Conference Program

In response to global uncertainties, UNESCO (2020) positioned Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a critical framework to prepare learners for economic and socio-ecological crises. However, this goal often faces institutional barriers. Fundamentally, ESD is based on “transformative learning”, where education goes beyond conveying facts to empowering students to shift perspectives and take meaningful action (Mezirow, 2000; Sterling, 2011). While ESD is theoretically rooted in transformative agency, current institutional models frequently treat students as passive recipients of information rather than active partners in a democratic “educational commons”. Hierarchical decision-making risks reducing the student's role to a mere statistic, obstructing the participatory engagement needed for genuine democratic learning (Biesta, 2016)—a process essential for strengthening dialogue, equality, and empowerment in society. This study investigates learners’ perspectives on sustainability in Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the factors influencing their engagement. The first phase adopted a qualitative inquiry to capture diverse viewpoints on ESD, revealing key themes of engagement, dialogue, and equality. These insights informed the development of a quantitative measurement scale for ESD, guiding the survey design and contributing to its subsequent validation. The resulting framework offers a practical diagnostic tool for Irish HEIs to assess learners’ engagement with ESD. This research adopts a constructivist grounded theory orientation with an exploratory sequential mixed methods design to develop an integrated theory rooted in learners’ voices. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews (n=18) and a focus group discussion (n=4) were conducted with undergraduates from two campuses of one Irish HEI. The analysis followed an inductive, data-driven approach, capturing the richness and complexity of students’ perspectives without imposing pre-existing theories. The qualitative data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis guided by grounded theory principles of iterative coding, constant comparison, and theory generation from emerging data. Codes were grouped into survey domains, and learners’ direct quotes informed the development of survey items. The survey will later be administered across five university campuses to test and validate insights on a larger scale. Findings reveal that sustainability evokes diverse, often conflicting perspectives, from scepticism and frustration to hopelessness. Many learners perceive sustainability as unattainable due to systemic financial constraints, fostering a sense of “infeasibility” that limits participatory engagement. Participants also highlighted a tension between authentic sustainability and dominant capitalist priorities, noting that institutional narratives often prioritise reputational sustainability and economic growth over deeper structural transformation. This suggests that learners' voices navigate a landscape of “misrecognition,” typically marginalised by market-driven agendas. The results suggest that to support democratic learning, ESD needs to move beyond hierarchies and uphold shared values of responsibility, stewardship, and equity. By cultivating critical thinking to navigate complex power structures, HEIs can enable students to transform passive frustration into active, agentic participation in shaping a sustainable common life. This study makes a methodological contribution through an assessment framework co-created with learners to centre their voices at the heart of institutional ESD evaluation. This participatory instrument provides a concrete solution, enabling Irish and international HEIs to assess learners’ needs effectively and move beyond tokenistic engagement.

The quality of intergenerational relationships has undoubtedly changed. Educational relationships—such as those between parents and children or teachers and students—have taken on new forms in response to the transformations characterising contemporary society, including the advent of the internet, new media, and artificial intelligence (Jandrić, 2017).

In this context, the adult world appears to be finding it increasingly difficult to respond adequately to the demands and needs of younger generations. This is evident in the growing number of anxious parents who turn to specialists and manuals (Haidt, 2024), teachers who often feel frustrated by their perceived inability to understand youths (Cickovska, 2022), and policy measures of questionable effectiveness aimed at addressing youth violence (such as recent proposals to introduce metal detectors in schools).

Adults frequently appear inadequate, presenting themselves either as fragile caregivers or oscillating between extremely controlling and highly indulgent attitudes, often unable to express dissent or set limits. Such approaches risk fostering a sense of uncertainty among young people and a weakened adherence with reality, resulting in increased fragility in managing relationships and social challenges. These dynamics contribute to the gradual withdrawal of many adolescents and young adults from the public sphere and to a diminished capacity to imagine themselves as active citizens within a democratic society (Giroux, 2014).

Increasingly absorbed by their smartphones, young people risk becoming subjugated by social media, influenced by the myth of perfection and the anxiety generated by systems of capitalist efficiency. In this scenario, some turn to “alternative listeners” (e.g. AI-based tools acting as psychological supports) to address their doubts and questions. Others respond by engaging in “social and digital detox” practices, while still others demonstrate a strong commitment to proactivity in areas such as peace and sustainability.

As educators, we cannot remain silent in the face of the multifaceted requests for listening expressed by young people. Among the experiences that higher education can offer, dialogical practices emerge as powerful tools for empowerment, critical awareness, and democratisation. The research project presented in this paper is situated within this framework.

Drawing on critical–emancipatory pedagogy (Denzin & Lincoln, 2023) and a bottom-up participatory approach, the study employed a qualitative research design centred on a series of five focus groups—referred to as “dialogue tables”—with students enrolled in Educational Sciences degree programmes at several Italian universities. The aim was to explore students’ attitudes towards personal and collective participation by foregrounding their voices and concerns. The dialogue tables were facilitated by the researcher using an interview guide developed from the thematic analysis of responses to a questionnaire administered in spring 2025 (n of responses= 580). Each dialogue table lasted approximately two hours and engaged participants in discussion around five generative themes. The project sought to create a shared dialogical space in which students could collectively reflect on practical issues that directly affect their lives as individuals and citizens.

