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The aim of this philosophical and historical position paper is to discuss the ways in which Popular Education--folkbildning--has contributed to the social transformation of Sweden through self-directed and collaborative educational practices. One of our premises is that individual transformative learning, fostered by folkbildning, has contributed to a collective transformation of Swedish society since the late 1890s and laid the ground for a modern and coherent society with a high level of trust among its citizens.

This paper contributes an autoethnographic account of how Paulo Freire's work shapes understandings of education, social change and the possibilities and practices of social research. Drawing on connections between anthropology and education (Schultz, 2014) that underpin "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (McKenna, 2013), I explore spaces and practices through which Freire's seminal text provided me with the critical consciousness to interrogate the human experience of education and learning, and to question my practice as I transitioned from teacher to researcher, paying particular attention to learning through discomfort (Boler, 1999). The paper therefore contributes an applied contemporary reading of "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" to demonstrate its continued significance for theory and practice in formal and nonformal education, and its relevance for reimagining research practice. As a form of critically engaged reflective scholarship, the autoethnographic enquiry asks educators and researchers to question their own conceptualisations and practices of knowledge and research to consider a significant and urgent proposition: how we do the work to understand education and our imaginations of what and how it might become.

The global Occupy! actions gave some pause for thought. At first, some thought that this was a global movement that could change the way politics was conducted and maybe see the end of capitalism as we knew it. The hopes for Occupy! were high, but the highest hopes for the movement were short lived. This paper examines Occupy!'s legacy; what potential remains and where educators might go with it. An argument is presented that Occupy! became an empty signifier: a 'bucket' of discontent into which thousands of disjointed, dissenting voices and discontents were poured, ranging from the original Wall Street encampment to the Umbrella revolution in Occupy Central. The paper looks at the power of the 'empty signifier' as a galvanising mechanism and explores what this could mean for education. The notion of occupying the curriculum in HE will be explored as a unifying mechanism for multidisciplinary teaching and learning.

Social movement learning is now an established field of educational research. This paper contributes to the field by offering a critical case study of Occupy Wall Street (OWS). The paper surveys the claims made by the movement's supporters that transformed utopian subjectivities emerged in and through the process of participation, the prefigurative politics of the movement becoming an educative process of dialogic interaction and a moment of self-education through struggle. Drawing on the extensive range of first-hand accounts, and analysing the anarchist and autonomist ideas animating the movement's core activists, the paper highlights the pedagogical lacunae in OWS and reflects on what we as educators, working in and with social movements, might learn from these. What the experience of OWS points to, the paper argues, is the need to avoid romanticising the creation of alternative spaces of learning and overstating the pedagogical possibilities opened up when people gather together and occupy a space.

This article discusses the contribution of craftivism to climate justice learning through the practices of Australia's Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (aka KNAG or the Nannas). Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices. Established in 2012, the Nannas are an older women's anti-coal seam gas and fossil fuel movement that has grown to encompass intergenerational ecological sustainability activism. Data presented in this paper were collected with active KNAG members in Australia as part of a PhD study using surveys, interviews, document analysis of social media (Facebook posts, digital videos, e-news bulletins) and researcher auto-ethnography. The research identified the milieu of craftivism motivated older women to collaboratively build their activist identity, ecological and environmental literacy, and non-violent direct action activist skills. The learning ecology involved a complex web of social interactions and encounters that stimulated opportunities for active listening and critical reflection, which promoted transformative and emancipatory learning dispositions. Craftivism was analysed to be the catalyst and transformative force that activated situated experiential learning and identity formation.

