In the opening article of this issue, Panitsides and Moussiou offer a study of the drivers that motivate male prisoners in Greece to take part in adult education. Prison education in most parts of the world is a major and often the most substantial, element of learning in adulthood; yet it is frequently the poorest of relations, with little coverage in the adult education literature. It is no surprise that the major factor for this cohort’s participation was escapism; more surprising in the study is that the second most significant factor is ‘learning for learning’s sake’, and this finding leads the authors to poses challenges to normative instrumental models of prison education focused on reducing recidivism and increasing employability.
Bernhard-Skala’s article examines current practices in use of digital technologies in the provision of adult and continuing education in Switzerland and Germany. Focusing on three factors, namely, information technology infrastructure, staff development and management/leadership as the most significant challenges for implementing the use of digital media, he subsequently offers up a potential future research agenda for the field in this domain. Gravani’s focus is learner-centredness in distance education offer to adults in the Hellenic and the Cypriot distance universities, and the extent to which this approach is implemented and linked barriers. Her findings based on interviews with educators and learners, suggest partial and sometimes unintentional use of the approach, and a series of recommendations for implementation of learner-centred approaches are made. Iloh’s study is also of distance education amongst adult students, in this case within a community college in the US. Her results based on interviews with participants highlight the difficulties experienced by novices in digital environments. She further suggest that the theoretical benefits attributed to online courses do not necessarily manifest themselves in practice, and that the assumptions that online pedagogy may be better than traditional approaches for adult learners may be problematic. She argues for the use of entry surveys to help institutions in planning pedagogical approaches and importantly asks institutions to consider whether online courses are equitable for marginalised students.
Wang, Torrisi-Steele and Hansman’s article explores alongside each other two popular theories frequently invoked in adult education: critical theory and transformative learning. In both cases, through a deep analysis, they have sought to ‘extract the essence of critical theory and transformational learning through emphasizing the commonalities as well as the uniqueness of the two theories’. They point in particular to the dominance of Western rational understandings of transformational learning and limitations as to what learning trajectories might be considered to positive and desirable, and ethical issues in relation to critical theory. Even so they conclude that the two theories still have the promise to add further to adult education practices.
Van Heerden, Maree, Yazbek, Janse van Rensburg and Leech focus on the continuing professional development (CPD) of specialist nursing staff in South Africa. Their purpose in offering one-day workshops to 250 neo-natal care nurses in Gauteng province to provide a platform to potentially improve the ability of neo-natal nurse to implement practice, and the study described uses the Problem Resolving Action Research (PRAR) model. The study is work in progress, offering insights in how to plan an approach in a creative way, and has allowed nurses to express their CPD needs in. a systematic way. Our final article from Mukeredzi also concerns a South African initiative, in this case of a Curriculum Framework development project for an Advanced Diploma in Adult Education. The author offers a personal reflective account of the process of self-development, and is described as something that has contributed to her and her colleagues’ professional growth.
