This research note presents the University of the Western Cape’s Portfolio Development Hybrid Programme (PDHP) as a nationally recognised, pedagogically grounded model of recognition of prior learning (RPL) for undergraduate access in South Africa. Designed to enable adult learners – many without formal qualifications or with marginalised knowledge backgrounds – to enter and succeed in higher education, PDHP combines values-based curriculum design with transformative pedagogies rooted in adult learning, epistemic justice and care. Drawing on five years of longitudinal data (2020–2024) and more than two decades of institutional implementation, the study illustrates how RPL can evolve from a once-off assessment mechanism into a sustained teaching-and-learning intervention that builds academic readiness and social mobility within the adult learning context. The findings demonstrate the programme’s success in facilitating academic access for over 400 learners in the past five years and more than 900 since inception, as well as its responsiveness to digital exclusion and institutional constraints, and its alignment with the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) in terms of inclusive education. By theorising RPL through the institution’s framework of innovative, digital, equitable, accessible and lifelong recognition of prior learning (IDEAL-RPL), the research note explains the underlying pedagogical mechanisms – care, scaffolding, digital empowerment and reflexivity – that enable adult learners to thrive and persist at university. It further situates PDHP within the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) discourse, offering evidence of how inclusive curriculum design and hybrid pedagogies contribute to equity, transformation and sustainability in higher education. PDHP challenges dominant, compliance-oriented RPL models by repositioning recognition as a pedagogical and relational process that fosters confidence, capability and lifelong learning. Framed within global debates on education for sustainable development, it offers a scalable and replicable approach to widening participation and transforming institutional cultures towards justice, inclusion and sustainability.
This study employed Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional approach to critical discourse analysis to investigate the potential of defamiliarisation, supported by collaborative online international learning, to help pre-service teachers in South Africa and Germany challenge neoliberalism and promote critical global citizenship. A group of pre-service teachers in South Africa and Germany (N = 54) were prompted to critically analyse capitalism’s global influence and articulate their ideas using creative illustrations inspired by the short online film Marx and I. The resulting artwork of a sub-sample of the South African student teachers (n = 7) shows their individual and collective reflections on global injustice, capitalism and human rights abuses, while that of the German student teachers (n = 7) emphasises the refugee crisis in Europe, environmental degradation and social exclusion. The research highlights the usefulness of defamiliarisation in producing context-specific criticisms and transforming student teachers’ perceptions of global socio-political environments. The authors found that defamiliarisation promotes a transdisciplinary approach to teacher education and is valuable for contesting neoliberal beliefs and prevailing narratives, thereby encouraging student teachers’ critical engagement with global challenges.
The need for cities to engage in climate action stems from a combination of factors that comprise both their contribution to climate change and their critical role in mitigating its effects. Cities are subject to the direct impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels, more frequent extreme weather events, heatwaves and urban heat island effects. These threaten infrastructure, economies and livelihoods, necessitating robust climate resilience and adaptation strategies. Learning initiatives that support climate action are urgently needed to address climate change in cities. This article presents an international evaluation of the learning tools used to support climate action in cities. This assessment is underpinned by lifelong learning theory. Using a case study approach, involving 34 cities around the world, this study describes the means deployed to promote climate action and the learning outcomes associated with them.
Free primary education and educational quality in Benin: Ambivalences of massification in a lakeside community – This article examines the impact of free education policies on the quality of basic education in Aguégués, a disadvantaged lakeside community in Benin. It sheds light on how the implementation of the free education policy – introduced to promote mass enrolment in primary education and achieve the goals of Education for All – has yielded mixed results over the past decade. The socio-anthropological analysis presented provides an insight into the transformations in basic education and the perceptions of stakeholders regarding education as a public good, as well as its delivery under the paradigm of a public policy known as “free education”. Whilst the objectives of democratising primary education appear to have been achieved, the question of the quality of the education received by learners remains unresolved, as does the development of practical norms through which teachers have attempted to regulate and reclaim control over the new constraints of massification within the emerging local arena.
