Transitions, Learning, and Material Culture

Chad Hoggan is Professor of Adult and Lifelong Education at North Carolina State University, USA. He is a co-editor of The Good Society: A Journal of Civic Studies and a co-director of the Institute of Civic Studies and Learning for Democracy. His research addresses the learning processes involved during major life changes, with a focus on migrants, military veterans, and historically underserved college students.Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert is Akademische Rätin (Associate Professor) of Adult Education at the University of Augsburg, Germany. She is a co-editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education and The Good Society: A Journal of Civic Studies, as well as a co-director of the Institute of Civic Studies and Learning for Democracy. Having migrated from Ukraine to Germany, she researches adult and civic education in diverse migration societies and in post-totalitarian contexts.

"If you had only minutes to leave your life behind, what would you take? Through the stories of twenty-one Ukrainian women who faced that question in 2022, this book shows how ordinary objects become vessels of memory and hope. It offers a compelling account of how learning unfolds in conditions of rupture. Reframing familiar portrayals of refugees, not as victims, but as agents of change and resilience in civic life, it affirms the power of narrative in rendering experience visible and affirming human dignity."Edward W. Taylor, Professor Emeritus Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, Penn State University"Heart-wrenching experiences of women who fled the horrors of war—and the cherished belongings they lost, remembered, or managed to save—form the focus of this book. Chad Hoggan and Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert give voice to the stories of refugees, interpret their learning processes with great sensitivity, and bring together three theories that have rarely been considered in combination. They combine profound insights with clear and accessible language. In a world marked by war and its victims, the significance of this book extends far beyond the flight from Ukraine to Germany."Dr. Arnd-Michael Nohl, Professor of Education and Systematic Pedagogy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Helmut Schmidt University, Germany

• 1. Transitions, Learning, and Material Culture: Introduction to the Project 2. Analytic Lenses 3. Escape 4. Things Taken and Left Behind 5. Arrival 6. Torn between Two Worlds 7. A Model of Learning in Forced Migration