Learning Through Labour: Farm Workers’ Educational Experiences in Adult Education Contexts
Keywords:
adult education;, lifelong learning, farm workers, experiential learning, social justiceAbstract
Abstract
Adult education continues to occupy a critical position within international debates on lifelong learning, social justice, and inclusive development. Despite increased global attention toward educational inclusion, rural labouring populations, particularly farm workers, remain marginalised within mainstream adult education scholarship and policy discourse. This article critically examines the educational experiences of farm workers participating in Adult Education and Training (AET) programmes within a rural South African context. Guided by Experiential Learning Theory and informed by Freirean critical adult education perspectives, the study explores how adult learners negotiate educational participation amid labour demands, poverty, and historical educational exclusion. A qualitative interpretive case study design was employed. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with purposively selected farm workers enrolled in adult learning programmes. The findings reveal that adult education contributes significantly to literacy development, workplace confidence, social participation, and identity transformation. However, structural barriers, including physically demanding labour, financial insecurity, fatigue, and limited institutional support, continue to constrain meaningful educational participation. The study argues that adult learning among farm workers cannot be understood solely as literacy acquisition but must be conceptualised as a socially situated process shaped by labour experiences, historical inequality, and struggles for dignity and recognition. By foregrounding labour as a critical site of knowledge construction, the article contributes to international adult education scholarship on marginalised rural learners and expands debates on lifelong learning within contexts of socio-economic inequality.
Keywords: Adult education, lifelong learning, farm workers, experiential learning, labour, social justice, rural education
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