Understanding the Experiences of Adult Educators by Fahy, Caitlín; Gravani, Maria N.; O'Brien, Stephen;

Narrative Lessons for Professional Knowledge, Values and Practice

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Product details:

Edition number 1
Publisher Routledge
Date of Publication 16 December 2025

ISBN 9781032888705
Binding Paperback
No. of pages190 pages
Size 234x156 mm
Language English
Illustrations 8 Illustrations, black & white; 8 Halftones, black & white

Short description:

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.

Long description:

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 is an important book in the field of adult education as it makes a new contribution to understanding the experiences of adult educators through the use of narrative inquiry. In doing so, the chapters provide an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of adult educators in a range of adult education settings in several countries across the EU. This book is to be highly recommended.

- Barbara Merrill, Emeritus Reader, University of Warwick.

I commend this book which is edited by committed and experienced adult educators, and which is written for adult educators by adult educators. Understanding the experiences of adult educators through hearing their own narratives will be valuable to all who are practitioners as well as those who support them. Real understanding and improvement in teaching practice comes through realising both the unique and the universal challenges that others have, whether they be teachers or learners. I commend this collection to all in the field.

- Michael Osborne, Emeritus Professor, University of Glasgow.

This is a wonderful and valuable volume...this book offers a wide range of insights into personal/professional/academic lives and explores many of the themes, tensions, and significant problems faced by adult educators today (and, I would add, by so many teachers, program directors, researchers, and anyone connected to and interested in adult and continuing education). Finally, I sense that in this effort to “story together,” this edited book will also offer promise and hope as we try to make sense of our professional lives and enrich the work to which we are all committed.

- Alan Mandell, Professor Emeritus, Empire State University.