Adult Learning and Social Change in the UK: National and Local Perspectives

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Adult education offers the potential to enhance the individuals 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.

Reviews

It is wonderful to read such inspiring experiences of adult learning and education in relation to social change. The offered insightful tools of analysis are comprehensive and accessible. This book provides an excellent cutting-edge vision of how and why equitable and inclusive approaches can create opportunities and broaden horizons globally. -- Priti Chopra, University of Greenwich, UK
At a time of growing global polarization, precarity and volatility, this collection provides a fascinating and heart-warming set of insights into the ways in which often unacknowledged adult learning projects and initiatives continue to enrich the social fabric of British society. Tracing the foundations of adult education in the devastation of the post-World War 1 period and post-Spanish Flu outbreak, across efforts to build solidarity with radical adult education movements in other countries, the collection shows that adult education continues to be a permanent national necessity, despite the efforts of neoliberal government to cut-back, curtail or co-opt such work. Offering a wide range of new analytical concepts to understand how this enriching of the social fabric occurs through adult learning, the book charts a course that researchers and scholars of adult education across the world could draw from to document the role of such work in wider processes of social change. -- Catherine Kell, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Author Bio

Jules Robbins is an independent researcher, UK, with over 25 years of experience teaching in secondary, primary and adult education. She is also a senior examiner of English. Alan Rogers was Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia, UK and University of Nottingham, UK. He was a teacher, trainer and author in the field of adult education and international development with many years of experience working in Asia and Africa.