Connolly, Brid
(2016)
‘Really Useful Research’ for real equality and justice in adult and community education.
Adult Learner: The Irish Journal of Adult and Community Education.
pp. 87-99.
ISSN 0790-8040
Abstract
In recent decades, adult and community education has emerged as a distinctive discipline
in its own right, based on scholarship in the quest for real equality and social
justice. This distinctive discipline is already characterised by ‘really useful practice’,
that is, critical, creative pedagogy, heavily influenced by women’s studies and women’s
community education. Further, it draws on ‘really useful knowledge’, the cocreation
of knowledge for critical consciousness. I make the case that we in the field
need to develop a distinctive research approach to underpin the discipline, ‘really
useful research’ that is dedicated to promoting emancipation, addressing inequality
and inequity, in order to counter the ways in which research has been employed
in maintaining the status quo. The article argues that research is not neutral, as
feminist research approaches has demonstrated so clearly. And research has been
used in a reductionist and instrumental manner, to implement global agendas for
private gain rather than public good. Critical adult and community educators are
dedicated to real equality and social justice, and ‘really useful research’ will provide
the wherewithal to works towards that end.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Gender Equality; Social Justice; Emancipatory Research;
Community Education; Adult Education; Educational Practices; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Adult and Community Education |
| Item ID: |
14549 |
| Depositing User: |
Brid Connolly
|
| Date Deposited: |
15 Jun 2021 15:45 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Adult Learner: The Irish Journal of Adult and Community Education |
| Publisher: |
AONTAS. The National Adult Learning Organisation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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