformative process with the dynamics of becoming "Thou." Through thematic analysis of qualitative interview data, we found that transformative learning within this context is contingent upon the creation of genuine and deep relatedness, that are constitutive of becoming "Thou." Our findings report how dynamic relatedness serves as a foundation, a catalyst, and culmination of transformative learning processes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings and suggestions for future research.

Jiddu Krishnamurti was a contemporary of the first non-European Nobel Laureate from Asia, Rabindranath Tagore. Their educational ideas and practices of reform were deeply informed by their own troubled experiences of schooling within the highly mechanised industrial model of education imported from colonial England. Both were school dropouts and devoted their adult life to building their own schools for holistic child and community development. Krishnamurti specifically focused on learning as a process of becoming a free-thinking individual outside of all kinds of social conditioning. Lifelong learning is a quest for freeing the self from social conditioning for societal transformation according to him. In this paper, we engage with the writings of J. Krishnamurti as an intrinsic quest for lifelong learning about the inner 'self' devoid of any conditioning based on national, racial, religious, ethnic, and other social divides, which trigger war and destruction. This paper presents Krishnamurti's conception of lifelong learning intrinsically driven by a call for awakening wisdom, i.e. the intelligence to realise the interrelated nature of life on earth. This paper argues that according to Krishnamurti's lived experience and writings, the whole movement of life is learning about 'self' and its integral relationship with other humans and Nature.

This article analyses a partnership approach to 'recognition of prior learning' (RPL), testing its ability to facilitate reflective discourse and identity transformation among disadvantaged workers with negative learner identities. Hitherto, the transformative dimension of RPL has mainly been analysed within the context of educational institutions. Combining the theory of transformative learning with insights from the new public governance literature, we suggest that a partnership including the public employment service, employers, and unions as well has several advantages due to additional resources and a stronger embeddedness in the labour market. The claim is tested by means of an embedded case study of a Scandinavian RPL project called 'Yggdrasil'. The Danish part of Yggdrasil applied three different partnership setups with varying compositions of staff from the collaborating organisations. The data consisted of observations of the RPL process within each setup, including a series of interviews with the Yggdrasil partners. We found that staff from unions, labour market authorities, and employers provided perspectives to the RPL process that can help workers identify themselves as having acquired competencies throughout their working lives. However, the presence of the latter two also creates an asymmetrical power relationship that can be counter-productive to the transformative dimension.

This research paper aims to examine the effects of extracurricular activities in building knowledge, skills and attitudes that attempt to develop ecological citizenship as a subset of global citizenship among middle school students. I focus on one extracurricular programme entitled 'The Friends of Nature' that was provided in a Moroccan private middle school. Adopting a qualitative research method approach, data consisted of interviews with thirty students from 7th, 8th and 9th grades and two teachers (social studies and life and earth science teacher), and were collected over the course of three months through multiple data collection tools, namely observation, student focus group discussions and teacher interviews. A series of environmental activities offered students opportunities to: identify environmental problems, promote education for sustainable development and improve their environmentally conscious behaviour, develop creative solutions, and take actions for preserving nature in their community. The data were analysed using a content analysis method. The results reveal that students demonstrated cognitive development in terms of human rights, citizenship rights and responsibilities, environmental sustainability. While the program developed attitudes of empathy, respect, solidarity, it failed to instil a sense of responsibility to act for the betterment of the world, thus being a global citizen.

In the context of flexible capitalism, lifelong learning has been posed as a pathway for individuals to accumulate skills and actualise potentials. What is overlooked, however, is that the process of accumulation and actualisation is embedded within the culture of recognition. People who are historically constructed as "the anthropos," a legacy of the colonial history struggle to appear as equals vis-à-vis the gaze of "the humantias." With this critique in view, I reviewed the field of immigrant and lifelong learning in relation to a postcolonial politics of appearance. I sought to understand how lifelong learning settles itself in immigrant consciousness, and how it shapes immigrant experiences in the West. My review points to three metaphors that speak of the challenges and possibilities for immigrants to appear: fixation of the Eurocentric gaze, re-credentialing as precarious investment, and lifelong learning as trans/formation. Together, these metaphors suggest that lifelong learning has conjured a racial contract, which ironically binds immigrants to the labour of learning and yet continuously suppresses their appearance. To unsettle this racial contract, borders need to be reimagined and crossed/vexed by recentring immigrants as knowing subjects.

