[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-588395-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-588395-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","the-war-against-people-adult-education-practice-for-critical-democracy","The War against People - Adult education practice for critical democracy","","The article examines how adult education supports critical democracy and responds to the social suffering encountered in critical adult community education practice. It develops dialogue as a process of education and research, including joint autoethnographic inquiry grounded in reflexivity and social justice. The discussion links liberatory pedagogy with praxis, exploring how educators act as activists and artists, and how truly useful knowledge and practice resist unequal status quo through collective action.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-war-against-people-adult-education-practice-for-critical-democracy/588395/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-war-against-people-adult-education-practice-for-critical-democracy/588395.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Putri","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How does the article define the role of adult education in critical democracy?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It presents adult education as a way to build learners’ capacity to challenge forces that sustain inequality and to support collective action toward an equal and just society.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why does the article treat dialogue as central to education and research?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Dialogue is framed as the moment where people reflect on reality while transforming social relations, and it is also used as a joint autoethnographic research process to examine lived experience.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What does “really useful practice” mean in the article?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It is described as the exercise of truly useful knowledge and as the manifestation of praxis, explored alongside risks of co-option and colonisation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},588395,1792900625,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962085571259,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","The War against People: Adult education practice for critical democracy  \nbríd connolly, nui maynooth peter hussey, nui maynooth  \nIntroduction  \nThe purpose of this article is to explore the role of adult education for critical democracy, in order to address the social suffering (Bourdieu, 1999) that we encounter in our work as critical adult community educators. We explore this through dialogue, as a process of education and research. Dialogue is the moment where humans meet to reflect on their reality as they make and remake it (Shor, Freire, 1987: 13) . The purpose of dialogue is to transform social relations, in the learning environment and in our community of practice, a key way of creating new knowledge. Also, we contend that dialogue is a process of joint autoethnographic research that examines experience, in order to understand cultural practices,(Ellis, et al, 2011) . Further, congruent with our pedagogies, autoethnography treats research as a political, socially-just and socially-conscious act (Adams and Holman Jones, 2008). This article developed out of dialogue that we have had for years, but which we formalised only recently. We consider dialogue as a pivot, based on Freire’s contention that education is a conversation rather than a curriculum (1972). Further, our dialogue is underpinned by reflexivity, particularly using ourselves in research and practice (Etherington, 2004). Reflexivity remains in the domain of the academic if weare not mindful that our purpose is to change the world, echoing Marx and Engles’ thesis that:  \nThe philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is, however, to change it,.  \n(Thesis 11, 1845)  \nFurther, Shor and Freire (1987) use dialogue to profile their conceptual construction, resulting in an accessible account of liberatory pedagogy. A central tenet of this dialogue is that critical educators are both activists and artists, with attention to both liberation and creativity. In our identities as educators and researchers, we regard the creative dimension of adult and community education as crucial. It is possible to talk about creativity in education as meaning a critical discussion on art, culture and nature but, more interestingly, an appreciation of the joy of generating meaning, creating paradigms, and stimulating ideas. We believe that the point of education is to build the capacity of our students to challenge the forces which maintain the unequal status quo: adult education for critical democracy. Critical democracy is embedded in collective action for building an equal and just society, significantly more than representative democracy, and more than active citizenship, which remains located in the personal and individual non-transformative activism. This capacity is nourished with really useful knowledge, (Thompson, 2007) but also with what we term really useful practice. Really useful practice asthe exercise of really useful knowledge is the manifestation of praxis (Freire, 1972) and we wish to explore this at a deeper level in this article. We will look at the scope of our work, the use of the personal to articulate the political and social, and finally, the dangers of co-option and colonisation of really useful practice.  \nThe Practice  \nMy work falls equally into both the academic and the community-based. The common theme that runs through itallis the way that Iwork. SoI would use the same method with all ofthe groups, whether they are a group of Traveller men, or a group of MA students. And the aim of that work is to try and bring some critical awareness to what it is that the individual learner sees himself or herself doing. This is done with a view to looking at themselves in the context of wider society.  \nPeter: The methods I use are inspired by Freire (1972) and drawn from Boal  \n(1998). If I’m working with MA or Doctoral students the focus of the work will be on the practitioners as theorists. If I’m working with community groups the fo","cbCaiiO4CHvbA2QT","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiO4CHvbA2QT","pdf",84537,13,"English","# Introduction\n## The Practice","[{\"question\":\"How does the article define the role of adult education in critical democracy?\",\"answer\":\"It presents adult education as a way to build learners’ capacity to challenge forces that sustain inequality and to support collective action toward an equal and just society.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article treat dialogue as central to education and research?\",\"answer\":\"Dialogue is framed as the moment where people reflect on reality while transforming social relations, and it is also used as a joint autoethnographic research process to examine lived experience.\"},{\"question\":\"What does “really useful practice” mean in the article?\",\"answer\":\"It is described as the exercise of truly useful knowledge and as the manifestation of praxis, explored alongside risks of co-option and colonisation.\"}]","The War against People - Adult education practice for critical democracy | PDF",1792065156,33]