INTRODUCTION TO FINDING VOICE AND LISTENING: THE POTENTIAL OF COMMUNITY- AND ARTS-BASED ADULT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

This special issue of the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education includes nine articles that explore community- and arts-based research and/or pedagogy and the power of these practices to create opportunities for those living on the margins to find their voices, tell their stories, and be heard by others. While adult educators and researchers oriented to addressing social injustices and inequalities have long been concerned with the matter of voice, in this special issue we include accounts of community- and arts-based activities that created conditions for those voices to be heard. There is no possibility for change if there is no audience for these voices. Creative expression in various forms has much to offer practices that are concerned with enabling individuals and groups located on the margins of dominant society to speak and be heard.