About the book: This book is a compilation of scholarly papers, some of which have been published via ERIC, whose purpose is to inform and educate future doctorate students of what to expect in this program.

Drawing on the lived experiences of Black students in adult degree completion programs at predominantly White, Christian institutions in the southern United States, this book presents a model for reimagining adult higher education. Westbrook explores the reasons students enrolled in degree programs, how they experience their predominantly white institutions, and how their experiences affect their lives. Employing Critical Race Theory and Christian theology as frameworks for evaluating the students’ experiences, the author sheds light on the ways African American experiences to inform, critique, and shape Christian adult learning in higher education.

Many accounts of critical pedagogy, particularly accounts of trying to enact it within higher education (HE), express a deep cynicism about whether it is possible to counter the ever creeping hegemony of neo-liberalism, neo- conservatism and new managerialism within Universities. Hopeful Pedagogies in Higher Education acknowledges some of these criticisms, but attempts to rescue critical pedagogy, locating some of its associated pessimism as misreading of Freire and offering hopeful avenues for new theory and practice. These misreadings are also located in the present, in the assumption that unless change comes within the lifetime of the project, it has somehow failed. Instead, this book argues that a positive utopianism is possible. Present actions need to be celebrated, and cultivated as symbols of hope, possibility and generativity for the future - which the concept of hope implies. The contributors make the case for celebrating the pedagogies of HE that operate in liminal spaces – situated in the spaces between the present and the future (between the world as it is and the world as it could be) and also in the cracks that are beginning to show in the dominant discourses.

"Empowering Minds: Adult Education in India" is a comprehensive exploration of adult education in India, highlighting its importance, historical context, challenges, success stories, and policy recommendations. The book sheds light on the critical role of lifelong learning and addresses the need for adult education in India's diverse and dynamic society. The book begins by introducing the concept of adult education and its relevance in the context of India. It delves into the historical background, tracing the roots of adult education from pre-independence to post-independence efforts and policy initiatives. The chapters that follow examine various adult education programs and initiatives, including literacy programs, skill development, distance learning, and nonformal education. One of the significant sections focuses on the challenges and constraints faced by the adult education sector in India, such as illiteracy, socioeconomic barriers, gender disparities, and policy implementation challenges. The book also highlights success stories and best practices from different regions of India, showcasing innovative approaches, partnerships, and collaborations that have made a positive impact.

Effective communication is essential in every organization, including educational institutions. Often, members of the online community work in isolation. Collaboration across varying disciplines and departments can promote unique professional development activities and create a stronger connection to the entire online community. Enriching Collaboration and Communication in Online Learning Communities is a critical scholarly publication that supports communication and collaboration in online settings by focusing on the ways all members of the educational institution can create community to foster personal and professional growth for all. The book takes an in-depth look at communication strategies and challenges including managing conflict, working effectively in virtual teams, critical thinking, intercultural and cross-cultural communication, and online leadership. It is ideal for faculty, teachers, administrators, principles, curriculum developers, professionals, researchers, and students.

Constructing Capacities: Building Capabilities through Learning and Engagement explores several contemporary manifestations of individuals, groups and communities participating in varying types of learning and thereby engaging effectively and productively with their contexts and environments in order to build and develop their multiple capacities. These capacities are seen as crucial to overcoming particular kinds of challenges and to attaining specific types of aspirations that are valued highly by the respective individuals, groups and communities. Despite this common valuing of constructing capacities, we still know relatively little about how capacities can be built and enhanced in ways that are equitable, sustainable and transformative. Much of the literature highlights contextually specific factors that facilitate capacity-building for particular groups of participants at specific times, and that are founded on demonstrated principles such as understanding and engaging with those participants’ respective aspirations, circumstances and needs. Yet what works to develop capabilities in one context might not succeed in another context, even with the same participants – generating momentum and achieving scale and sustainability are often challenges when seeking to build capacities. For all these reasons, it is both timely and useful to extend contemporary understandings of capacities and how they can be constructed effectively and sustainably. The 14 chapters in this book take up this challenge by presenting theoretically framed and rigorously researched accounts of successful capacity-building in diverse educational settings, clustered around four foci: • conceptualising and contextualising capacities; • constructing students’ and teachers’ capacities; • constructing workers’ capacities; • constructing researchers’ capacities. These accounts generate new and important understandings of what capacities are, how they can be constructed and supported, and how they enhance positive outcomes for individuals and communities as well as nationally and globally.

This book explores different perspectives on the role, influence and importance of participants in education research. Drawing on a variety of philosophical, theoretical and methodological approaches, the book examines how researchers relate to and with their participants before, during, and after the collection and/or production of data; reimagining the rights of participants, the role/s of participants, the concept/s of "participant" itself.