Doing Critical and Creative Research in Adult Education: Case Studies in Methodology and Theory

Scholarship on adult education has fueled a high level of methodological creativity and innovation in order to tackle a diverse range of issues in a wide range of settings and locations in a critical and participatory manner. Adult education research is marked by the desire to do research differently and to conduct critical research with rather than about people which requires theoretical and methodological creativity. This entails a particular approach to how we seek to know the world in collaboration with people, to rupture hierarchical relations and to create new collaborative spaces of learning and research that encompass the diversity of people’s life experiences.

Doing Critical and Creative Research in Adult Education brings together both leading and emerging scholars in adult education research in order to capture the vitality and complexity of contemporary adult education research. This includes contributions on biographical, narrative, embodied, arts and media-based and ethnographic methods alongside the critical use of quantitative and mixed methods. This distinctive and rich methodological contribution has a general relevance and usefulness for all researchers and students in the social science and humanities, which draws attention to the importance of critical and creative participatory learning processes in human life and learning.

Bernie Grummell is a Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Education and Adult & Community Education, Maynooth University. She previously worked with the School of Sociology and the Equality Studies Centre, University College Dublin. She is a co-director of the Doctoral programmes in Higher and Adult Education. Research interests include equality and inclusion issues in education.

Fergal Finnegan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Adult and Community Education, Maynooth University and is a co-director of the Doctorate in Higher and Adult Education programme. His background is in community education and his research interests include transformative learning, biographical research, social class, equality and higher education.