ABSTRACT
Drawing on Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition, this chapter focuses on the recognition of students in MAE. We ask the following questions: can adult education provide recognition to students? What are the features of such recognition and what are the limitations? Can the students struggle be seen as a struggle to become a proper citizen? Based on our analysis, we argue that adult education has the potential to be a transitory arena for learning where the individual can struggle to regain self-esteem that has been lost, for instance, due to unemployment, precarious employment and/or failure in upper secondary school. It may provide temporary stability that can potentially enhance a sense of respect that a disrespectful labour market and a disrespectful society (for instance, in the form of the employment office) has previously damaged. However, students are clearly not in a position to undertake a more collective struggle to receive greater respect from society. Adult education, at least in the contexts where the research underpinning this chapter have been conducted, is not truly able to foment processes leading to social and emancipatory change. Rather, students seem to follow contemporary discourses by obeying the rules set up by these discourses, not least by taking responsibility for their own development and futures.
