The Department of Adult and Community Education at Maynooth University was strongly represented at the 11th ESREA (European Society for Research on the Education of Adults) Triennial Conference, which took place this month in Prague.
The theme of the conference was ‘Dialogue in and through Adult Education and learning.’ The conference brought together researchers, educators, and practitioners from across the world to share new insights, research, and practices in adult education.
The Department made significant contributions across a range of themes central to adult and community education:
- Dr. Fergal Finnegan, Vice Chair of ESREA , presented “Critical Adult Education, Emancipatory Politics and the Idea of Dialogue: A Once and Future Project?” His presentation made a case for critical theory grounded in, and orientated to, emancipatory social movements. He also presented a paper in a symposium on the topic Active citizenship and the university entitled “Critical research and collaboration at the ‘edges’ of the academy” reflecting on his experience of conducting engaged research within a neoliberalised university
- Professor Bernie Grummel shared insights from The SEED Project – Dialogue, Learning and Knowledge Transformation amongst Universities, Communities and Policy Groups. Her presentation focused on the power of collaboration and dialogue between Universities in fostering learning across different sectors and in informing policy.
- Dr. Margaret Nugent presented on “Deep Dialogue for Sustainable Peace”, exploring how sustained and reflective dialogue can support peacebuilding and transformative understanding in situations of conflict.
- Dr. Lilian Nwanze-Akobo and Dr. Jerry O’Neill presented together on “Working the Discomfort: Challenges and Possibilities of Multi-racial Co-facilitation to Confront Racism in Adult Education”. Their joint workshop dialogically explored the complexities of addressing racism within educational spaces, highlighting both the challenges and the opportunities of co-facilitation in multi-racial contexts.The conference was an invaluable opportunity to showcase the breadth of work being done in our department and to engage in critical conversations with scholars and practitioners from across Europe and beyond.
Maynooth University is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland. It is located in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. It is Ireland’s youngest university, having been founded by the Universities Act, 1997 from the secular faculties of the now separate St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, which was founded in 1795.
