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Due to a change in higher education and adult education ideas and practices globally that have become more learner-centered, higher education is undergoing a transformation at a rate never before seen. Education has also evolved into a lifetime endeavor as the importance of higher education and adult learning has grown. In light of the fact that it offers guidance on how people can find purpose in their lives, transformative learning theory has a prominent position in higher education and adult education. By critically examining their presumptions and expectations and updating them to support higher education students' successful learning, educators can transform their theory and practice of instruction through active and transformative learning. Adapting to the changing capacities brought on by digitization, technological advancements, growing technological connectivity, global market expansion, mobility and migration, and workplace diversity is becoming more and more difficult for higher education institutions. The idea of active and transformative learning and transformative learning strategies are discussed in detail in this chapter to help readers understand their importance and function in effective teaching and learning in the transforming world of higher education. This chapter's major contribution to Active and Transformative Learning: Digital Transformation in Education is the provision of a comprehensive guide and strategy on how to successfully incorporate digital technologies into the teaching and learning process in order to improve student engagement, knowledge acquisition, and the growth of critical thinking skills.

This chapter explores the work of a library adult literacy programme working closely with other education providers in Risdon Prison in Australia. The Literacy Service operates as a form of outreach to the prison population who have low literacy levels and are not yet engaged in education or using the prison library. In this context, it is a form of radical inclusion, creating opportunities for those most disadvantaged to access learning. The library services help to create a literate environment for prisoners and provide opportunities for prisoners to increase their engagement in lifelong learning and everyday literacy practices, giving them a better chance of developing their literacy skills. Strategies explored for engaging this cohort include a range of creative projects, small group work and one to one tutoring. The Literacy Service has developed best practice approaches to deliver effective literacy support using strategies and approaches that align with research and these are adapted for work in the prison context. The Literacy Service approach is aligned with the wider prison goals of rehabilitation and reintegration and the chapter explores a theory of change to identify how prison education may be most effective in supporting rehabilitation (Szifris, Fox, & Bradbury, 2018). The library Literacy Service offers safe spaces, opportunities to create social bonds, reshape identity, engage in informal learning and set new goals – key elements found to be critical in rehabilitation. The Prison Library Impact Framework, developed by Finlay and Bates (2018), connects these elements with the theory of change model to propose a tool that may be useful to evaluate prison library services in the future.

Purpose – Our study focuses on the impacts of young adults’ financial situation and agency on success and satisfaction regarding developmental tasks (attainments in educational, work and social domains) in the context of economic upheavals.

Methodology/approach – The study is part of the longitudinal Finnish Educational Transitions Studies (FinEdu), in which high school students (N=614 at baseline) participated once before and three times after graduation (ages 19–25) while progressing to tertiary education and employment.

Findings – Agency (indicated by achievement and social approach strategies) increased, whereas achievement and social avoidance decreased from ages 19 to 25. Financial situation improved from an objective but not subjective perspective. Both high and increasing levels of agency were related to high levels of success and satisfaction regarding developmental tasks at age 25. In particular, social approach was related to educational attainment, sense of belonging, and romantic relationship satisfaction. High initial levels of agency and an improved financial situation predicted low economic pressure at age 25.

Research implications – Both sociopolitical structures and individual agency are important in shaping life course transitions in early adulthood. The apparent discrepancy between the macro-level national economic recession and young adults’ relatively high economic satisfaction could be explained by high agency in a welfare state context.

Social implications – The study shows important links between individuals’ life course and the societal context of Finland, a secure Nordic welfare state in the midst of global economic upheavals.

Originality/value of paper – Our longitudinal study makes a significant contribution to life course research by comprehensively conceptualizing the developmental tasks and considering their individual and social determinants.

The purpose of this paper is to develop queer futuring strategies that take into consideration adult learners’ needs in support of transformational and sustainable change for social justice and equity.

This paper develops the construct of queer futuring, which engages queer theory perspectives in a critical futures framework. Adult learning theory informs queer futuring strategies to support adults and inform education to sustain transformational changes for social justice and equity.

