Inclusive adult learning and education in India and Germany: On the intersectionality of class and caste with disability

Abstract

This conceptual paper tackles the subject of inclusive adult learning and education , comparing the cases of India and Germany. Whereas the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) provides a policy framework for the overdue implementation of an 'inclusive education system and lifelong learning' (UNCRPD 2006, Art. 24), the global lack of comparable statistical data on adults with disabilities and the realities of being marginalised in, or even excluded from, the community of lifelong learners continue (e.g. UNESCO, 2019; WHO, 2007). The current comparative analysis follows landmark theoretical works on intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) and ableism (Campbell, 2009) and draws upon the categories of class (Candeias, 2021; Goldberg, 2018) for the German case and caste (Kothari et al., 2020; Yengde, 2022) for the Indian case and their intersectional impacts on disability and lifelong learning , discussing empowering and oppressive effects on adult learners.