Transformative education as a tool to empower adult learners in Australian Community Education

Transformative education as a tool to empower adult learners in Australian Community Education Contexts: building capabilities for study, work and life.

Abstract

This presentation outlines transformative adult learning education within the Australian policy context. Drawing on Phase One of the research project “Skills for work, study, and life: Adult learning and Adult Community Education in Australia”. Participants will hear the stories of learners and teachers in these community-based learning spaces.

In the spirit of lifelong learning and in line with Delore’s promise of learning across a lifespan, the workshop will outline diverse stories that embody learners’ experiences of education; their desires, needs, and barriers to learning. Of importance is the relationality between adult learners and teachers, particularly building relationships with learners, some who have experienced structural violence and misrecognition in the formal neo-liberal system of schooling, with its focus on ranking and performativity. The role of ACE in developing learner wellbeing and health outcomes has been well documented, though not always recognised as important outcomes of adult education.

Nussbaum’s ‘capabilities framework’ provides a nuanced way to conceptualise the outcomes for learners in ACE, moving beyond narrow, neoliberal, economistic measures of success. It incorporates knowledge and skill development in learners, including reframing learner biographies, to enable learners to develop a sense of their capacity to learn. Developing capabilities for study, work and life encompasses the great promise of the project of lifelong learning for adults, acknowledging that what is learned in ACE, can not only provide knowledge and skills for study and work but also provide skills for life, decreasing social isolation, developing relational connectedness with others and building community.

This workshop will create a space for critical dialogic conversation, enabling participants to share their own experiences of teaching and adult learning in further education.  

Pre-reading

Foley, A. & Ollis, T. (2024). Lifelong learning in Australian community contexts: Adult learning ‘capabilities’ for study, work, and life. Studies in the Education of Adults. https://doi.org/10.1080/02660830.2024.2421473

About Associate Professor Trace Ollis – Deakin University

Dr Trace Ollis (PhD) is an Associate Professor (Reader) in the School of Education at Deakin University, specialising in Adult Education and lifelong learning in Adult & Community Education (ACE) settings. She has made a significant contribution to understanding how adult learning of all kinds transforms individual lives and communities and has published in this area both nationally and internationally. Her research is driven by social justice education, trauma-informed practices, and issues related to widening access and participation. She draws on ontological, epistemological and ethical concerns regarding ‘practice’ in adult learning.

She is the recent past Editor-In-Chief of the Australian Journal of Adult Learning and a member of the Australian Council of Deans of Education, Vocational Education Group. She is a member of The Centre for Research for Educational Impact (REDI) and is involved in the Social Justice Education SIG. She has held various leadership positions at Deakin University, including Discipline Leader for the Applied Learning, Professional Education, and Training research group and Higher Degree by Research Coordinator for the School of Education for PhD and Master’s degree students. She is currently the Course Director of the Graduate Certificate in Adult Vocational Education & Training.

Her research, which is embedded in partnerships with the community, draws on case studies, poetic inquiry and multiple case study methodologies in adult learning research projects. She is the author of “A Critical Pedagogy of Embodied Education: Learning to Become an Activist”, published by Palgrave McMillan, and is Co-Author with Professor Annette Foley of their book (forthcoming 2026), Adult Learning in Community & Lifelong Contexts: learning for Study, Work and Life, published by Springer. She is co-chief investigator on the research project “Skills for Work, Study, and Life: Adult Learning in Adult Community Education in Australia.”