About This Publication
This book surveys the history of British adult education over the past two centuries, attempting to throw more light on the present and the future by critically analysing its historical development. Its intention is to contribute to a debate about the nature and significance of adult education in Britain by measuring its aims against achievements and comparing the rhetoric with the reality. It attempts to calculate how influential adult education has been and to what effect (if any) it has had on society. It relates the historical development to the wider policy and ideological context within which it took place.
The book also asks what purpose did this adult education serve? Was it predominantly for individual personal fulfilment or for social development? Did adult education help to produce a more active citizenship or a better informed and participatory democracy? Was its prime purpose to make good the inadequacies of schooling by offering those who had ‘failed’ a second chance? Or was it merely more education in adulthood for whoever wanted it? Was it primarily vocational in orientation? Was it a form of social control? Was it in reality a mixture of most or all of these functions, some of which became more important than others at different times, and in different situations? These are the kinds of critical question that it attempts to answer.
The book also asks what purpose did this adult education serve? Was it predominantly for individual personal fulfilment or for social development? Did adult education help to produce a more active citizenship or a better informed and participatory democracy? Was its prime purpose to make good the inadequacies of schooling by offering those who had ‘failed’ a second chance? Or was it merely more education in adulthood for whoever wanted it? Was it primarily vocational in orientation? Was it a form of social control? Was it in reality a mixture of most or all of these functions, some of which became more important than others at different times, and in different situations? These are the kinds of critical question that it attempts to answer.
Contents
| Preface | ||
| Chapter 1. | Historical and Political Context | Roger Fieldhouse |
| Chapter 2. | The Nineteenth Century | Roger Fieldhouse |
| Chapter 3. | An Overview of British Adult Education in the Twentieth Century | Roger Fieldhouse |
| Chapter 4. | The Local Education Authorities and Adult Education | Roger Fieldhouse |
| Chapter 5. | Community Education: the dialectics of development | Ian Martin |
| Chapter 6. | Literacy and Adult Basic Education | Mary Hamilton |
| Chapter 7. | The Workers' Educational Association | Roger Fieldhouse |
| Chapter 8. | University Adult Education | Roger Fieldhouse |
| Chapter 9. | Residential Colleges and Non-residential Settlements and Centres | Walter Drews and Roger Fieldhouse |
| Chapter 10. | Independent Working Class Education and Trade Union Education and Training | John McIlroy |
| Chapter 11. | The Open University | Naomi Sargant |
| Chapter 12. | Adult Education Auxiliaries and Informal Learning | Peter Baynes and Harold Marks |
| Chapter 13. | Learning for Work: vocational education and training | John Field |
| Chapter 14. | Broadcasting and Adult Education | Brian Groombridge |
| Chapter 15. | Women and Adult Education | Roseanne Benn |
| Chapter 16. | British Adult Education: past, present and future | Roger Fieldhouse |
| Bibliography | ||
| Notes on Contributors | ||
| Index |