In this article, I am joined by two academic colleagues to explore my personal narratives and experiences as a doctoral student, and to explicate the challenges and achievements of my pathway into doctoral studies. Positioning itself within the growing field of doctoral research, the article focuses on an exploration of three vignettes which identify important points in my unfolding stories of formation in becoming a doctoral student as an older person. This autoethnographic study draws on Transformative Learning Theory and the critical discourse understandings of Gee to examine my stories of becoming from school-leaver at 15 to doctoral student over four decades later. The study has three implications. First, it is important to recognise and appreciate alternate pathways to doctoral education. Second, that there is a need to better understand the complex formation of doctoral students within an academic research community; especially in regard to those from diverse or challenging backgrounds. Finally, the significance of seeing doctoral education as identity work and work of the soul, built as much on affective experiences and reflexivity as learning to perform and write as an academic, is key.

This paper focuses on the power dimension of social practices. The study sought to understand the literacy-related practices of a retired woman without a high-school diploma in everyday life and community activities. It drew on social practice theories, the New Literacy Studies, and transformative learning. The ethnographic approach chosen to provide a thick description of practices, involving participant observation and interviews, allowed the power dimension to surface. The study contributed an in-depth analysis of the singular experience of an adult faced with literacy challenges in power-embedded contexts, as defined in three main findings. First, it revealed unexpected empowering achievements from an adult with little formal education not usually captured in standardised evaluations. Second, it outlined three intermingled practice categories that evolved during a lifelong project: resourceful literacy, self-directed learning, and ambivalent participation in the community. Third, the participant's ambivalence provided a strong means to uncover the power dimension of social practices in the form of a dialectic between solidarity and domination relationships. Experiences of solidarity encouraging participation in literacy, learning, and community activities and of domination inhibiting participation are described. Implications point to emancipatory approaches in adult literacy, learning, and education, as well as prior learning recognition.

This paper draws on sociological and critical educational frames, particularly Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence, in order to contest the dominant model of literacy education that is driven by the premise of a 'knowledge economy'. Instead it foregrounds the political, social, and economic factors that marginalise learners. Data from two projects: an ethnographic study in a Further Education (FE) College in England and a study of community-based literacy programmes in Scotland, are probed to show how literacy classes can offer spaces to challenge symbolic violence and facilitate learners to reclaim identities of success. These changes are illustrated from the learners' views of the contrasts between their experiences of school education and literacy programmes that use transformative and emancipatory approaches. Our research demonstrates how critical education can open up spaces for a more equitable approach based on the co-production of knowledge. It is argued that making changes to policy and practice could inform and shape the literacy curriculum and its pedagogy if adult literacy can disentangle itself from instrumental approaches driven by neoliberal fusion and instead create critical space for contextualised and emancipatory learning.

Consciousness-raising practices at the heart of feminism remain one of the most vital components of transformative learning theory and provide the foundation for its constructivist underpinnings. Recently, there has been a call for educators to employ consciousness-raising practices outside of traditional classroom settings and to focus greater attention on the 'extra-rational' aspects of education--especially when working with marginalised adult learners. This is very much in keeping with engaged feminist pedagogy that allows space for emotions in learning. Reflecting on our experiences facilitating access to art programmes with people diagnosed with mental illness and addiction at the Art Gallery of Ontario, we highlight several examples of gender-related consciousness-raising that emerged. These experiences suggest that exploring mental illness through engagement with art in a social setting allows participants to deepen their understanding of art and the political implications of their life experiences. These tours also seem to serve as a powerful counterpoint to more clinical and masculine ways of framing mental health and well-being. Ultimately we argue that it is our explicitly feminist approach to transformative learning and not the existence of accessibility programmes themselves that holds the promise of redefining what and who museums are for.

