Adult education and belonging

Access to education is a matter of individual and communal justice and development. However, simple access to education, and simple inclusion as often noted in DEI, fail to capture the structures of power and inequality that limit the potential of education. It is not enough to be in education, we must aim for an education adult students can belong to. This requires that we re-conceptualize belonging as complex, non-binary, and multifaceted, acknowledging the struggles of our adult students to participate in education. For this re-conceptualization, we call upon theories of liminal belonging, in particular Anzaldúa's idea of mestiza consciousness. We use adult education students in Ecuador as a case study to reflect on the gender and identity struggles to belong and conclude with some recommendations of how pedagogy and institutions can be adapted to foster belonging for adult learners.