With social justice in mind, queer futuring opens spaces and supports opportunities for adults to engage in learning activities that address historical and layered forms of oppression. Building on learning needs of adults to create meaning and make a difference in the world around them, queer futuring strategies provide tools for activism, advocacy and building new relationships and ways of being-with.

The sustainability of our current system of growth and financial well-being has already been called into question, and the current pandemic provides tangible evidence of values for contribution, connection and concern for others, even in the midst of political strife and conspiracy theories. These shifting values and values conflict of society point to the questions of equity and narrative inclusivity, challenging and disrupting dominant paradigms and structures that have perpetuated power and authority “over” rather than social participation “with” and harmony. Queer futuring is just the beginning of a bigger conversation about transforming society.

Queering spaces from the perspective of queer futuring keeps the adult learner and queering processes in mind with an emphasis on affiliation and belonging, identity and resistance and politics and change.

The authors suggest queer futuring makes room for opening spaces of creativity and insight as traditional and reified rationality is problematized, further supporting development of emergentist relationships with the future as spaces of possibility and innovation.

Queer futuring connects ethical and pragmatic approaches to futuring for creating the kinds of futures needed to decolonize, delegitimize and disrupt hegemonic and categorical thinking and social structures. It builds on queer theory’s critical perspective, engaging critical futures strategies with adult learners at the forefront.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications for adults of learning in a residential context and whether the residential aspect intensifies the learning process, and can lead to enhanced personal transformation, moving beyond professional skills and training for employability.

The paper reports on research, conducted in 2017, with 41 current and former staff and students (on both short courses and longer access courses) in four residential colleges for adults: Ruskin, Northern, Fircroft and Hillcroft Colleges.

Key findings include the powerful role residential education plays in accelerating and deepening learning experiences, particularly for adults who have faced extraordinary personal and societal challenges and are second chance learners. The colleges, all in historic settings, confer feelings of worth, security and sanctuary and the staff support – pastoral and academic, bespoke facilities and private rooms are vital enabling mechanisms. Seminar-style learning creates opportunity for experiential group learning, helping to foster critical thinking and challenge to mainstream views.

The colleges’ ethos, curricula and traditions foster among students an “ethic of service” and a desire to offer “emotional labour” to their own communities, through working for instance in health and social care or the voluntary sector.

Little research has been undertaken in contemporary settings on the impact of learning in a residential environment, particularly for second chance learners and vulnerable adults. Still less research has examined the wider implications of learning in a historic building setting and of learning which extends into critical thinking, intellectual growth, transformation and change.

This paper aims to clarify the meaning of children’s participation in the relationship between children’s individual action and the social treatment and consequences of this action. For this purpose, the paper explores the integration of different theoretical approaches that can shape research on children’s participation, looking at interactions, complex social systems that include interactions, and narratives that are produced in these complex social systems. This integration allows the understanding of the ways in which children actively participate in communication processes, social structures condition children’s active participation, and children’s active participation can enhance structural change in social systems, through the implementation of promotional communication systems. The paper highlights the following paradox: the relevance of children’s action for social change depends on the relevance of adults’ action in promoting children’s actions. This theoretical perspective is exemplified in the case of promotion of children’s active participation in the education system through the empirical analysis of cases of videotaped and transcribed interactions, highlighting facilitation systems of classroom communication. The analyzed data are based on a field research in Italian classrooms regarding a specific methodology of facilitation of communication. The analysis of these data shows the ways in which the facilitation system creates the paradoxical relationship between structures that condition children’s active participation and children’s active participation that enhances structural change. The paper highlights a new way of dealing with children’s participation, based on a social constructionist, systemic, and interactionist approach.