Adult education in art galleries sits on a fault line, at once an apparatus upholding the affirmative aspects of museum culture cultivated by global elites, a propellant in the whirring of an increasingly dislocated set of events on trendy and consumable political themes, and a site for 'allyship' and other kinds of radical and socially transformative work. Resurrecting Hannah Arendt's question, 'where are we when we think?' this paper explores how we might move from a moment in which the 'space' of the gallery is replaced by the 'time' of the event (Helguera) and towards embedded space-times that attempt to address contemporary urgencies through situated practices that collectively analyse and respond to conditions. Drawn from examples derived from the author's practice, the paper argues for the use of popular education and anti-colonial pedagogies in the production of adult education in galleries, suggesting that such processes support groups in collectively naming and thinking through conflicts to re-shape both the galleries in which they have congregated and the worlds beyond their doors. This paper suggests that the re-construction and use of the often forgotten genealogies of emancipatory education are pivotal to doing social justice work in galleries.

This article reports on the research findings from a qualitative study of adult learners in Scotland taking part in a u.lab MOOC. As a new phenomenon in adult learning, u.lab has been extremely popular yet, at present, there exists little empirical data about either the process or outcomes of the learning experience. This study aims to provide a starting point for further study of u.lab and other emergent trends in adult learning. Here, the accounts of 12 women and men participating in u.lab were analysed using a grounded theory framework. The inductive nature of this approach allowed us to build up a picture of participant experience. Of significance in the findings were participants' relationship to course content, experience of learning in community and engagement in shaping the learning experience. We draw on Illeris' model of the learning field to deepen our understanding of participant experience and to illustrate how the particular constellation of content, incentive and interaction dimensions of learning in u.lab creates a learning space where the possibility for self-direction and self-organisation is extended beyond existing practice.

Major supranational organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union, and the World Bank have used lifelong learning as a strategy to boost economic competitiveness both at individual and national levels. In the literature related to lifelong learning this is characterised as the economistic model of lifelong learning. The humanistic model of lifelong learning, which appears as an alternative of the economistic model, takes education and learning as a fundamental human right for all individuals irrespective of their age, gender and class. However, this model is criticised as a vague, rhetorical and utopian ideal with little potential for informing educational policy decisions at national level. Using some key Habermasian conceptualisations, mainly the colonisation of the lifeworld and communicative rationality, this paper argues that three major dimensions of human learning informed by Habermas--transformative, citizenship and intersubjective--can contribute towards the development of a more comprehensive model of lifelong learning.

This paper reviews the literature on workplace and transformational learning to explore how spirituality can be accessed to encourage individual growth through the development of critical awareness while providing a sense of direction in the workplace as part of organisational learning. In communities and societies where organisations may have replaced religious institutions as centres for adult learning, the workplace continues to respond to the universal need for community and support. These elements are related to spiritual values. Still, leaders of organisations need to consider values that underlie typical workplace activities and recognise how collective engagement and workplace interactions direct personal development and ground identity. Providing opportunities to reflect on meaning and direction at work supports a transformative approach to learning and leadership that promotes cooperative working conditions, conscious behaviour and informed citizenship through encouraging attitudes of critical awareness, praxis and collective engagement in workplace interaction.

In recent years, action on sustainability has been highly influential around the globe and many now recognize the importance of individual and social learning for inspiring action and achieving sustainability outcomes. Transformative learning theory has been criticized, however, for insufficient development of the link between learning and action. The purpose of this paper is to deepen our understanding of the learning-action cycle among adult learners in the sustainability context. We consider this through insights from two studies in Kenya and Canada, utilizing a qualitative approach. Both studies employed semi-structured interviews as their primary data collection instrument and used other tools such as focus groups and journal writing. Three broad nodes of social action--individual, interpersonal and collective--are identified and defined based on the data collected. Results show that while all three types of action were evident in the outcomes of participants, individual social action was the most common and collective social action was the least. Barriers to applying learning in action are also derived from the data, including situational, personal, interpersonal, sociocultural and environmental obstacles. Factors that assist in overcoming such barriers include community support networks and skills training.

