Documents participatory practices in adult educational programs, institutions, the community, and the workplace. Offers detailed examples, models, and suggestions.

Although there has been a great deal of rhetoric about learner empowerment in educational and community development circles, this book is the first to offer detailed examples of successful participatory practices in adult education spanning a wide range of program settings, such as schools, institutions, communities, and the workplace. The editors join with practitioner colleagues in the United States and Canada to document successes; to network about ideas from active projects, past and present, that have had a participatory component; to share experience, new knowledge, lessons learned, and reflections. The focus is on projects initiated with the intention that greater participation would benefit individuals and groups previously excluded from positions of control. The aim is to provide concrete models and suggestions to practitioners who want to develop the participatory nature of their own activities--from initiation, to organization, goal-setting, and ongoing leadership of adult education programs. Some chapters give detailed descriptions of the triumphs and challenges in individual projects, while others center more on theoretical analysis and reflection on years of experience. All, however, are rooted in particular experiences and give concrete examples from action. Participatory Practices in Adult Education is a vital resource for both new and experienced practitioners--including basic educators, workplace educators, administrators, policymakers, trainers, human resource managers, and community development workers--who want to learn from the practical experiences of their counterparts, and is highly appropriate as a text for courses in adult education and community development.

"Every chapter, told as a story of practice and reflection in a different context, adds valuable perspective."
—Literacy Across the Curriculumedia Focus

"Educators (or education students) interested in exploring the possibilities or struggles of doing participatory education with adults will find this to be an indispensable collection of essays to read and reread....Participatory Practices in Adult Education successfully covers important ground and makes a significant and more detailed contribution to the current writings available on adult participatory education."
—Adult Basic Education

"...almost all of the authors not only ask many of the hard questions that society only glances over, they provide some keys to answers. Readers will be offered pedagogical models and practical information in the pages from real-life situations...the book offers opportunities for reflection for new avenues in participatory practices."
—Contemporary Psychology, APA REVIEW OF BOOKS

"The various chapters are well organized and well written. The authors represent a variety of practitioners with assorted expertise. The realism makes the stories not only interesting, but also the life lessons are evident. This makes for more powerful analysis that is not based solely on theory....Participatory Practices in Adult Education is a recommended read."
—Contemporary Psychology, APA REVIEW OF BOOKS

"Participatory Prctices in Adult Education is a useful resource for any educator, not just adult educators interested in participatory practices....As the editors promise in the opening line of the preface, 'This book is a celebration and sharing of experience, new knowledge, lessons learned, and reflections from the practice of participatory adult education' (p.vii). The text delivers on that promise."
—educational HORIZONS

"A strong contribution to the field of education in general, and participatory education in particular. The real strength of this book is in its concreteness, its particularity....It is also important that strong introductory and concluding pieces set the individual cases in the context of current theory....It is unique, in a field that I believe will only grow more prominent and attract more interest; it tells compelling stories; it is grounded in the literature of the field; it is well organized and well written."
—Stephanie Vandrick
University of San Francisco

"Inclusive and clearly stated definition of participatory education....impressive scope of learning/teaching venues....I would love to require this book in several of my courses (e.g., ESL/literacy teacher training, 'Freire's Pedagogy in Practice,' various community studies courses, training for faculty incorporating service-learning in their own courses)....Thank you, thank you, thank you for the opportunity to reconnect with the people in this book....Many things to think about, and a fine feeling of companions along the road."
—Pia Moriarty
Stanford University/New Song Literacy