This practice aims to support the development of dialogical skills, autonomy in decision-making, and responsibility towards others, in line with the goal of cultivating humanity (Nussbaum, 2006).

Drawing on the work of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire, Marco Pitzalis (2024) has proposed that emancipatory projects to counter neoliberalism require research that interrogates the education system ‘from below’. It follows that democratic dialogue demands ‘epistemic justice’, a critique-movement against and beyond power-holders’ symbolic violence of classification, categorisation, and devaluation ‘from above’. Acknowledging this challenge, to what extent might Learner Voice foster democratic dialogue between academia, policy makers and practitioners in adult education?

The following paper explores this question through the lens of a single case study: the National Further Education and Training Learner Forum (NFLF) of Ireland. The NFLF is one of the largest and most enduring Learner Voice projects in Europe. Since the first national forum was held in 2016, the NFLF has engaged and listened to over 14,000 adult learners. Each year, the NFLF brings together hundreds of adult learners across Ireland to ask their views of and satisfaction with their experience of Further Education and Training (FET). Its purpose is to ensure that FET meets the needs of adult learners today and continues to do so in future. AONTAS, Ireland’s National Adult Learning Organisation, is responsible for the NFLF, collaborating with the state’s 16 Education and Training Boards to host regional forum events. AONTAS documents Learner Voice through both regional and national reports, and further utilises these findings as an evidence-base for advocacy to influence national policy.

In the context of multiple, intersecting crises of ecology, economy, and society, fostering democratic practice and conviction in adult education acquires renewed urgency. Arguably, the NFLF creates a space within which to embed ‘democratic learning’, the learning that flows from participating in constructing and maintaining a common life (Biesta, 2016, 104). Reflecting on the work of the NFLF offers us an opportunity to consider the quality of dialogue among diverse actors in the adult education system, assessing its fundamental character as well as associated challenges and opportunities. The present paper highlights both the potential for transformative change that arises when we listen deeply to adult learners and the necessity of institutions to make voice effective. In doing so, the paper speaks to diverse, interdisciplinary scholarship in the fields of citizen participation, participatory social policy and transformative student voice (Clancy and Murray, 2025; Murray and Brennan, 2023; Angus et al., 2013; Fielding, 2010).

This abstract addresses the issue of adult learners with limited digital skills applying online for courses with Adult Education Services (AESs). AESs meet the educational needs and goals of a highly diverse student body (Grover and Miller, 2016). This diversity is reflected in AES course provision, including but not limited to:

• professionally accredited courses,

• English language courses,

• literacy courses,

• and community education courses.

In the Republic of Ireland (ROI), adults are directed to a website called Further Education and Training Course Hub (FETCH) to apply for lifelong learning courses. FETCH was launched in 2016 with the intention of making adult education more accessible (Mitchell, 2016) and is aligned with governmental pledges to make lifelong learning inclusive of all adults (DFHERIS, 2020).

This digitisation of the course application process epitomises how digital systems are rapidly replacing their analogue predecessors (Pihlainen et al., 2021). However, these digital systems place adults at risk of social exclusion if they do not possess the requisite skills to use them fully (Enright, 2023). Some adults require an alternative to digital forms (Anrijs et al., 2023). Almost 50% of respondents to a literacy survey in the ROI know an acquaintance who requires digital device support (DFHERIS, 2021). Notably, some adult learners attending digital literacy classes can still require support when using apps or the internet outside of the classroom (AONTAS, 2025).

Furthermore, AESs have a responsibility to respond to learner needs at the local level (DES, 2000) and an ability to develop appropriate procedures for current and prospective students (Ross-Gordon et al., 2017). Yet, policy-compliance issues can hamper initiatives to broaden participation in lifelong learning (Clain, 2016). Moreover, neoliberal policies and practices have taken root in European education (Schmoelz, 2023). Notably, equity through the neoliberal lens has been reconstructed in economic, efficiency, and performance-measurement terms, while it does not address the causal factors of inequality, thus further alienating marginalised learners (Mikelatou and Arvanitis, 2021).

Consequently, digitally vulnerable adult learners are expected to use a ‘top-down’, neoliberal-esque course application process that is not informed by their needs, which can in turn become an institutional barrier (Sualehi, 2023) for those adults who cannot complete the form. The impact of using such systems on said adults includes privacy concerns (Mesa, 2023; Tokovska et al., 2023), disempowerment (Hill et al., 2015), exclusion (Seifert et al., 2018), and stress (Nimrod, 2017). However, digital services have the capacity to be ‘bottom-up’ and designed around the needs of end users via consultation with them (Savoldelli et al., 2014; Tokovska et al., 2023).

