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- Combating ageism through adult education and learningPublication . Fragoso, António; Fonseca, JoséliaThe demographic data and projections show that the world is ageing at a high pace and that this has transversal consequences to society. The available data on ageism show that it constitutes the most prevalent form of discrimination in Europe. Whilst this seems logical because ageism, potentially, affects everybody (unlike sexism or racism), public debates on the phenomenon are rare. The awareness of people of its importance is minimal, the resources and investigation devoted to understanding it are relatively small and the initiatives towards combating ageism are not enough. There is a mismatch between the dimension of the phenomenon and the attention that we have given it. Ageism has various negative consequences for the older adults themselves; for the institutions at large (but especially for the working world institutions) and for countries. In a fast-ageing world that will witness structural changes in age groups, ageism is a complex phenomenon that needs to be counteracted. So far, in Europe, combating ageism through law and public policy seems to have produced poor results. However, the literature shows that adult education and learning can provide very effective means to improve the mutual knowledge between generations, combat myths and prejudice and deconstruct age-based stereotypes.
- Editorial: the changing landscapes of literacy and adult educationPublication . Tett, Lyn; Merrill, Barbara; Almeida, António Fragoso deLiteracy, numeracy and language learning has always had a central place in adult education theory and practice. Over the various historical moments and contexts, its meaning, uses and importance have been changing considerably. It is difficult, therefore, to build a consistent and complete road map to literacy and adult education that takes into account every trend, theoretical approach and practical experience.
- The rise and fall of adult community education in PortugalPublication . Almeida, António Fragoso de; Valadas, Sandra T.In this article, we intend to reflect on community education in Portugal. We analyse the background of the emergence of community education in the aftermath of the revolution of 1974, examine the main reasons that contributed to its dissemination, and identify its characteristics. We present a case study that illustrates both the rise and the fall of community education. The original investigation was a multiple case study. To gather information, we used non-structured interviews, informal conversations, observation, and document analysis. To continue the original investigation, we used biographical research, which allowed us to obtain more data on some of the key individuals and, at the same time, to improve our knowledge of the communities. Our results show that the period between 1985 and 2005 (roughly) constituted a very important period for community education. National phenomena, European funding programmes, and a notion of adult education that was very close to popular education aided civil society organisations to work with communities with interesting results in terms of social change. After 2005, changes in European social policy, neoliberalism affecting the power of civil society, and a new version of adult education (influenced by lifelong learning) partially caused the fall of community education.