In this paper, we explore the concept of Nannagogy, an innovative pedagogy of informal adult learning enacted by the activist 'disorganisation', the Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (KNAGs). The 'Nannas' are predominantly older women who undertake non-violent direct action using fibre craft, knit-ins, lock-ons, and occasional street theatre to draw public attention to the negative environmental impacts of unconventional coal seam gas extraction ('fracking') and of fossil fuel mining. We identify the characteristics of Nannagogy as a hybrid system of lifelong / later-in-life learning and a complex pedagogy of informal learning that can be understood through social movement learning theory (SML) drawing on Paolo Freire's (1970) original concept of 'conscientisation'. Nannagogy is an act of radical adult education that has its antecedents in feminist collective learning strategies such as consciousness raising as well as the formal education strategies of action learning and communities of practice. Nannagogy is highly effective adult learning practice at the intersection of adult learning theory and social movement theory. Data presented in this paper were collected with active KNAG members in Australia as part of a PhD study using surveys, interviews, document analysis of social media (Facebook posts, digital videos, e-news bulletins) and researcher autoethnography. Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices and enables researchers to better understand the complex processes of informal, situated and often spontaneous adult learning for creating and sustaining movements for social, environmental and political change.

This article explores the implications of learning in social movements on diaspora activists' engagement with struggle. Focussing on emotions within social movement learning and the connection to activists' multiple identities, the paper examines the complex terrain of learning as embodied and rooted in emotionally situated beliefs and values. The theoretical framework that informs this enquiry brings diaspora and identity into conversation with emotions in social movement learning and Boler's 'Pedagogy of discomfort'. Developing these connections contributes a new approach to understanding the emotional dynamics of activism and the implications of learning in this context on social movement participation. Based on qualitative research with diasporic accounts of participating in activism related to the continuing Egyptian revolution, the analysis contributes a deeper understanding of how learning in struggle shapes multiple forms of connectedness and the implications learning in this context can have for activists' engagement with struggle. The findings add to existing knowledge of learning in social movements through a framework where cognition and emotion are 'inextricably linked' (Boler, 1999, p. xix) and to diaspora studies by highlighting that engagement is underpinned by situated and embodied identities that shape possibilities for learning.

This paper examines the adult learning dimensions of protestors as they participate in a campaign to stop coal seam gas exploration in Gippsland in Central Victoria, Australia. On a global level, the imposition of coal seam gas exploration by governments and mining companies has been the trigger for movements of resistance from environmental groups. They are concerned about the impact of mining on their land, food and water supplies. In central Gippsland a group of "circumstantial activists" comprised of farmers, tree changers and other local residents are campaigning against coal seam gas exploration. This unlikely coalition of environmental action groups has made effective use of a variety of community education strategies. This paper commences by outlining some of the key literature on learning and activism drawing on the education tradition of adult learning. We then draw on key concepts from Bourdieu's writing on "habitus" and "field" to analyse the data from this research. We outline some of the learning practices of activists; through their involvement in this campaign, and the knowledge and skills they gain as they develop a feel for the game of protest. We argue circumstantial activists learn both formally and informally in the social environment of campaigning. Of particular interest is the role of more experienced activists from Friends of the Earth (FOE), a non-government organisation (NGO), as they pass on knowledge, experience, tactics and strategies to the novice and less experienced activists in this community campaign. We explore some of the contradictions of the protestors' identification as activists using Bourdieu's concepts of "doxa" and "Ilusio". The paper concludes by arguing learning in activism is a rich tradition of adult education and practice. However, Bourdieu's writing on field and habitus makes an added contribution to interpreting the learning that occurs in the social space of a campaign or social movement.

