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Using Hélène Cixous´ notion of ´l´écriture féminine´ as an analogy for transformational learning and an investigative tool, Hoult explores why some adult learners are able to survive and thrive in the education system, despite facing significantly more challenges than the average student.

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PART I: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND INTRODUCTION Introduction PART II: ANALYSIS OF LITERARY TEXTS Pygmalion as allegory for transformational adult learning: Ovid, Shaw and Hughes Educating Rita and Oleanna The Winter´s Tale PART III: BIOGRAPHICAL DATA Interview with Joe Interview with Jane Interview with Sarah PART IV: AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL DATA Interview with Lilian Autobiographical Writing Final thoughts

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"This is one of the most original and entertaining books I have ever read . . . It will make you think and it will make you humble. It might even make you grateful . . . I submit that it would be difficult not to think about your own learning and your learners as you read Elizabeth Chapman Hoult´s words. Adult Learning and la Recherche Féminine is a rare discovery. It isn´t often that a book impresses me as much as this one did, and I hereby salute the author´s acuity and skill." - Journal of Pedagogic Development

"Every so often a book appears that deeply challenges the reductionism of narrowly scientific, overly rationalistic, writing on education. Elizabeth Chapman Hoult´s text sensitively transcends poetic and scientific ways of knowing, the philosophical and personal, the material and spiritual, self and other, in chronicling and celebrating the vulnerability, resilience and mystery that is transformative learning." - Linden West, Professor of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University

"Hoult´s book provides a striking account of what it means to survive and flourish as a learner. Giving interdisciplinary attention both to literary texts and to student interviews, Hoult affirms the value of working with and through creative experience. In doing so, this book provides a suggestive antidote to the dominance of impersonal ´evidence-based´ educational studies." - Ben Knights, National Teaching Fellow, Emeritus Professor of English and Cultural Studies, School of Arts and Media, Teesside University

"This powerful and stunningly written book marks a new direction in the use of literary perspectives in educational research. It is particularly strong in its development of an innovative methodology to explore the nature of resilience in adult learners. An inspiring read." - Vivienne Griffiths, Director of Research and Professor of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University

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Elizabeth Hoult is a National Teaching Fellow in the Department of Psychosocial Studies and Programme Director: MSc in Education, Power and Social Change; PGCE(HE); Graduate Certificate in Supporting Learning and Teaching; Fundamentals of Teaching at Birkbeck, University of London, UK

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