Introduction from the editors

The Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education Spring 2026 Themed Issue - Adult Education and Sustainability - invites us to explore how sustainability knowledge and practices can make a difference in the lives of adults. As humans on a finite planet, we are facing an interconnected set of existential issues: climate change, war, displacement, and widespread precarity. In this context, sustainability may appear a distant goal. However, the history of adult education shows that adults continue to learn, even in the face of great adversity. Learning sustainability involves a pedagogy of hope that calls on all of us to become both educators and learners, working together toward a more sustainable world. This issue is a call to action for the adult education community to envision how their research, teaching, and practice can do more to foster sustainable ways of knowing, relating and being.