Introduction

There is only one meaningful mission for adult education – for all education that matters perhaps – and that is to empower learners towards making meaning of the world and their condition and to emancipate them from all that oppresses them. This is not a new concept, but the role of adult education as a medium for empowerment and emancipation has been challenged in the late 20th century by global policies. These have elevated distorted notions of freedom and autonomy as self-actualisation through competitiveness, with a focus on learning outcomes and investment in marketable skills. Many of these policies were openly received by the European Union (EU), which developed its own agenda for adult education that eventually led to a series of benchmarks and measuring tools, all focused on ‘investing in human resources’ (European Commission, 2000: 12).

It took ten years, with a series of terrorist attacks in major European cities, a lasting economic crisis with severe social repercussions, the influx of a large number of war refugees and economic migrants, and the opportunistic rise of the Far Right, for the policy rhetoric to shift towards the need for an education that encourages empowerment and emancipation. This rhetoric was encompassed in the term ‘active citizenship’. The term was endorsed in the European Council and European Commission's joint report about the ‘new priorities for European cooperation in education and training’ (Official Journal of the European Union, 2015), but also in the Paris Declaration on ‘promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education’ (EU Ministries of Education, 2015). In European policy documents, however, active citizenship is interpreted as specific skills, attitudes and knowledge (that is, measured learning outcomes) that can be acquired through education. The EU's political aim is to create feelings of belonging, participation and democracy through social activities and learning. Growing ethnic and religious diversity in Europe, however, poses both opportunities and challenges to European policymakers and societies. It is expected that this diversity will continue to increase. At the same time, recent studies (Van Driel et al, 2016) show that intolerance and social exclusion are increasing, with some migrant groups feeling alienated. This is leading to incidences of social unrest. So, how can adult education prepare societies for dealing with these phenomena?