This paper addresses the changing conditions and potentials of education research by focusing on adult and informal education as a critical site where knowing and acting intersect. It explores how biographical “moments of enough” operate as informal learning processes and how they challenge traditional understandings of what counts as educational knowledge, evidence, and impact.

The central research question guiding the study is:
How can biographical moments of rupture in adult women’s lives be understood as forms of informal learning, and what do they reveal about the changing epistemological conditions of education research?

The paper argues that contemporary education research – particularly in adult education – is increasingly confronted with forms of learning that occur outside institutional settings, curricula, and measurable outcomes. These learning processes are often triggered by lived experiences of inequality, exhaustion, and reflexive insight rather than by formal educational interventions. Gendered “moments of enough” are conceptualised here as critical biographical ruptures in which accumulated informal learning translates into action.

The theoretical framework draws on biographical learning theory (Alheit), transformative learning (Mezirow, Illeris), feminist epistemology (Butler), and reflexivity theory (Archer). Together, these perspectives allow for a reconceptualisation of informal learning not merely as tacit or incidental, but as epistemically significant and socially situated. From this viewpoint, knowing is produced through experience, reflection, and confrontation with structural constraints, while acting becomes an integral part of the learning process.

By foregrounding adult informal learning, the paper responds directly to the Special Call’s concern with the evolving role of education research. It positions education research as a field that must grapple with blurred boundaries between research, learning, and action, and with growing expectations regarding social relevance, responsibility, and impact. In this sense, the study treats education research itself as a reflexive practice embedded in power relations and ethical commitments.

Importantly, the paper contributes to ongoing methodological and epistemological debates by questioning dominant assumptions about where learning takes place, how it can be recognised, and whose knowledge is considered legitimate. By focusing on biographical ruptures rather than linear learning trajectories, it highlights the limitations of outcome-orientated and institution-centred research models. Instead, it proposes an understanding of adult learning as discontinuous, emotionally charged, and deeply entangled with questions of power, gender, and agency.

The European and international dimension is addressed through the relevance of adult informal learning in contemporary European contexts marked by precarity, gender inequality, changing labour markets, and policy-driven lifelong learning agendas. The paper situates individual biographies within broader European debates on gender equality, adult education, and the limits of institutional learning frameworks.

In doing so, it also engages with current European discussions on research impact and responsibility, suggesting that education research must develop conceptual tools capable of capturing learning processes that resist easy measurement but carry significant transformative potential.

Ultimately, the paper argues that recognising biographical ruptures as sites of informal learning expands the potential of education research. It invites researchers to reconsider dominant notions of evidence, validity, and impact, and to acknowledge moments where knowing compels acting as central to understanding learning in adult life.

The study employs a qualitative research design grounded in biographical and narrative methodologies commonly used in adult education research. Empirical material consists of in-depth semi-structured interviews with adult women conducted within the research project “Exploring Midlife Transition Experiences in Women Over 40: A Qualitative Inquiry Through Reflexive Thematic Analysis”, focusing on education, professional and personal development, and life transitions. Interviews were designed to elicit narratives of learning beyond formal educational settings, with particular attention to moments of tension, exhaustion, and decision-making. Rather than asking directly about “learning”, participants were encouraged to reconstruct their life trajectories, key experiences, and turning points. This approach allows informal and experiential learning processes to emerge inductively, without imposing predefined educational categories. Data analysis followed a Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) strategy to identify recurring patterns related to gendered expectations, institutional constraints, informal learning experiences, and agency. In a second analytical step, particular attention was paid to moments of rupture - identified as “moments of enough” - examining their temporal structure, emotional intensity, and consequences for action. These moments were analysed as processual rather than episodic, situated within longer trajectories of informal learning and reflexive sense-making. The concept of “moments of enough” was developed abductively through iterative engagement between empirical material and theory. Reflexivity functioned as both an analytical category and a methodological principle, recognising the researcher’s positionality and the co-constructed nature of knowledge in qualitative research. In this sense, the research process itself reflects the knowing–acting dynamic by treating interpretation as an engaged and ethically situated practice rather than a neutral analytical exercise. Ethical considerations included informed consent, anonymity, and sensitivity to emotionally charged narratives. The methodology aligns with European qualitative research standards and contributes to current debates on methodological innovation in adult and informal education research, particularly concerning how non-institutional learning processes can be made visible, analytically robust, and epistemically legitimate.

The study is expected to show that biographical ruptures constitute a significant but under-theorised form of informal learning in adulthood. Gendered “moments of enough” emerge as learning processes in which accumulated experiential knowledge, reflexivity, and emotional labour lead to decisive action. Findings suggest that these moments challenge linear and institutional models of learning by revealing learning as discontinuous, relational, and ethically charged. Rather than resulting from planned educational interventions, learning appears here as a response to lived contradictions, structural inequalities, and limits of adaptation. In this sense, moments of rupture function as thresholds where knowing becomes inseparable from acting. The analysis also highlights the limitations of education research approaches that prioritise formal settings, predefined outcomes, or easily measurable impacts. By focusing on informal, biographically embedded learning processes, the study questions dominant assumptions about evidence, effectiveness, and success in adult education research. Importantly, the paper is expected to contribute to current debates on the role and responsibility of education research under changing social conditions. It demonstrates that recognising learning embedded in action requires methodological openness and epistemological reflexivity, as well as a willingness to engage with normative questions related to inequality, power, and agency. The paper concludes that adult education research gains new potential when it acknowledges moments of rupture as epistemically valuable and analytically productive. Such an approach allows education research to better capture how individuals navigate complex social realities and enact change in their lives. More broadly, the findings suggest that education research must move beyond documenting learning outcomes towards understanding learning as a transformative process that reshapes both individual biographies and the conditions under which education itself is researched.

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