Radicalizing Learning calls for a total rethinking of what the field of adult education stands for and how adult educators should assess their effectiveness. Arguing that major changes in society are needed to create a more just world, the authors set out to show how educators can help learners envision and enact this radical transformation. Specifically, the book explores the areas of adult learning, training, teaching, facilitation, program development, and research. Each chapter provides a guide to the different paradigms and perspectives that prevail across the field of theory and practice. The authors then tie all of the themes into how adult learning for participatory democracy works in a diverse society.

This text analyses the history of social movement & civil society theory within radical adult education & the Left. It argues that Gramasci did not advocate building civil society but proletarian hegemony.

This is a comprehensive and critical analysis of the philosophical foundations of adult education. Six major systems of educational thought -- liberal education, progressivism, behaviorism, humanistic education, radicalism, and conceptual analysis -- provide the framework for an examination of the views of prominent adult educators and major programs in adult education. This much-needed work contributes to our understanding of the personalities, issues, and programs in the field of education; it also stimulates readers to clarify their own personal philosophy of education. A bibliographic essay presents the developments in each of the six systems over the past 15 years. Three major areas -- phenomenology, critical theory, and feminist theory -- are discussed within this framework.

This book is written at a time when our own field of adult education is under assault from a variety of capitalist and neoconservative forces pressuring us... to turn away from the causes of criticality, lifelong learning, and education for freedom. Rather than succumb to these pressures, we have hope that our long term goals of education for life and living can and will be accomplished alongside professional and vocational education. This book offers new insight into what is a very dark moment of our human civilization. From the preface by Dr Carlos Alberto Torres, Professor, GSEIS, Director, Paulo Freire Institute, University of California at Los Angeles The book offers decidedly critical and international perspectives on various aspects of adult education, especially on state, citizenship and neoliberal policies. Critical in both content and method, it is at the same time the part of the collective work needed to advance the Belém call to action by furthering awareness and capacity in the field of adult education. Dr Katarina Popovic, Professor,Universität Duisburg-Essen, University of Belgrade & DBB International, In the midst of diminishing resources and growing inequalities, English and Mayo provide an incisive and much needed critique of adult education in ways that highlight not only its historical and philosophical roots but also its major significance to the practice of democracy. In a direct challenge to the neoliberal accountability craze, Learning with Adults offers a rigorous political reading of the field—one that systematically challenges oppressive educational policies and practices, while affirming an emancipatory vision of civic engagement. Truly an informative treatise that sheds new light on the education of adults. Dr Antonia Darder Professor & Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair in Education Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles Leona English and Peter Mayo challenge hegemonic assumptions and ideas, while offering a constructive alternative based on the principle of working with learners and not just for them. Their analysis is accessible enough for newcomers to the field, while the authors’ wide-ranging coverage and radical approach provide refreshing and challenging messages for the most experienced adult educator. Up-to-date, genuinely international and passionately committed, Learning with Adults is a great book. Dr John Field, Professor,University of Stirling Cover design by Annemarie Mayo

Originally published in 1986, this book was written at a time of increasing pressure on traditional areas of secondary and higher education and changing employment patterns - a situation which still exists today. Then, as now, there is increased awareness that the continuing education of adults has a vital role to play in our society. This volume develops a socialist pedagogy within adult education, using a Marxist theoretical framework. It proposes socialism as the radical form of change necessary to remove obstacles to greater social justice and educational equality and studies the implications of this political position for adult education.

What is education, what is it for and what are its fundamental values? How do we understand knowledge and learning? What is our image of the child and the school? How does the ever more pressing need to develop a more just, creative and sustainable democratic society affect our responses to these questions? Addressing these fundamental issues, Fielding and Moss contest the current mainstream dominated by markets and competition, instrumentality and standardisation, managerialism and technical practice. They argue instead for a radical education with democracy as a fundamental value, care as a central ethic, a person-centred education that is education in the broadest sense, and an image of a child rich in potential. Radical education, they say, should be practiced in the ‘common school’, a school for all children in its local catchment area, age-integrated, human scale, focused on depth of learning and based on team working. A school understood as a public space for all citizens, a collective workshop of many purposes and possibilities, and a person-centred learning community, working closely with other schools and with local authorities. The book concludes by examining how we might bring such transformation about. Written by two of the leading experts in the fields of early childhood and secondary education, the book covers a wide vista of education for children and young people. Vivid examples from different stages of education are used to explore the full meaning of radical democratic education and the common school and how they can work in practice. It connects rich thinking and experiences from the past and present to offer direction and hope for the future. It will be of interest and inspiration to all who care about education - teachers and students, academics and policy makers, parents and politicians.