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What constitutes an "Asian perspective" in the field of adult education? Through a literature review of journal articles from 1990 to 2023 on adult education in the geographical category of Asia, I analyzed how these discussions connect to an Asian perspective. I identified five approaches through which Asian voices have been articulated in the literature: (1) distinct and shared cultural traditions, (2) ambiguities in Asian diaspora transitions, (3) local and/or historical practices applying the lens of Western or external theories, (4) local and/or historical experiences with a focus on practice, and (5) Indigenous/independent theorizing. In addition to a need to de-reify theory by contextualizing processes of theorizing, I argue for deimperialization in the field of adult education -- a need to interrogate imperial imaginaries that persist in education theorizing and practices across Asian regions and making the category of "Asians" fluid by historicizing relations of power such as colonialism, imperialism, and neoliberal capitalism.

Based on year-long fieldwork on activist-educators' work in South Korea, I reflect on how my research complicates the ontological shift in institutional ethnography: that is, the shift that emphasizes how ruling relations are coordinated through the very actions of people. I discuss two facets of reflective pauses. First, I discuss how the ruling relations of research practice in South Korea render the ontological shift "slippery." I argue for a need to understand the ontological shift in relation to external contexts of research instead of an individualized approach. Second, I detail the process of a comparative research design looking at activist-educators with differing levels of engagement with the Korean state. I highlight how a transitional void that emerged after democratization prompted different activist strategies. I call for a need to reconsider the connection between activists' work and institutional ethnography, where investigating activists' work provides a lens into the ruling relations.

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