This account aims to introduce contrasting perspectives on teaching and learning methods, and to detail the growth of new forms and vocabularies of access to learning. As we move towards the new millennium, the development of national, yet diversified, credit frameworks and systems will provide an essential underpinning for the organisational culture that will be needed to sustain the wellbeing and growth of the educational system. These new systems are already being incorporated into the practice of ‘virtual’ education. Lifelong learning has widespread support across the social and political spectrum and its importance can hardly be over‐stated as we seek to maintain competitiveness in a changing world. Increasing knowledge and understanding to serve both the needs of the economy and of individuals to play a major role in democratic life has become an agenda of necessity as well as desire. An open society requires open systems of knowledge. A prognosis for the future is submitted where the significance of part‐time modular and open flexible learning is evaluated in terms of a curriculum rooted in useful knowledge and competences, acquired at different sites of learning, including the workplace. It is argued that modular structures, using the potential offered by credit accumulation and transfer to different institutions with different missions, can transcend and transform the learning opportunities for students in a mass system of higher education which is rapidly becoming part of a global market economy and society. Continuous lifelong learning involving its key features of open access, recognition of learning wherever it takes place and the growth of new learning networks and partnerships, is at the conceptual heart of the development of the virtual university.

In a world where the continual combining of computer applications and the expansion of artificial intelligence is already necessarily changing the world of work for people, an education system that does not adequately respond to these trends and changes will render itself irrelevant. Education policy and regulation may suffer at the hand of such accelerations due to unexpected consequences and developments. However, the rapid, exponential improvements in computer hardware and software that have enhanced the rate and our ability to gather, transform, manipulate, and interpret these data in an ongoing fashion also present myriad educational opportunities. The so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution offers societies data and information capabilities previously unimagined, making it possible to learn how to combine, innovate, and imagine entirely new avenues for building responsive and intelligent education policies and systems that promote the education and wellbeing of citizens as well as improving their economic participation. These advances necessitate a growing number of educators and education systems who can intelligently respond to Industry 4.0 trends. In this chapter, some considerations regarding the use of large-scale, international datasets and emerging data analytics for analyzing policy for the governance of education are offered, and a discussion of the need for the more systematic use of data analytics as a mechanism for developing socially responsive adult learning and workforce education policy and programing.

Over one million individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will be entering adulthood and attempting to cultivate fulfilling, meaningful life experiences. These young adults with ASD represent Generation A. The workplace will be a major element in cultivating fulfilling lives for Generation A. Social interaction is an integral component for functioning within most postsecondary and occupational settings. It is necessary to understand the interaction between autistic adults and organizations to understand potential social and behavioral deficits. The workplace is inherently a social place. Understanding both formal and informal social information in the workplace may be critical to successful job performance. Fit, particularly person–organization fit, is used to address this social nature of the workplace. Understanding this interaction helps provide a means for crafting both individual and organizational interventions which support autistic adults in the workplace. This chapter provides an analysis of interventions that support those with ASD in the workplace. It is proposed that these interventions will help create a more supportive work environment for those with ASD. As important, it is proposed that the accommodations for those with ASD are reasonable for any organization seeking to improve both satisfaction and performance for all its employees. By addressing these issues, organizations have the potential to create a more satisfying workplace for all workers, not just those in Generation A.

This paper aims to link recent findings in cognitive neuroscience to better understand how andragogically informed instructional practices impact cognition and learning.

The research questions guiding the study is in what ways can the recent findings in cognitive neuroscience help to inform adult education theory, including andragogy in particular, to deepen our understanding of how andragogical instructional principles and practices can improve learning? We adopted Torraco’s (2005) integrative literature review approach of providing enough details regarding the selection of the literature and the identification and verification of emerged themes of main ideas.

The core assumptions of andragogy (self-direction, prior experience, readiness to learn and immediacy of application) have a connection to the neural networks related to memory and cognition.

First, this study provides fundamental foundations for combining cognitive neuroscience and adult learning to illuminate how cognitive neuroscience contributes physiologically to adult learning. Second, the findings in cognitive neuroscience related to the four assumptions for andragogy help to provide scientific explanations and interpretations for adult learning theories influencing human resource development (HRD), such as self-directed learning, experiential learning and role theory.

First, HRD practitioners could use the integrative approach between andragogy and the cognitive neuroscience to reduce the issues of learning activities in generation differences. In addition, cognitive neuroscience research may contribute to improving teaching and instructional techniques.

The contributions of this study is that it provides an integrative review about why and how anagogical principles work through the lens of cognitive neuroscience. Based on the findings, we suggested a model of adaptive cognitive neuroscience-adult learning structures.