Distinctively economic objectives for lifelong education, especially adult learning and education, feature prominently in policy-making agendas and educators' practice in much of the world. Critics contend that humanistic and holistic visions of lifelong learning for all have been marginalised and neglected. The current turn of political attention to issues of planetary environmental sustainability and to global societal transformation and interconnectedness raises further questions and prospects. Two United Nations' publications in 2015: UNESCO's "Rethinking Education: toward a global common good?" and of the United Nations' "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" pose intersecting concerns for lifelong learning and environmental sustainability. This article engages with those questions in particular regard to the role of adult learning and education. It discusses a field study of non-formal adult education in Ghana. The field study contributes evidence that resiliently humanistic conceptions and practices of non-formal adult education practically succeed to foster transformation, development and human flourishing. That effective humanism gives credence to the ambitiousness of UNESCO and UN agenda for transformation and sustainability and informs international debates.

This study explores reflective experience during transformative, group-based learning among university leaders following a natural disaster such as a typhoon in two Philippine universities. Natural disasters are recurrent phenomena in many parts of the world, but the literature largely ignores their impact on lifelong human learning, for instance regarding preparing the university setting for future natural disasters. The study used interviews and document analysis, drawing on a body of interrelated works in transformative learning theory, critical educational theory and conceptions about group processes and reflective practice to understand university leaders' lifelong learning from natural disasters as experiential, transformative, reflective and group oriented. The findings document that university leaders' reflective, transformative learning depends on individuals' experience of natural disasters as disorienting dilemmas, and that reflection is facilitated by decisive group dynamics rather than only personal reflection. Facilitating a learning space for transformative, reflective learning in university settings might assist university leaders to enhance disaster risk preparedness, for instance through local policy change.

Participation has become so central to adult education for community development that even the World Bank supports participatory programming. This article analyses how participation is conceptualised in "Training for Transformation" (TfT), a Freirean-inspired curriculum used in international community development settings. TfT seeks to equip learners "to understand and take action in their world", partly by shaping the curriculum itself. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the TfT curriculum, three interviews, and published TfT case studies, the study explores what kinds of involvement and control educators and curriculum developers intend in TfT. CDA elucidates who is included in the training and how practitioners position themselves vis-a-vis learners and other audiences. TfT implementation highlights the dialectic between idealised community participation and decision making in educational programming, and educators' need and desire to develop curricular content. Specifically, within Freire's early philosophy and the TfT curriculum, there is a tension between exploratory, participatory learning pedagogy rooted in dialogue, and animators' intention to teach certain content and relay particular ideologies. This study highlights potential contradictions and complications in adult education for community development participatory discourses, and underscores the need for practitioners to consider what genuine participation entails and how best to cultivate it.

Dan Baron Cohen is a community-based art educator and cultural activist of Welsh-Quebecois origin, who lives and works in the Brazilian Amazon city of Maraba. After completing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Oxford University, he developed collaborations with young people and their post-industrial communities at risk in northern England and South Wales, and with conflicted communities in the north of Ireland and South Africa. In 1998, Dan was granted a visiting professorship at the State University of Santa Catarina in Brazil to develop community theatre as pedagogy. This collaboration inspired artistic and cultural collaborations with Brazil's landless, indigenous, trade-union and university communities, and culminated in a series of national sculptural monuments. Dan decided to leave Wales in 1999 and, in partnership with art educator Manoela Souza, has dedicated his past 16 years to the development of a "transformance pedagogy"--artistic performance for transformation based in "cultural literacy"--across Brazil and in collaboration with arts education networks and universities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America and Europe. More recently, Dan's transformance pedagogy has been applied in the areas of health, security, sustainable agriculture, creative cities and special needs, in the constant (re-)search for an aesthetics of education which cultivates a paradigm of sustainable cooperation through the arts. Since 2009, Dan has lived in the urban Afro-Amazonian riverside community of Cabelo Seco, where his project "Rivers of Meeting" forms children and young people as artists, capable of applying their performance confidence as community leaders and pedagogical practitioners inside their own schools. Deeply critical of the present industrialization of the Amazon, the "Rivers of Meeting" project has won six national awards from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture and UNICEF. This article chronicles part of Cohen's journey.

