Adult Learning And Social Change In The Uk

Adult education offers the potential to enhance the individual's sense of agency to direct and improve their future; this is especially important in times of significant societal unrest. It may lead to social change and even social justice. This book begins with a new consideration of historical perspectives of radical adult education in the UK and how these might inform planning for future adult education which is both relevant and emancipatory. The volume aims to capture some of the 'messiness' of adult education through analysis of a wide range of its many forms and a focus on the learners themselves, the different kinds of providers and the wider community around them. Individual chapters offer insights into an environmental community gardening scheme, provision for refugees and asylum seekers, the radical role of volunteers, the impact of discussion groups for older people and the National Community Service scheme for young adults. The book considers the significance of the Sustainable Development Goals, each of which includes targets linked with adult training, awareness-raising or education. Considering the factors for effective adult education programmes for social change, this volume questions the extent to which it can be argued that positive social change results from adult education. Active learning, group learning and education which is practical, flexible and individualised may provide the best routes ahead. The wide-ranging case studies demonstrate the importance of recognising and valuing adult learners' prior knowledge, and the need for alternative approaches to assessment.

Adult education offers the potential to enhance the individual's sense of agency to direct and improve their future; this is especially important in times of significant societal unrest. It may lead to social change and even social justice. This book begins with a new consideration of historical perspectives of radical adult education in the UK and how these might inform planning for future adult education which is both relevant and emancipatory. The volume aims to capture some of the 'messiness' of adult education through analysis of a wide range of its many forms and a focus on the learners themselves, the different kinds of providers and the wider community around them. Individual chapters offer insights into an environmental community gardening scheme, provision for refugees and asylum seekers, the radical role of volunteers, the impact of discussion groups for older people and the National Community Service scheme for young adults. The book considers the significance of the Sustainable Development Goals, each of which includes targets linked with adult training, awareness-raising or education. Considering the factors for effective adult education programmes for social change, this volume questions the extent to which it can be argued that positive social change results from adult education. Active learning, group learning and education which is practical, flexible and individualised may provide the best routes ahead. The wide-ranging case studies demonstrate the importance of recognising and valuing adult learners' prior knowledge, and the need for alternative approaches to assessment.

What lies beyond the current preoccupation with education and its relationship to economic growth? Has the idea of community engagement in the mixed economy of welfare through a radical, critical form of participative learning disappeared, or is it re-emerging in a different form? Adult Learning, Critical Intelligence and Social Change offers a wide range of perspectives on these and other issues which have emerged since the 1980s. In the last 15 years, adult education has been subjected to restructuring around the promotion of market forces, moving away from the agenda of education for transformation towards a narrower agenda of meeting vocational needs. In the process, it has become demonstrably less neutral and more overtly controversial, more vital than ever in providing essential skills and knowledge and in developing alternative visions for democratic social change. This book reviews the context of these developments and focuses on contemporary debates in workplace and community based adult education and the impact of NVQs, competence based approaches and APL on women and ethnic minority communities.Individual essays illustrate critical and dynamic approaches to adult learning, providing examples of commitment and progressive perspectives in practice, in Britain and beyond. The book opens with a critical review of the context for these changes and of the theoretical debates which attempt to analyse and explain them. The chapters which follow offer specific challenges to postmodernism in relation to adult learning, and focus more generally on critical debates around culture and theory. Developments in trade union education, women's education and vocational education are considered in depth. Both as an expert overview of developments since 1980 and as a source of inspiration for a more progressive agenda, this collection will appeal to students and practitioners in all forms of adult education

Originally published in 1982, this book discusses the role of adult education in social and community action. In particular it presents a critical assessment of 'community education' and the theories of Illich, Freire and Gramsci and it proves that there is a radical adult education tradition in the USA, Europe and North America which can offer many insights into the contemporary debate about the role of adult learning. The material is based on a decade of practical involvement in community action and education in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, where - despite deep political and religious divisions - community action has united Catholics and Protestants in a common resolve.

Adopting a 'social practice' approach to literacy research based on ethnographic methods, this book provides a strong critique of dominant understandings of the role of literacy in the lives of adults in Australia. It explores how groups of working-class adults can manage the literacy practices of their everyday lives by drawing on social networks of support. It is based on research conducted by the author over a forty-year career in adult literacy education, featuring the voices of varied adult groups, including: prisoners, the long-term unemployed, local council workers, manufacturing workers, adult literacy students, marginalised young people, vocational students, and patients living with a chronic illness (type 2 diabetes). Each chapter explains how dominant society views these adult groups in relation to literacy, and provides a qualitative examination at the local level of how members of these groups manage the literacy practices of their everyday lives.

Based on an extended period of ethnographic research and observation of migrant workers' educational programmes, this book presents a theoretical exploration of social and educational issues in an industrialised area in south China. It highlights the tensions existing between the traditional ideology stressing collectivism, selfless devotion and teacher-centred teaching, and the new social practices promoting commercialization, personal development and interactive teaching. The author provides first-hand descriptions and analyses of rural-urban migrant workers' lives, work and education. He develops the ethnographic approach by analysing the tensions and contradictions in the implementation processes of educational policies in the region. The book argues that the educational programmes, which focused on elite workers to support the development of industrialization and urbanization projects, assisted migrant workers as students in promoting their aspirations. However, this also stratified migrant workers, thus increasing gaps in socioeconomic status and professional development. Education policy design and implementation are observed as a dynamic process, thus contributing to a nuanced understanding of adult education and migration at a micro level.

Can adult education and learning be understood without reference to community and people’s daily lives? The response to be found in the chapters of this volume say emphatically no, they cannot. Adult learning can be best understood if we look at the social life of people in communities, and this book is an attempt to recover this view. The chapters of this volume reflect ongoing research in the field of adult education and learning in and with communities. At the same time the work of the authors presented here offers a very vital reflection of the work of the ESREA research network Between Local and Global – Adult Learning and Communities. The chapters showcase the broad range of professional practice, the variety in both methodology and theoretical background, as well as the impressive scope of field research experience the authors bring to bear in their papers. The first section provides the broad view of research into adult learning and community development emphasising how social movements are at the heart of local and global change and that they are critically important sources of power. The second section focuses in on the practice of educators/mediators working in local and regional contexts in which the tensions of the wider policy and discourse environment impact on adult learners. The third section privileges the view at the close level of research inside local communities in the field. International researchers and practitioners, particularly young researchers, who are active in adult learning and in local/global communities will be interested in this book. The emphasis of the chapters is on participatory and emancipatory social research. Empowerment of women in rural communities, involvement of communities in social and environmental movements, power-sharing in community research projects and the exposure of hegemonic, globalising forces at work in ethnic communities are among the themes developed in this volume.