Maria N. Gravani – Författare

This edited volume will give readers an in-depth grasp of the dynamics and intricacies of the field of adult education and provide an investigation of the journeys of adult educators, exploring how their experiences shape and influence their learning and teaching methods.Focusing on the professional lives of adult educators and the core meanings that they attach to their experiences, the book uses a narrative approach to unfold the depth and complexity of the varied backgrounds and experiences that adult educators bring with them into the adult learning arena. Split into three parts, Part 1 sets out some key theoretical and methodological insights into narrative inquiry and underlines its (phenomenological) power to illuminate (oft hidden and conflictual) encounters. In Part 2, ten adult educators tell their stories of working in diverse adult education settings across eight European jurisdictions: Cyprus, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Serbia and Switzerland. In Part 3 readers are presented with the opportunity to reflect again on, and ‘read into’, these stories. Here, a number of narrative lessons are given that prompt readers to recall and reimagine forms of knowledge, values and practice that are distinctively innate to the profession. These include lessons about identity formation, cross-cultural learning, resistance and activism, coping with professional vulnerability, embracing experiential learning, acknowledging gender and broader power dynamics, discovering the power of storytelling, managing the emotional labour of adult education, and navigating growing institutional constraints.Ideal reading for all those working in adult education, this book can be used to inform new directions and recommendations for the most effective research, policies, and practices, and, seminally, be used to reimagine how we (re-)conceptualize professional teaching and learning in this field.

This edited volume will give readers an in-depth grasp of the dynamics and intricacies of the field of adult education and provide an investigation of the journeys of adult educators, exploring how their experiences shape and influence their learning and teaching methods.Focusing on the professional lives of adult educators and the core meanings that they attach to their experiences, the book uses a narrative approach to unfold the depth and complexity of the varied backgrounds and experiences that adult educators bring with them into the adult learning arena. Split into three parts, Part 1 sets out some key theoretical and methodological insights into narrative inquiry and underlines its (phenomenological) power to illuminate (oft hidden and conflictual) encounters. In Part 2, ten adult educators tell their stories of working in diverse adult education settings across eight European jurisdictions: Cyprus, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Serbia and Switzerland. In Part 3 readers are presented with the opportunity to reflect again on, and ‘read into’, these stories. Here, a number of narrative lessons are given that prompt readers to recall and reimagine forms of knowledge, values and practice that are distinctively innate to the profession. These include lessons about identity formation, cross-cultural learning, resistance and activism, coping with professional vulnerability, embracing experiential learning, acknowledging gender and broader power dynamics, discovering the power of storytelling, managing the emotional labour of adult education, and navigating growing institutional constraints.Ideal reading for all those working in adult education, this book can be used to inform new directions and recommendations for the most effective research, policies, and practices, and, seminally, be used to reimagine how we (re-)conceptualize professional teaching and learning in this field.

Learner-Centred Education for Adult Migrants in Europe: A Critical Comparative Analysis contributes to the field of Adult Education by investigating the ways in which Learner-Centred Education (LCE) is being enacted, implemented or neglected in specific settings.The book addresses the lack of research on how LCE is used in adult education as a tool for social change across different national contexts. This comparative approach is crucial for exploring the complex global, regional, national and local dynamics that account for varying implementations (or non-implementations) of LCE in different settings, for appreciating the thin or wide differences in practices of implementation, and for assessing the successes, failures and needs for improvement of diverse LCE programmes. The book’s primary focus on migration as a social process, and migrants as active citizens is useful in unravelling the convergences and divergences of different national and urban settings where migrant adult learners live as citizens, or as non-citizens, and how this intersects with their experiences as learners.This research is contextualised in a larger political context. What emerges from the parting reflection is a European scenario marked by ambivalent and contradictory relations with migrants, and an educational intervention that is located somewhere between the assimilationist-integrationist dialectic. The four cases presented (Estonia, Malta, Scotland and Cyprus) generally respond to the learners’ needs on the ground while rarely problematising the ideological stance of the state in relation to the educational plight of migrants. The final chapter introduces and elaborates on a new concept, Emancipatory LCE, to help generate a deeper analysis.

Learner-Centred Education for Adult Migrants in Europe: A Critical Comparative Analysis contributes to the field of Adult Education by investigating the ways in which Learner-Centred Education (LCE) is being enacted, implemented or neglected in specific settings.The book addresses the lack of research on how LCE is used in adult education as a tool for social change across different national contexts. This comparative approach is crucial for exploring the complex global, regional, national and local dynamics that account for varying implementations (or non-implementations) of LCE in different settings, for appreciating the thin or wide differences in practices of implementation, and for assessing the successes, failures and needs for improvement of diverse LCE programmes. The book’s primary focus on migration as a social process, and migrants as active citizens is useful in unravelling the convergences and divergences of different national and urban settings where migrant adult learners live as citizens, or as non-citizens, and how this intersects with their experiences as learners.This research is contextualised in a larger political context. What emerges from the parting reflection is a European scenario marked by ambivalent and contradictory relations with migrants, and an educational intervention that is located somewhere between the assimilationist-integrationist dialectic. The four cases presented (Estonia, Malta, Scotland and Cyprus) generally respond to the learners’ needs on the ground while rarely problematising the ideological stance of the state in relation to the educational plight of migrants. The final chapter introduces and elaborates on a new concept, Emancipatory LCE, to help generate a deeper analysis.

This book critically reflects on the context in which lifelong learning policies and practices are organized in Europe with contributions of researchers and policy makers in the field. Through a critical lens the book reinterprets the core content of the messages that are conveyed by the European Commission in the “Memorandum for Lifelong Learning”, the most important policy document in the area, which after a decade from its publication still remains the vehicle for all current developments in lifelong learning in Europe. With references to research findings, proposed actions, and applications to immediate practice that have an added value for Europeans –but which either do not appear to correspond directly to what is stipulated by the European Commission, or are completely ignored as part of the lifelong learning process– the book offers an analytic and systematic outlook of the main challenges in creating the ‘European Area of Lifelong Learning’. In times as decisive as the ones we are going through today (both in social and economic terms), a critical perspective of the practices and policies adopted by the EU Member States is essential. The book follows the same structure as the Memorandum in order to debate and critically approach in separate sections the core issues that Europe faces today in relation to the idea of making a ‘European area of Lifelong Learning’. ​