This paper reports a critical comparative analysis of two popular and significant theories of adult learning: the transformation and the deep approach theories of learning. These theories are operative in different educational sectors, are significant, respectively, in each, and they may be seen as both touching on similar concerns with learning that is profound in its nature and impact on the learner--hence the case for a critical comparison. The critical analysis focused on similarities and differences between the two theories on a set of general criteria. It found that, while there are unacknowledged similarities, the differences are complementary, each theory suggesting a different way of considering the same territory, without excluding the other theory. The analysis strongly suggests the imperative for research findings from each theory to be used to inform practice and research through the other, although the literature reveals a lack of such cross-fertilization.

This paper focuses on the results of a mixed-methods study of 13 participants in a Radical Humanities programme designed as a transformative learning space for low-income adults who have experienced barriers to learning. Using demographic questionnaires, semi-structured narrative interviews and course evaluations this study examined participants' experiences in the programme and the impact on their learning, sense of agency and future ambitions. As the first phase of a longitudinal project on the well-being and agency of under-represented and marginalized learners, this preliminary study revealed five predominant themes emerging from learners' experiences: (1) self-reflective meaning-making processes; (2) interrelated personal and communal growth; (3) appreciation of diversity; (4) emerging sense of self-as-learner; (5) renewed aspirations. This paper argues that transformative learning for low-income adults is a complex and challenging process that entails participants' ongoing negotiations of self, learning, and purpose. Understanding and evaluating the effectiveness of transformative learning within a social-emancipatory humanities programme requires attention to the programme's social context and choices faced by participants. Programme participation fosters increased well-being, deeper relationships and hope for the future. However, these tangible benefits are tempered by constraints of individual and structural systems that, for some students, impose limitations on their ability to enact change in themselves and in their lives.

This article examines Canadian immigrant and intercultural learning as an insightful context for examining transformative learning. Theories of intercultural communication are explored, particularly the concept of transculturality and Bhabha's concept of "Third Space". Various concepts of the self are also compared, particularly two conceptions implicit in theories of transformative learning, the autonomous self and the relational self. Finally, three empirical studies from Canada are reviewed and findings discussed regarding the transformative process of "learning into transculturality" as well as the "relational self" and "relational knowing" in transformative learning.

We live in a time of constant change--in liquid modernity--and this has created a rapidly growing need for Transformative Learning (TL): we must be able to constantly change and develop ourselves in order to keep pace with the changes in our environment and life situation. However, the need for change has grown so fast and in so many directions that the term of TL has itself become uncertain or even confused. In 2000, Robert Kegan posed the question 'What 'Form' Transforms'? He advocated a new approach to TL but did not propose any new definition; this situation still remains: among several proposals for new approaches to TL, there is a general agreement that the traditional definition of the term as changes in the learner's "meaning perspectives", etc. is too narrow and too cognitively oriented. In this article, it is argued that TL should be re-defined as "changes in the learner's identity". The article explains why this definition is better and more up to date. Through discussion of range of issues, the article shows that the linking of the concepts of TL and identity open the way for new understandings and possibilities.

This essay examines one of the most intractable pedagogical problems of the Marxian revolutionary tradition: who will educate the educator and how ought the learning process to proceed. The solutions of Marx, Lenin and Habermas are critically examined towards the clarification of the emancipatory learning process. This learning process has three components: enlightenment, empowerment and emancipatory collective action. Lessons are drawn for our own time.

This article presents a critique of both transformative learning theory and critical comments on it to date. It argues that transformative learning theory remains substantively the same as its initial exposition, in spite of a raft of problematic contentions voiced against it. The theory is argued here to be conceptually problematic, except at the level of a conceptual metaphor, which latter renders its many inconsistencies inconsequential and which explains, not just its continued popularity among educational practitioners, but also it's largely being ignored as a subject worthy of serious critique.

The purpose of this study was to explore the practice of Farmer-Field Schools (FFS) theoretically framed from the perspective of transformative learning theory and non-formal education (NFE). Farmer-Field Schools are community-led NFE programs that provide a platform where farmers meet regularly to study the "how and why" of farming and engage in an instrumental and experiential learning process imbued with local knowledge expressed through song, dance and theatre. Through a qualitative design using multiple interviews and observations of the Luhya ethnic group in Western Kenya, involving participants of several FFS programs, the study revealed an intricate picture of fostering transformative learning within the context of NFE, where findings call into question some long-held assumptions about both.