This conceptual article aims to enrich critical emancipatory perspectives on global citizenship education by drawing upon the meta-competence “creation of context” introduced by German social philosopher and adult educator Oskar Negt (1934–2024). Negt is well-known in Germany (though not so much elsewhere) for his landmark work on critical theory (in the context of the so-called “Frankfurt School”), social sciences and (adult) education. The authors of this article discuss his seminal perspective with reference to two other theoretical approaches that are also widely discussed in Germany but have yet to enter the debate in education and social sciences elsewhere. First, they address the critical theory on education and liberation proposed by Heinz-Joachim Heydorn in his paper on the contradiction between education (Bildung) and domination. Second, they elaborate on the social diagnosis of the imperial mode of living proposed by Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen, which features in contemporary discourse on the emancipatory power and potential of education in Germany. Both help to underline why “creation of context” might serve as a leitmotif for a critical emancipatory approach to global citizenship education.
This article presents a comparative analysis of global citizenship education (GCE) in three national contexts: Australia, Colombia and Mexico. The systematic examination of these contexts contributes to understanding GCE through a critical and decolonial lens. The comparative study analyses national education policy discourse as a starting point for systematising experiences. It engages in an epistemic dialogue between the Global South (specifically Latin America/Abya Yala), represented by Colombia and Mexico, and the Global North, represented by Australia. Despite Australias predominantly Global North-oriented education policy, the study also examines student mobilisations and discusses issues such as Indigenous rights and planetary responsibility. These dialogues open avenues for alternative visions, rooted in critical interculturality and planetary care. Methodologically, the study draws on Stephen Balls heuristic approach to analyse education policy through a poststructuralist sociological lens, considering policy context and the influence of policy as discourse. The investigation identifies official pedagogical discourse across the three nations and examines references to GCE and its interpretations in texts, including policy documents and teacher training programmes. It also shares advancements, opportunities, challenges and policy insights in relation to GCE within each national context. The article argues for a plurality of perspectives on GCE and for recognising alternative conceptualisations beyond neoliberal approaches, which are based in epistemologies of the Global North and the capitalist global order.
This article explores the role of teacher agency for Indigenous language education through a decolonial lens. Dominant views and practices of educational development and language policy often exclude teachers as mere implementers of top-down policy. Yet there is growing recognition of their crucial role in shaping policy at the micro level. Drawing on the example of four male teachers from Nepal, the authors examine how teachers develop and use their agency to create spaces for Indigenous languages. Building on a critical and decolonial perspective, the authors conceptualise teacher agency in language policy as a collective, political and relational phenomenon which extends well beyond the classroom. Their approach emphasises community connection and accountability, calling into question individual-centric frameworks. They conclude by calling for critical dialogue with Indigenous language teachers and a decolonial re-evaluation of teacher agency that respects Indigenous knowledge systems as a prerequisite for linguistically sustaining education.
This article presents and discusses the role of global citizenship education (GCE) as a set of value-based principles and drivers for non-governmental organisation (NGO) educational programmes within the conflict-affected context of Kazakhstan, a country facing various outcomes of political, economic and social changes. These programmes aim to address the social needs of local communities and tackle the systemic challenges faced by NGOs in their efforts to combat social injustice and promote peace. The study presented here focused on a Kazakhstani NGO that has developed and practised GCE using a holistic approach for over 15 years. A thorough understanding of the role of GCE in providing specific forms of education and overcoming persistent challenges was obtained through semi-structured interviews conducted with the NGO’s leaders, independent experts and focus groups of teachers. The findings portray GCE practice within an NGO setting, discussing GCE vision, ethos, community connections, curriculum, value-based pedagogy, and teacher development and support. The article also discusses the challenges the NGO faces, including recognition of its work within the educational sector and its political position within a conflict-affected context.
This article examines how student teachers in a post-disaster context make sense of global citizenship education (GCE) through a combination of Pancasila (an Indigenous philosophy derived from Sanskrit) and citizenship education (together referred to as PPKn) in Aceh Province, Indonesia. This qualitative study involved a group of final-year student teachers (6 male and 2 female) who were undertaking teaching practice as part of their teacher education programme in 2020. Based on semi-structured interview data, the findings suggest that participants engaged with GCE in various ways – through formal education, everyday encounters and historical narratives of armed conflict and the tsunami disaster. The authors argue that approaching GCE through a local–global prism provides a nuanced understanding and exposes tensions between the predominantly secular orientation of GCE in the Global North and the Islamic orientation of PPKn in Aceh Province. Their findings highlight how student teachers make sense of the values and beliefs they develop through PPKn and how these resonate with or diverge from normative GCE values. This study makes a significant contribution to knowledge by demonstrating how diverse socio-cultural realities can be meaningfully and respectfully integrated into GCE.
