This symposium is occasioned by three remarkable PhD dissertations in the field of learning and development. All three concern strategies of fostering agency of those less heard: of school children and teachers in a local school in Groningen, of youth and their educators in vocational education in Uganda, and of lifelong learning practitioners in NGOs in Uganda. All three apply Action Research methods aimed at freeing, ‘unlocking’, the agency of participants and their communities.

We are very pleased that the PASCAL Observatory and its Learning Cities Networks, with their European centre hosted by CR&DALL at the University of Glasgow, are partners in the 2021 Global Learning Festival being organised from 8-11 November by the cities of Wyndham and Melton in Australia. Many of the member cities of the LCN are making contributions, including Medellin, Taipei, Wolverhampton and of course Wyndham itself.