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 the University of Victoria, BC, Canada. Theories of arts-informed learning, pedagogical ambiguity and productive practices inform and situate my approach to engaging adult learners in aesthetic processes of reflexivity, emphasising the situated, inter-subjective and contextual nature of socially just knowledge construction. The article outlines five arts-informed pedagogical strategies described as "designs for provocation" to explore how these aesthetic approaches support the development of creative and emergent leaders and commitments to social justice. It concludes by exploring the promise and limitations of the approaches discussed. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.)

Community-based arts projects can act as powerful learning opportunities in a variety of lifelong and life wide contexts. Many of these projects involve artists, who usually undertake a leading role to ensure that some type of transformation takes place for those involved. The impact on the leaders--in this case the artists--is difficult to identify, even if they have been involved in several community-based arts projects. In this paper I provide insights drawn from my doctoral thesis. There I explored the cumulative impact on artists who work on community-based arts projects, what transformations and learning occurred for them as a result of working on these projects, and how those experiences contributed to their identities. My study involved hermeneutic phenomenological/narrative research approaches based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 visual artists. Data were analysed using a recursive and spiralling process and were subsequently presented thematically as a neonarrative. The findings discussed in this article relate to the artists' attempts at reconciling aspects of their individual, social and cultural identities by challenging their own as well as the community's perceptions of artists. The cumulative effect of being involved in community-based arts practice also provided the artists with ongoing identity capital in that they came to realize that they learnt about themselves by connecting with others. The findings contribute to the emerging debate that challenges the narrow view of measuring the value of community-based art projects based on instrumental and public worth, and invites exploration of the private and intrinsic impact on individuals. (Contains 1 figure.)

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. Major findings revealed that continuous engagements in social activities developed people's learning domains such as "self efficacy and esteem", "intercultural capability", "knowledge and awareness on cultural diversity", and "democratic attitude and civic virtue". Although multicultural society is an irreversible social condition in contemporary Korea owing to the influence of magnified migration, findings demonstrate that migration itself is not enough to facilitate human learning continuously. Instead, social engagements between different agencies in informal learning settings enable people to reconstruct their life experiences. (Contains 1 table.)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of popular culture, especially prime-time television, on women viewers' identity development. More specifically, this study explores one television show, the 1962-1964 Cathy Gale episodes of "The Avengers," as a portal to adult learning. We explored how television, as a form of public pedagogy, can help facilitate the formation of a critical or feminist identity among adult learner viewers. The research questions guiding this study were: (1) How and what did women learn from watching "The Avengers?" (2) How did women incorporate that learning into their lives and into their identities? (3) How did women interpret and accommodate the feminist example of Cathy Gale? Because our purpose was to investigate Cathy Gale's impact on women, we chose a qualitative design to uncover the experiences of women who watched her in the 1960s. Unlike most television audience research conducted on female audiences, we were not researching the effects of current television viewing, but asking for life-stories of women who watched "The Avengers" over 40 years ago. Data for this study were collected over a two-and-a-half year period and consisted of interviews with contemporaneous viewers of the Cathy Gale "Avengers" episodes; interviews with scriptwriters and with Honor Blackman, the actor who played Cathy Gale; as well as numerous documents--ranging from statistics obtained at the British Film Institute to fanzines and newspaper articles of the period. Analysis revealed that, in particular historical times and situations, television viewing can become a form of critical public pedagogy, facilitating transformational learning in adult viewers that produces lasting, life-changing effects. This investigation revealed that not only did biologically born women incorporate Cathy Gale's feminist example into their identities and actions, but biologically born males whose core gender identity was female did also. This study shows the power of learning experiences found in the space between viewers and their television sets. It offers evidence of transformational, lifelong learning in living rooms. (Contains 1 note.)