I advocate that the Learner Voice should be meaningfully heard in discussions and decisions about course applications systems. Not listening to adult learners who have difficulty in navigating, or concerns with, digital application processes risks excluding them from lifelong learning altogether. This could potentially create a Matthew Effect wherein those who successfully completed courses before will continue to do so, and those who experience challenges with course applications will not reap the benefit of lifelong learning (Van Nieuwenhove and de Wever, 2021).

Disability is neglected both in terms of applications of social justice perspectives and in what an understanding of disability can bring to these perspectives (Mladenov 2016). Fraser (1996) contends that social justice requires ‘parity of participation’ through redistribution, recognition and representation. In the realm of education, Learner Voice offers a space in which these goals can be pursued and realised by centring the agency of learners as active participants and partners in educational processes rather than as objects of policy and pedagogy (Dowdall, Sheerin, and O’Reilly 2019). Learner Voice aims to extend the values of democracy, equality and empowerment central to adult education practices from the classroom into institutional and decision-making domains (Fielding 2010).

People with disabilities face a significant risk of poverty, high unemployment rates, and lower educational attainment levels than the general population, as well as stigma and discrimination (EDF 2022), which undermines a 'parity of participation'. Compounding this is an extra ‘cost of disability’ in their everyday lives due to navigating society with a disability. To what extent then can Learner Voice respond to the redistributive, symbolic and representative inequalities faced by learners with disabilities?

The paper utilises mixed method research carried out by AONTAS, the Adult Learning Organisation, as part of the National Further Education and Training (FET) Learner Forum (NFLF) in Ireland. The NFLF is carried out annually and the project is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Between October 2024 and May 2025, the NFLF included a total of 98 focus groups incorporating 778 learners and 1858 survey respondents across 10 regional Education and Training Boards. The NFLF operates on a Learner Voice basis providing opportunities for learners to articulate their experience of FET to inform evidence-based advocacy to influence national policy. As such, the NFLF aims at ‘democratic learning’ (Biesta 2016) by providing mechanisms for learners to participate in, and shape, their world.

By attending to these opportunities and challenges faced by a sub-set of research participants, learners with disabilities, we can unpack the environmental and symbolic supports necessary to enhancing participation in adult education. In doing so the paper returns to Fraser (1995) to distinguish between the affirmative practices correcting inequalities and transformative practices aiming deeper structural changes, and the potential of the NFLF as a space ‘in-against-and beyond’ (Holloway 2010) the policy context in which it operates.

In recent years, the concept of Learning Cities has emerged as a significant policy and practice framework for strengthening democratic participation through lifelong learning. Developed within the policy architecture of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, the learning city approach places learners and communities at the centre of local lifelong learning ecosystems. UNESCO policy frameworks emphasise that learning opportunities should respond to the needs, aspirations, and lived experiences of citizens, thereby fostering inclusive participation and social cohesion (UIL, 2015; UIL, 2021).

This paper explores how Learner Voice is enacted within learning city ecosystems through the practice of learning festivals, which represent distinctive civic spaces where adult learners, educators, civil society organisations, and local authorities collaboratively shape lifelong learning opportunities. Learning festivals are typically developed through participatory processes in which programme themes and activities emerge from learners’ interests, community initiatives, and local organisations. In this way, they provide concrete mechanisms for bottom-up participation and democratic engagement in adult learning. (O Tauma, 2016)

The study investigates how learner needs and experiences influence the design and organisation of learning festivals and related lifelong learning initiatives in selected European learning cities. The comparative study adopts a qualitative approach across three national contexts: Cork and Limerick (Ireland), Pécs and Szombathely (Hungary), and Trieste and Cividale del Friuli (Italy). These cities represent diverse yet interconnected examples of learning city development within European lifelong learning policy networks. (UIL, 2017)

Methodologically, the research employs autobiographical inquiry in the form of in-depth qualitative interviews with adult learners, organisers of learning festivals, and coordinators of local lifelong learning initiatives. By foregrounding the lived experiences of participants, the study explores how learners perceive recognition, participation, and agency within these learning ecosystems. Particular attention is given to how learner input shapes programme design, institutional collaboration, and community engagement in local learning initiatives.

The paper also situates these practices within their broader socio-political context. In several contemporary societies, opportunities for participatory democracy are under pressure due to increasing political centralisation and democratic backsliding. In such contexts—illustrated for example by recent developments in Hungary—spaces for civic participation within formal political structures may be narrowing. Lifelong learning initiatives embedded in local communities, such as learning festivals, can therefore acquire additional significance as alternative arenas of democratic participation, where citizens can articulate their voices, share experiences, and actively contribute to shaping the social and cultural life of their communities.(Németh, 2019)

By examining learning festivals as spaces of democratic participation, the paper contributes to debates on learner’s voice and democratic learning in adult education. It argues that learning city initiatives can function as educational commons, where citizens co-create learning opportunities and where participation in learning becomes intertwined with participation in civic life.