Adult Education Quarterly

Our research explored the experiences of educators who teach in a gender-responsive program for women in a jail. We interrogated how educators fostered empowerment in their classes, what their motivations were for teaching in the program, and the tensions that existed for them when using emancipatory teaching practices in jail. Findings indicate that educators used Freirean concepts to foster empowerment, were motivated to share their knowledge, were motivated to counter dehumanization, and recognized their commonalities and privilege. Trust and agency created tensions while using an emancipatory pedagogy at a jail. Findings have implications for educators teaching marginalized populations.

In this article, we explore the relationship between adult education and socioeconomic precariousness, through extending existing scholarship regarding the concept of the hidden curriculum. We analyze transcripts of 134 qualitative interviews undertaken to explore the learning experiences associated with reading self-help books in the domains of career and financial success, health and well-being, and interpersonal relationships. We find that, in addition to facilitating learning connected to the reasons for which people seek out books, self-help reading encourages people to be positive, optimistic, and confident; to stop thinking negatively; and to change their interpretation of themselves and their lives. We argue that the hidden curriculum of positive thinking both reflects and reproduces the cultural logic of precariousness that characterizes contemporary labor markets and domestic relationships, and we encourage adult educators to apply the concept of hidden curriculum to the critical study of other forms of educational practice.

The purpose of this research was to analyze oral communication patterns between patients with varying degrees of individual health literacy (how patients access, understand, and use health information) and their health providers. We analyzed a secondary data set of 68 patient–nurse provider audiotaped clinic encounters using REALM (Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, a health literacy measure), correlations, and quantile regression to look at the use of provider dialogue components: closed-ended questions, open-ended questions, data gathering—biomedical, education/counseling—biomedical, data gathering—lifestyle/psychosocial, education and counseling—lifestyle/psychosocial, and checking for understanding. Patients with lower health literacy levels were asked more closed-ended biomedical and lifestyle/psychosocial questions than those with higher literacy levels. Providers did not check for understanding with patients at any health literacy level. Implications for health literacy and adult education in the medical setting, adult classroom, and community organizations are described.

The objective of this article is to investigate whether adult education (AE) can be used as a tool in facilitating transitions to/in the labor market, using the cross-sectional Adult Education Survey of Turkey (2012). AE is defined as the nonformal education for individuals aged older than 25 years. The outcome of AE is measured by changing jobs for employed and finding a job for the unemployed. Concentrating on employed people, we analyze both the determinants and the outcome of participation in AE for the purpose of changing jobs; and second, concentrating on unemployed people, we analyze both the determinants and the outcome of participation in AE for the purpose of getting employed. We find that once young males who are already working participate in AE for changing work, independent of their education or how AE is financed, they can be successful in doing so. The results of the paper suggest that AE programs offered by the government can serve as a tool in increasing income of the less educated and the unemployed by facilitating their transition to the labor market.