Bringing counter-hegemonic spaces to th...

This paper aims to open up a space of encounter among international perspectives on a common approach to learning and education and research-related issues: In our research and practice (andragogical work, teaching in Higher Education), we share - across European countries and the Atlantic Ocean - a critical-emancipatory view on pedagogical attitude, methodological approaches and the nature of "learners". We argue for a de-stigmatizing understanding of learners and a mutual capacity building between learners and adult educators, following the landmark works by Freire (L972) on liberating (and not: domesticating) education and corresponding learning theories. This paper pays pafticular attention to the issue of transformation, on the individual and on the collective level, and aims to contribute to social and environmentaljustice by means of humanization and democratization. In so döing, we contribute to the andragogical movement for "globalization from below" in terms of fostering an alternative discourse rooted in praxis in the sense of a "counter-hegemonic globalization" (de Sousa Santos, as cited in an interview with Peter Mayo in Suoranta, 2010, p. 117).