“What do I say Now?”: Teacher vulnerability and professional judgment in civic adult education

This study explores how teachers navigate the emotional, moral, and professional challenges that arise when spontaneous controversial issues (SCIs) surface in adult education. Drawing on interviews with 24 teachers in Swedish Municipal Adult Education (MAE), a thematic narrative analysis identified a recurring experience of ‘being at a loss’ when responding to unexpected classroom controversies. To illustrate this, a detailed narrative of Linda, an experienced Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) teacher, shows how experiences of teacher vulnerability and uncertainty are inherent in such moments. Her stories, centred on spontaneous classroom discussions of COVID-19 and Iran’s veiling laws, show how professional judgment and decision-making emerge from a liminal ‘in-between’ space where personal values, professional beliefs, and institutional discourses intersect. The analysis reframes ‘gatekeeping’ when addressing SCIs as an ethico-political practice of professional judgment within conditions of uncertainty and vulnerability. Accordingly, rather than treating teacher vulnerability and SCIs as problems to be solved, the study argues that narrative case-reflection on such liminal spaces offers opportunities for civic adult education to cultivate teachers’ capacity for wise professional judgment about ‘what matters’ in educational life.