Marcella Milana
My professional identity is that of an adult educator, with an interest in the sociology and politics of adult and lifelong learning.
I have been working for ten years in Denmark, but now moved back to Italy, my home country. My ongoing project (GLOBE-A) deals with the politics of adult education in a globalised world and the conditioning effects of inter-states and transnational organizations on national policy and local practice. I have been writing also about European policy, adult education for democratic citizenship, and the professionalization of adult educators.
I am joint Editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education, and serve in the Editorial board of the Journal of Adult and Continuing Education (JACE).
In addition, I seat in the Steering Committee of the European Society for Research in the Education of Adults (ESREA), where I also serve as joint convenor of the Research Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education, and joint Editor of its Book Series (with Sense Publishing).
Also, I am President of the Nordic Society for Comparative and International Education, Board member of the International Society for Comparative Adult Education, and Member of the Research Standing Committee, under the World Council for Comparative Education Societies.
I am affiliated to the Paulo Freire Institute, at the University of California of Los-Angeles (USA) as International Research Associate, and with the Centre for Research and Development in Lifelong Learning at University of Glasgow (United Kingdom), as Associate.
In 2012-2014 I was a Marie Curie Fellow, and spent two years as a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California-Los Angeles (USA).
(last update September 2015)
I have been working for ten years in Denmark, but now moved back to Italy, my home country. My ongoing project (GLOBE-A) deals with the politics of adult education in a globalised world and the conditioning effects of inter-states and transnational organizations on national policy and local practice. I have been writing also about European policy, adult education for democratic citizenship, and the professionalization of adult educators.
I am joint Editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education, and serve in the Editorial board of the Journal of Adult and Continuing Education (JACE).
In addition, I seat in the Steering Committee of the European Society for Research in the Education of Adults (ESREA), where I also serve as joint convenor of the Research Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education, and joint Editor of its Book Series (with Sense Publishing).
Also, I am President of the Nordic Society for Comparative and International Education, Board member of the International Society for Comparative Adult Education, and Member of the Research Standing Committee, under the World Council for Comparative Education Societies.
I am affiliated to the Paulo Freire Institute, at the University of California of Los-Angeles (USA) as International Research Associate, and with the Centre for Research and Development in Lifelong Learning at University of Glasgow (United Kingdom), as Associate.
In 2012-2014 I was a Marie Curie Fellow, and spent two years as a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California-Los Angeles (USA).
(last update September 2015)
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (8)
Uploads
Journal articles by Marcella Milana
and practice at governmental and institutional levels, in public and private policy. However, at times when social and economic crises have revealed the fragility of existing institutions and policies, it is important to consider how sustainability is –and could be – integrated into educational policies. In this theoretical contribution to a special issue on ‘‘Societal sustainability’’, the authors draw on available literature and knowledge. They begin their paper by summarising the conditions under which the concept of ‘‘sustainability’’ entered political discourse in the early 1970s and outline how it has influenced educational research. They then introduce the longstanding debate about the relative role of tradition (in terms of traditional cultural and social order) and change (in terms of efforts to provide learning opportunities for everyone) in adult education. Finally, they argue for a rethinking of the ontology of sustainability: this, they suggest, can shed new light on its relationships with adult education and learning and social justice.
and practice at governmental and institutional levels, in public and private policy. However, at times when social and economic crises have revealed the fragility of existing institutions and policies, it is important to consider how sustainability is –and could be – integrated into educational policies. In this theoretical contribution to a special issue on ‘‘Societal sustainability’’, the authors draw on available literature and knowledge. They begin their paper by summarising the conditions under which the concept of ‘‘sustainability’’ entered political discourse in the early 1970s and outline how it has influenced educational research. They then introduce the longstanding debate about the relative role of tradition (in terms of traditional cultural and social order) and change (in terms of efforts to provide learning opportunities for everyone) in adult education. Finally, they argue for a rethinking of the ontology of sustainability: this, they suggest, can shed new light on its relationships with adult education and learning and social justice.
Drawing from multidisciplinary fields such as adult education, comparative and international education, and sociology, chapters analyse empirically grounded studies from the US, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Each study helps to identify how political agents interact at international, regional, national and local scales, and what the implications are for publically-funded interventions in adult education. While this book recognises the complexity of adult education policy, it argues for the need to deconstruct the false belief that what is global in adult education may be intrinsically distinct from the characteristics of geographical or social territories in which adult education occurs. Instead, it points to localised norms and ideas on Adult Basic and Secondary Education as ultimately contained in, and constituting, what is at times perceived as global, or abstracted from definite geographical or social territories.
This book calls for a global sociology of adult education in response to global challenges, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of developments in public adult education policy. As such, it will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of adult education, comparative and international education, education policy and politics, sociology of education, and global studies.
At the book’s heart are three main concerns. First, what is the spatial reach of these developments, and what processes of fluidity and fixity emerge? Second, does increased state and international recognition of civil society’s role in adult education and learning help to voice grass-roots learning needs for individuals and communities? Or does it create new patterns of dependency and ‘domestication’? Finally, given the growing culture of monitoring, and the investment – of money, time and attention – which international organizations, national governments, and research institutes around the world are making in gathering information on people’s skills and knowledge, and how they use them, what is happening when literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving abilities are tested? How is this knowledge used – and abused – in various policy environments, and who benefits?
The book is an outcome of the work of the European Society for the Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) Research Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education’s inaugural conference, held at the University of Nottingham in 2012. This book was originally published as a special issue of Globalisation, Societies and Education.
governmentality – drawing on the work of Foucault – can contribute. And they demonstrate how particular methodological approaches, such as ‘policy trails’, and the contribution the sociology of law, can make. Contributors include both specialists in adult education and scholars exploring how work from other disciplines can contribute to this field.
This is the first book in a new series from the European Society for Research in the Education of Adults, and draws on work within its Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education.