In this paper, we apply a framework from Nikolas Rose to analyse the politics of "doing good" in food activist education, what we call food pedagogies. We argue that a detailed exploration of food pedagogies has been neglected in adult education and in the growing field of food studies, in spite of the rapidly proliferating forms and site of food education, advice and learning in Australia and other countries. In contrast to other frameworks in adult education which focus on classifying approaches as behaviourist, humanist, progressive and radical, we deploy problematisations, technologies, authorities and teleologies. These latter "pathways" move away from an abstract idea of "power as property" and as coercive (Gore 1993) to an examination of "power as technique" and as productive. Drawing on qualitative data with three different types of food activist educators--a biodynamic educator, a health promotion managers and two farmer-activists, we show Rose's framework opens up our ideas about what can be seen as pedagogical to include the non-human and how adult educators authorise their claims to be doing good. We conclude by arguing that the differences in how each of these activists see food and health should not simply be seen as a difference in opinion but a difference in what Annemarie Mol (1999) calls ontological politics. In so doing, the paper contributes new findings and theorising on pedagogies to food studies, and a new analytic framework for analysing adult education approaches and in particular their claims to be "doing good." (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper explores the informal and social learning dimensions of activists as they learn skills and knowledge through participating in social action. In doing this I draw on Lave and Wenger's epistemology of situated learning and Bourdieu's theory of "habitus". I argue activists learn an array of community development skills in the social environment of activism. I claim activists' learning is cognitive, embodied and situated in practice. This paper is based on empirical research in Australia, where in-depth interviews were conducted with activists to uncover their important pedagogy. It explores the learning dimensions of two groups of activists. "Lifelong activists" who have generally been involved in student politics and have participated in activism over many years, and "circumstantial activists" who become involved in protest due to a series of life circumstances. This paper claims that while both groups' learning is social and informal, lifelong activists tend to develop their skills incrementally by being involved in the fertile site of student politics. On the other hand, circumstantial activists, not having had the benefit of early immersion in a community of practice, are rapid learners. They are frequently taken out of their comfort zone as activists and need to acquire new knowledge and skills urgently in order to practise effectively. Some circumstantial activists remain on the periphery of activism and never fully immerse themselves in the practices of activism. I argue there is much to be gained from understanding learning in social action, an epistemology of adult learning which deserves greater prominence in current adult education discourse. (Contains 4 endnotes.)

The 21st century has seen renewed interest in activism, community development and social change globally (Kenny 2006). This paper outlines the educational significance of the learning practices of activists as they engage within and against the state. In an era of adult education which emphasises lifelong learning and learning in the workplace, this article explores the holistic practices of activists as they learn from one another in a social context or "on the job". Adult activists act with agency, their learning is purposive; it is resolute and they are there and act for a reason. This learning is not only cognitive but also embodied; it is learning often associated with the emotions of passion, anger, desire and a commitment to social change. Drawing on current research in Australia, attention is given to an important but at times forgotten epistemology of adult learning.

Universities are funny places. They have a strong sense of hierarchy and rank. They have an amazing disparity in salary levels and status between staff, are class conscious, and are run by a large bureaucracy that oils and keeps the machinery going. They operate as educational institutions and yet also are entrepreneurial, marketing themselves in a competitive search for students and research resources. Most are in the public education sector but a few are private; they are closely scrutinized by governments and have to perform and make account of themselves to government authorities yet offer little accountability to the lower echelons of their workforce by the managerialist-inspired elite upper ranks; and have had to come to grips with enormous social, political and cultural change to the world, nation and local contexts. Universities are just as diverse, contradictory and complex as any social institution or social phenomena. Hang about--for a researcher that means they are themselves a potential research question. It even poses a question for a doctoral study. In this article, the author, having worked in such institutions, describes universities as she sees them. She is currently designing a research project which will investigate the university as a community engaging in activism for social justice.

