Conference Program

Adult and community education has historically functioned as a democratic counterspace for learners marginalised by the Irish Education System. In Ireland, widening participation policy under the National Access Plan (NAP) identifies priority groups including socio-economically disadvantaged learners, lone parents, mature students, disabled learners, members of the Traveller community, and migrant communities. While these categories structure policy intervention, lived experience is intersectional and relational. Adult learners frequently navigate multiple, overlapping forms of structural inequality.

This paper presents findings from an ongoing participatory action research (PAR) collaboration between a regional technological university and a community-based adult education organisation working predominantly with learners across several National Access Plan priority groups. The study examines how adult community education functions not simply as a preparatory bridge into higher education, but as a democratic learning space that reshapes learners’ epistemic positioning.

PAR was mobilised as both research methodology and adult pedagogical practice. Peer researchers with lived experience of community education were centrally involved in research design, facilitation of focus groups, and collaborative analysis. Data was generated through learner dialogues, community stakeholder discussions, and structured reflective workshops. This approach intentionally redistributed epistemic authority, challenging conventional researcher participant hierarchies.

Findings indicate that adult community education cultivates forms of epistemic confidence that are foundational to progression. Participants describe a shift from internalised deficit narratives to recognition of lived experience as legitimate knowledge. For learners situated at the intersection of class disadvantage, gendered care responsibilities, disability, and migration, this transformation is precondition for engagement with formal higher education systems.

However, the research also highlights tensions. The paper argues that a culture of inclusion in lifelong learning requires structural reciprocity between community education and universities. Adult education must be recognised as a site of knowledge production. Democratic partnership, co-designed curricula, and shared governance are proposed as components of what we term “intersectional pathway architecture.”

By situating adult community education within debates on inclusion and epistemic justice, this paper contributes empirical insight into how lifelong learning can operate as democratic renewal.