Josephine Finn

Josephine Finn is lecturer and Head of Adult and Community Education Department at Maynooth University, Ireland. She is an educational professional for 20 years.  She is a strong advocate for lifelong learning as a means of promoting human agency for personal and collective empowerment. She has a deep interest in policy development in adult education and lifelong learning. In particular she is interested in the conditions that influence policy change and the interlocking regimes and societal and economic circumstances that drive it.  She was recently involved in number of European funded research projects: an initiative to establish an inclusive model of higher education for students with intellectual disabilities in Maynooth University; a project that explored the opportunities for expanding university lifelong leaning in Palestine and a European network that looked at the role of practitioner research in adult education and explored ways of bridging gaps between research and practice. Her personal research interests include Recognition of Prior Learning and the challenges of cultural diversity in adult education settings.