This paper contributes an autoethnographic account of how Paulo Freire's work shapes understandings of education, social change and the possibilities and practices of social research. Drawing on connections between anthropology and education (Schultz, 2014) that underpin Pedagogy of the Oppressed (McKenna, 2013), I explore spaces and practices through which Freire's seminal text provided me with the critical consciousness to interrogate the human experience of education and learning, and to question my practice as I transitioned from teacher to researcher, paying particular attention to learning through discomfort (Boler, 1999). The paper therefore contributes an applied contemporary reading of Pedagogy of the Oppressed to demonstrate its continued significance for theory and practice in formal and nonformal education, and its relevance for reimagining research practice. As a form of critically engaged reflective scholarship, the autoethnographic enquiry asks educators and researchers to question their own conceptualisations and practices of knowledge and research to consider a significant and urgent proposition: how we do the work to understand education and our imaginations of what and how it might become. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the concept of Nannagogy, an innovative pedagogy of informal adult learning enacted by the activist 'disorganisation', the Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (KNAGs). The 'Nannas' are predominantly older women who undertake non-violent direct action using fibre craft, knit-ins, lock-ons, and occasional street theatre to draw public attention to the negative environmental impacts of unconventional coal seam gas extraction ('fracking') and of fossil fuel mining. We identify the characteristics of Nannagogy as a hybrid system of lifelong / later-in-life learning and a complex pedagogy of informal learning that can be understood through social movement learning theory (SML) drawing on Paolo Freire's (1970) original concept of 'conscientisation'. Nannagogy is an act of radical adult education that has its antecedents in feminist collective learning strategies such as consciousness raising as well as the formal education strategies of action learning and communities of practice. Nannagogy is highly effective adult learning practice at the intersection of adult learning theory and social movement theory. Data presented in this paper were collected with active KNAG members in Australia as part of a PhD study using surveys, interviews, document analysis of social media (Facebook posts, digital videos, e-news bulletins) and researcher autoethnography. Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices and enables researchers to better understand the complex processes of informal, situated and often spontaneous adult learning for creating and sustaining movements for social, environmental and political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the adult learning dimensions of protestors as they participate in a campaign to stop coal seam gas exploration in Gippsland in Central Victoria, Australia. On a global level, the imposition of coal seam gas exploration by governments and mining companies has been the trigger for movements of resistance from environmental groups. They are concerned about the impact of mining on their land, food and water supplies. In central Gippsland a group of 'circumstantial activists' comprised of farmers, tree changers and other local residents are campaigning against coal seam gas exploration. This unlikely coalition of environmental action groups has made effective use of a variety of community education strategies. This paper commences by outlining some of the key literature on learning and activism drawing on the education tradition of adult learning. We then draw on key concepts from Bourdieu's writing on 'habitus' and 'field' to analyse the data from this research. We outline some of the learning practices of activists; through their involvement in this campaign, and the knowledge and skills they gain as they develop a feel for the game of protest. We argue circumstantial activists learn both formally and informally in the social environment of campaigning. Of particular interest is the role of more experienced activists from Friends of the Earth (FOE), a non-government organisation (NGO), as they pass on knowledge, experience, tactics and strategies to the novice and less experienced activists in this community campaign. We explore some of the contradictions of the protestors' identification as activists using Bourdieu's concepts of 'doxa' and 'Ilusio'. The paper concludes by arguing learning in activism is a rich tradition of adult education and practice. However, Bourdieu's writing on field and habitus makes an added contribution to interpreting the learning that occurs in the social space of a campaign or social movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the implications of learning in social movements on diaspora activists' engagement with struggle. Focussing on emotions within social movement learning and the connection to activists' multiple identities, the paper examines the complex terrain of learning as embodied and rooted in emotionally situated beliefs and values. The theoretical framework that informs this enquiry brings diaspora and identity into conversation with emotions in social movement learning and Boler's 'Pedagogy of discomfort'. Developing these connections contributes a new approach to understanding the emotional dynamics of activism and the implications of learning in this context on social movement participation. Based on qualitative research with diasporic accounts of participating in activism related to the continuing Egyptian revolution, the analysis contributes a deeper understanding of how learning in struggle shapes multiple forms of connectedness and the implications learning in this context can have for activists' engagement with struggle. The findings add to existing knowledge of learning in social movements through a framework where cognition and emotion are 'inextricably linked' (Boler, 1999, p. xix) and to diaspora studies by highlighting that engagement is underpinned by situated and embodied identities that shape possibilities for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 21st century has seen renewed interest in activism, community development and social change globally (Kenny 2006). This paper outlines the educational significance of the learning practices of activists as they engage within and against the state. In an era of adult education which emphasises lifelong learning and learning in the workplace, this article explores the holistic practices of activists as they learn from one another in a social context or 'on the job'. Adult activists act with agency, their learning is purposive; it is resolute and they are there and act for a reason. This learning is not only cognitive but also embodied; it is learning often associated with the emotions of passion, anger, desire and a commitment to social change. Drawing on current research in Australia, attention is given to an important but at times forgotten epistemology of adult learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]