This article focuses on adults’ informal learning related to sustainability, addressing a central gap in adult education research through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Drawing on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the authors investigate which sustainability-related learning topics adults mention in open-ended responses and in which learning contexts these topics emerge. They analyse open-ended responses of adults aged 35–75 (N = 6,793) across four survey waves (2017–2022), covering informal learning in different contexts (trade fairs and conferences, specialist lectures, digital learning programmes and internet-based learning opportunities). Based on these responses, they developed a deductive–inductive category system that served as the basis for coding a total of 17,395 statements. Building on this, they explore the characteristics, such as sociodemographics, personality traits and generalised values, of individuals who engage intensively with ecological sustainability topics across different contexts and over time. Combining qualitative content analysis with a large-scale national survey and rich contextual data, this study provides new insights into the content and patterns of adults’ sustainability-related informal learning and discusses the practical implications for adult education.
Despite the increase in Indonesian women entrepreneurs, persistent gender inequality is evident in the lower sales and profits generated by women-owned enterprises compared to those owned by men. Although not specifically tailored to women, one governmental initiative, Kartu Prakerja [literally “pre-employment card”], aimed to increase access to training and enhance entrepreneurial skills. Launched in April 2020, this digital training programme was a strategic effort to address gender inequality in business ownership in Indonesia. The article explores the social justice potential of Prakerja to assist women entrepreneurs by providing redistributive justice, recognitive justice and representational justice: the three dimensions of social justice identified by Nancy Fraser. The study applied a multi-stage critical document analysis to materials published between 2020 and 2024. While the authors found that Prakerja could be considered a social justice strategy for women entrepreneurs, their analysis also suggests that the outcomes could have been further improved through consideration of intentional design across all three social justice dimensions. Redistributive justice was advanced by Prakerja being cost-free and accessible, but concerns arose regarding underprivileged women’s access to technology. In terms of recognitive justice, the programme accommodated women’s family responsibilities and need for flexible home-based programmes. However, there was room for improvement regarding the entrance test, using local languages, and making the curriculum more gender-affirming. Representational justice was provided by acknowledging diverse choices and facilitating participant voices, but more could have been done to enhance women’s contribution to discussion forums and involve them as both participants and instructors in Prakerja. The article concludes by suggesting areas for future research in this context.
Every year, thousands of women are forced to leave their home countries and migrate to other countries, such as Canada. This migration can require a great deal of learning in order to adapt, particularly when these women have little or no literacy skills. In Quebec, community-based literacy programmes offer an alternative to the formal education system, which cannot always meet the needs of these new arrivals. The integration of these women into literacy workshops run by community organisations can present a significant challenge for everyone involved, both the learners and the facilitators. An action research project, inspired by consciousness-raising pedagogy and conducted in collaboration with a community literacy group, is aiming to gain a better understanding of the realities faced by immigrant women. The purpose of this article is to discuss the findings of this research project in light of a review of the literature. First, it presents findings based on a framework for analysing feminist pedagogies, drawing on the Equity Web model developed by Claudie Solar. Second, it examines the current state of knowledge regarding women's literacy and numeracy in relation to empowerment. The insights gained from these two approaches help situate the study within a broader context and enrich reflections on practices likely to promote women's empowerment.
This study used bibliometric analysis to examine the factors influencing interaction within the broad field of digital learning, given its crucial role in effective learning. The author employed a mixed-methods research design, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods. Relevant computations were undertaken in bibliometric mapping software VOSviewer to identify the ten most frequently cited sources, countries, organisations and authors in the existing literature. The clustering function in CitNetExplorer was also used to formulate the citation network and identify the longest path for network analysis. The study further combined the community of inquiry framework (which includes teaching, cognitive and social presence) with the interaction model, which emphasises the role of online collaboration through course and instructional design in interactive educational experiences. Four types of interaction were examined: learner–teacher, learner–content, learner–learner and learner–interface interactions. There were inconclusive findings regarding the relationship between course and instructional design and learner–content interaction. Social presence was closely related to learner–learner and learner–teacher interactions. Cognitive presence was associated with learner–content interaction, and teaching presence was linked with learner–interface and learner–teacher interactions. Artificial intelligence (AI) was related to both learner–teacher and learner–learner interactions. The findings suggest that future research should further examine human–AI collaboration, community of inquiry (CoI) processes in different learning environments, and the mechanisms underlying learner–content interaction. In practice, educators and system developers should strengthen instructional scaffolding, learner communication, teacher–AI collaboration and AI-supported assessment to improve interaction in digital learning environments.
