Authors: Anneleis Humphries and Gosia Klatt
University of Melbourne

Edition: Volume 65, Number 1, April 2025

Introduction: As Australia’s population becomes increasingly diverse, this paper examines how adult education can foster belonging, community, and empowerment for CALD learners – a critical issue with broad societal implications. While Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) adult education aims to empower learners, this paper uncovers the complex challenges educators face in navigating policy, learner needs, and their own professional development to achieve this goal. This paper explores the intersection of language learning in adult education and the role of individual and collective transformation in promoting empowerment. We draw on interviews with practitioners from various adult education programs that work with CALD students, to examine how they understand empowerment in their work. The themes that arose demonstrate the complexity of the field and the challenges faced by adult educators in navigating policy limitations, learner needs, and their own professional development requirements.

Keywords: CALD, empowerment, collective transformation, teachers

[feather share] Share a copy of this abstract.

This article is part of AJAL, Volume 65:1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.