1st Edition
Adult Learning in a Migration Society
Migration is an old, perhaps perpetual, phenomenon. Currently, it is an urgent challenge involving huge numbers of people who leave their home in search of a better life. Differences in language, customs, and norms are often joined by specific manifestations of xenophobia born of particular differences between host countries and their current influx of migrants. In a pronounced way, then, migration reveals important societal questions・of solidarity, of identity, of transition and transformation, of human rights and obligations.
The explorations in this collection highlight individual stories of migrants, showcase innovative research methods, and explore concepts and theories that might be usefully applied toward learning needs in a migration society. Including insights from scholars across 14 different countries, this book offers an international perspective on the role of adult education in addressing migration. Such international comparisons hold great potential for seeing new possibilities in any single country, whether in Europe, North America, or across the world.
Contents
Chapter One
‘We Are All Migrants’: Migration and the Learning Needs of Society
Chad Hoggan & Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert
Section One: Developing Theories and Concepts Relevant to Learning in a Migration Society
Chapter Two
Migration and Transformative Adult Education: Reflections on Complexity, Criticality, and Counter-publics in the Age of Superdiversity
Fergal Finnegan
Chapter Three
Entangled Narratives: On the (Un)Learning about Migration and Integration in a Post-Migrant Society
Elisabeth Beck & Lea Gelardi
Chapter Four
Migration, Learning, and Its Enemies: ‘Us,’ ‘Them,’ and the Possibilities of Cosmopolitan Learning.
Linden West
Section Two: Learning During Life Transitions
Chapter Five
Exploring Adult Migrants’ Learning Needs Using an Empowerment-Critical Approach: A Biographical Research
Georgia Barkoglou & Maria Ν. Gravani
Chapter Six
The constant Negotiation of Belonging: Experiences of Aging Polish Migrants in Sweden
Małgorzata Malec Rawiński
Chapter Seven
Seeking Hope, Safety and New Perspectives: Learning and Adapting for Adult Migrants
Larissa Jõgi & Meril Ümarik
Chapter Eight
Adult Migrant Education as a Mediator of Democratic Citizenship in Postcolonial Contexts: Inferences from Adult Migrant Language Programs in Malta and Cyprus
Maria Brown , Maria Gravani, & Carmel Borg
Section Three: Learning of Society as a Whole
Chapter Nine
Embracing Transformation: Migration and Human Dignity
Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert & Chad Hoggan
Chapter Ten
Building the "Here" and "There" in Different Sensescapes: Embodied Dialogues among Refugees and Natives
Laura Formenti1 & Silvia Luraschi
Chapter Eleven
Transformative Civic Learning within Volunteering in Refugee Relief
Brigitte Kukovetz & Annette Sprung
Chapter Twelve
Learning Beyond the Obvious: Holocaust Education, Historical Education, and Remembrance in a Plural Society
Elisabeth Beck
Section Four: Reflective Dialogues
Chapter Thirteen
Where is Home? Migration, Trauma, and Adult Education: a Dialogue
Stefan Alexa & Linden West
Chapter Fourteen
A Dialogue on Migration, Critical Auto/Biographical Research and Transformative Education
Silvia Luraschi & Fergal Finnegan
Acknowledgements
About the Authors
Index
Biography
Chad Hoggan is an Associate Professor of Adult & Lifelong Education at North Carolina State University and co-editor of the Journal of Transformative Education. His research addresses the learning involved during major life changes and has included migrants, military veterans, and historically underserved college students.
Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert is on the faculty at the University of Augsburg. Having migrated from Ukraine to Germany, she researches adult and civic education in diverse migration societies and in post-totalitarian contexts. She received her Ph.D. and habilitation from the University of Augsburg (Germany), focusing on the topics of indoctrination, propaganda, and democracy.
Chad Hoggan and Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert have brought together several committed researchers from various parts of Europe, inviting them to reflect, discuss and write about one of the most urgent challenges our societies cope with today. This has resulted into a set of highly imaginative papers, reflecting on practices and theories of education, learning, dialogue, empowerment, trauma alleviation and story-telling. The book meets an urgent need in the field of adult education and beyond, where practitioners, activists and researchers continually engage themselves to create humane conditions of encounter and growth for people who desperately hope for a new beginning, respect and opportunities in a world that confronts them with many unforeseen challenges. Education professionals and practitioners will find much inspiration in this collection of captivating contributions.
Danny Wildermeersch
Professor Emeritus of Social and Cultural Pedagogy
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Leuven, Flanders, Belgium
Adult Learning in a Migration Society is a timely and welcome contribution to the field of adult education. Authors from eleven countries in Europe and North America explore the role adult education plays in the development of migration societies. Chapters address not only the nature of the learning that takes place both at the individual and societal levels, but the tensions inherent in this learning such as integration versus indoctrination, adaptation versus resistance, the benefits and challenges of receiving societies. Woven throughout the chapters is the notion that such adult learning is transformative in nature as both the individual migrant and the migration society are continuously engaged in making meaning of the migrant experience. This volume robustly captures the importance of adult learning, and transformative learning in particular, in grappling with one of the more contentious issues in today’s world.
Sharan Merriam
Professor Emerita of Adult and Continuing Education (co-author of Learning in Adulthood, 2020)
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA
In Adult Learning in a Migration Society, the reader is brought into the experiences of migrants, volunteer workers, counselors as well as researchers across different geographical locations. With a specific emphasis on the experiences and meaning making of migrants, the book provides thoughtful insights on what it means to be forced to flee one’s own home, enter a new country, and the struggle to make a new home. The chapters together provide well needed food for thought for all those who are interested in issues pertaining to migration and learning.
Andreas Fejes
Professor and Chair of Adult Education Research
Linköping University
Linköping, Sweden
A very timely book that reinforces the historical narrative that every member of society is a product of migration, a global phenomenon occurring since the beginning of recorded history. Yet, the backlash that confronts today’s immigrants must be brought to the forefront of education, particularly adult education, where advocacy for diversity and inclusion form the bedrock of the scholarship and practice of the profession. This book profiles the works of international scholars who share perspectives and experiences of migrants as they transition from their beloved homeland to find "home" in foreign lands. Highlighted in the discourse are persistent challenges, current practices, governmental responses, and the resilience of a people in transition. An important text from which to educate on the challenges and promises of migration in global contexts.
Mary V. Alfred
Professor of Adult Education
Texas A&M University
USA