Education is a key theme in a number of Hermann Hesse's novels and short stories. This paper focuses on Hesse's last and longest fictional work, "The Glass Bead Game", and analyses the transformation of Joseph Knecht, the central character, in the light of Paulo Freire's theory of education. It is argued that over time Knecht develops a critical consciousness, becoming less certain of his certainties, more aware of his own incompleteness, and increasingly convinced of the importance of teaching. Dialogue plays a pivotal role in the development of Knecht's critical awakening and his understanding of himself and his vocation as a human being. The paper discusses the relationship between conscientisation and contemplation, considers the significance of death as a theme in the novel, and reflects on some of the educational implications arising from Hesse's work. (Contains 2 notes.)

Using the framework of communities of practice, data were collected from a labor union education program (152 survey responses, 3 life histories). Despite negative early schooling experiences, respondents saw union involvement as a rationale to participate in formal education. Union education was depicted as situated learning through participation in the context of a community of practice. (Contains 52 references.) (SK)

The effect of transformative learning was studied in 197 British adults over 30 who received government fellowships aimed at individual and community change. Significant transformations involved self-validation, transformed relationships, increased educational motivation, career improvement, and better quality of life. Transitions were sustained by awareness that change is possible, necessary, and rewarding. (Contains 42 references.) (SK)

Data from an Australian evaluation of competency-based training (CBT) suggest that it emphasizes development of procedural, technical knowledge over reflective problem solving and precludes transformative learning. CBT's empowerment discourses are often belied by workplace realities. Identities of workers and vocational educators are circumscribed by these discourses and practices. (Contains 35 references.) (SK)

Explores the postmodern critique of dominant conceptions of the self in adult education: psychological/humanistic and sociological/critical. Identifies valuable aspects of the critique, for example, showing how individuals participate in their own subjugation with adult educators as accomplices. (SK)

The authors present the essential aspects composing the framework of transformative education. They discuss the general ends it promotes, the psychosocial theory upon which it is based, and the processes through which transformations are realized. Critical questions and educational virtues that serve as guidelines for implementation of transformative education are identified. (CH)

The decline in foreign language learners in tertiary education is a concern in many countries. While factors influencing students' persistence in second language learning have been explored, there has been limited discussion on the potential of language programmes that develop students' self-formation alongside language learning. This study aimed to understand student experiences in a tertiary Japanese language programme that incorporated language learning with self-formation, and how these experiences influenced the students' post-graduate life choices. The study was conducted qualitatively, primarily through semi-structured interviews with three students from unconventional educational backgrounds. Data were thematically analysed using transformative learning theory as a theoretical lens. The results revealed key elements of transformative learning, such as disorienting dilemmas, reflection, critical dialogue, and taking actions for change. The process of change was recursive and evolved over time, leading to students' increased confidence and proactivity. The impact was evident in their post-graduate career choices, which were based on their new perspectives. A supportive environment, exposure to different cultures, and a curriculum combining real-life experiences with socio-cultural discussions effectively facilitated student growth. While this study was conducted in the context of foreign language education, its implications may be applicable to other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the importance of civic lifelong education in fostering informed and engaged citizenship amidst global challenges and democratic transformations. It include the significance of civic adult education in sustainable democracies, the role of citizenship education and the need for research in the context of ongoing crises.

Preparedness for disaster scenarios is progressively becoming an educational agenda for governments because of diversifying risks and threats worldwide. In disaster-prone Japan, disaster preparedness has been a prioritised national agenda, and preparedness education has been undertaken in both formal schooling and lifelong learning settings. This article examines the politics behind one prevailing policy discourse in the field of disaster preparedness referred to as ‘the four forms of aid’ – ‘kojo [public aid]’, ‘jijo [self-help]’, ‘gojo/kyojo [mutual aid]’. The study looks at the Japanese case, however, the significance is global, given that neo-liberal governments are increasingly having to deal with a range of disaster situations whether floods or terrorism, while implementing austerity measures. Drawing on the theory of the adaptiveness of neo-liberalism, the article sheds light on the hybridity of the current Abe government’s politics: a ‘dominant’ neo-liberal economic approach – public aid and self-help – and a ‘subordinate’ moral conservative agenda – mutual aid. It is argued that the four forms of aid are an effective ‘balancing act’, and that kyojo in particular is a powerful legitimator in the hybrid politics. The article concludes that a lifelong and life-wide preparedness model could be developed in Japan which has taken a social approach to lifelong learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]