Taking into account the rapid progress in all areas of life that was made at the turn of the 20th century this volume discusses how best to educate both sexes, from all social classes, referring to Greek, Roman and Egyptian education as a starting point.

The authors argue that the aim of research should be to improve practice through a process of critical reflection. Focusing clearly on the everyday concerns and problems of practitioners, they emphasize the importance of practical knowledge. Their definition of practice is wide, and includes the generation of theory and the doing of research as well as front-line teaching. They show how notions of adult learning and the adult learner have been constituted mainly through theory and research in psychology and sociology, and examine action research as a mode of understanding. They conclude by...

This book has two purposes: first to argue that there is a greater need now than ever before for liberal adult education for the working class. Such provision would both help to ameliorate the gross inequalities of our society and provide some counter-balance to the increasingly utilitarian and vocational orientation of post-school education. Secondly, the book aims to describe and analyse in some detail the community-based programme for various disadvantaged working class groups that has been developed by a British Pioneer Work team concerned with adult continuing education. The methods,...

This book provides a comprehensive sociological overview of adult and continuing education. It draws on all branches of sociology rather than advocating one approach. It examines the theories of all the significant sociological writers in the field such as Knowles, Marx, Freire and Gramsci and sets them in the broader intellectual context. It also considers the content of the curriculum in adult education and the place of adult education in society at large. The author indicates the strengths and weaknesses of the different sociological perspectives and demonstrates how they can be used to...

This book is a logical progression from The Sociology of Adult and Continuing Education. The author takes a completely new approach to the subject and puts forward a model of adult learning which is analysed in depth. This model arises from the results of a research project in which adults analysed their own learning experiences.

As more is discovered about the powerful impact of lifelong learning on adults, educators are changing their views about how, when and where we learn. Learning is no longer defined only in the context of formal educational settings but in social context as well including families, the workplace, and religious and political groups. This book explores how learning is our lifetime quest to understand personal identity, purpose and meaning while conforming and adapting to the perceived and real confines of our paradoxical society.

The author examines the complex social experience of...

In facing the question who runs the universities, the authors have carried out over a period of years an extensive programme of interviews, both formal and informal, as well as a detailed study of documents. Their findings are written up in the language of politics in terms of power, authority, influence, regulation and decision making. The result is thus of value both to those with a practical interest in universities and to those with a more theoretical interest in politics or organisational behaviour.

The rapid expansion of higher education provision, particularly in Europe and North America during the 1960s opened up for the first time the question whether everyone should have the opportunity to experience the benefits of higher university and other institutions. The contributors are economists, sociologists and politicians and all have different assumptions, commitments and postures.

The nature of adult education at individual, group and community levels is the concern of this book. Definitions and patterns of adult learning are critically assessed in both this country and abroad, and the processes involved considered in detail. Both case studies and thematic articles have been included and are selected to illustrate the breadth of the field along a number of areas: formal, non-formal and informal education; face-to-face and distance education; from basic levels of education to higher education; from highly deterministic to more open or self-directed forms of...

This book opens with a survey of the historical evolution of adult education in the UK and leads on to the study of the structure of adult learning. It discusses distance teaching opportunities such as the Open University and the National Extension College, and face-to-face teaching provision in adult education centres. It also looks at specific programmes such as the Adult Literacy Initiative in the mid-1970s, and at target groups like the adult unemployed, women and ethnic groups. Comprehensive and yet broad-ranging, this volume contains much new material that offers interesting insights...