Beyond redemption? Locating the experience of adult learners and educators

Abstract

O'Sullivan's critique of what he terms 'redemptive' approaches to adult education is based on its 'vanguardism, imited reflexivity and circumscribed student agency' (2008, p.21). Such ideas and discourses are at work in adult education influenced by the pervasive influence of Catholic social teaching in Ireland that O'Sullivan describes. Just how deeply rooted this redemptive phenomenon is amongst religious and secular Irish educators has been critically explored by Hussey (1999, p.44) based on his experience in community theatre