ABSTRACT
The transformation of society is deeply linked with the transformation of our imagination, with our perception of who belongs in that society and what is possible, desirable, and aspirational. Adult education has an historic and contemporary self-expectation to facilitate societal development, transitions, and upheavals. This chapter is a meta-reflection on a research study conducted by the authors in 2019-2020 with counselors and teachers who work directly with migrants. Adult education professionals who work with migrants face an ongoing tension in their work. On the one hand, migration poses practical challenges for society and for individual migrants, and the transitional processes of migrants need to be effective in terms of both. On the other hand, there exists a core ethical commitment of adult education to privilege human dignity, which we envision to mean supporting and developing autonomy and capacities for socio-political participation, in addition to addressing pragmatic, immediate needs.
