Political Sociology of Adult Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 1-6

3. Reconceptualizing Lifelong Learning

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 7-11

4. A Political Sociology of adult Learning Education in the Twenty First Century

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 13-33

5. Rationalities in adult Learning Education

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 35-45

6. Adult Learning Education and Civilization Crises

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 47-54

7. Reinventing adult Learning Education

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 55-65

8. Adult Learning Education and Literacy as International Comparative Education

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 67-75

9. Transformative Social Justice Learning as a New Lifelong Learning Paradigm

   • Carlos Alberto Torres

   Pages 77-81

10. Back Matter

    Pages 83-106

    PDF

Critical Theorist Carlos Alberto Torres offers a political sociology of adult learning and education, based on Critical Social Theory and the always inspiring work of Paulo Freire. Empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated, this new book follows the footsteps of his classic book published in the early nineties The Politics of Nonformal Education in Latin America. Torres book offers comparative and international sociological analyses of adult learning and education, an area in which there is an obsession with ‘practice’ and an aversion to theory, with some notable and laudable exceptions, but which has the potential to provide avenues for social justice education in ways that no other systems and policies can. This book revitalizes social theory in education, and provides ample evidence of the power of adult learning and education, examining a variety of policy documents connected with the various adult education congresses promoted by the UNESCO, which are thoroughly scrutinized for what they bring to or omit from the policy agenda. In the context of new developments in adult learning and education, particularly the impact of multiple globalizations, neoliberalism, and the new role of international organizations in reconceptualizing lifelong learning, new evidence-based research, new narratives, and the vibrancy of social movements striving for a new and possible world, it is clear that new theoretical designs were needed making this is a must-read book.

• Paulo Freire
• adult learning
• critical theory

• Paulo Freire Institute, Department of Education-Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), United States

  Carlos Alberto Torres

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