Adult Education Combating Poverty - Learning for Action

Edinburgh Adult Education Group (EAEG) used funding from the National Upskilling programme to develop a programme of CPD opportunities for practitioners. One such opportunity focused on how the CLD sector should respond to rising poverty and financial insecurity.

Recognising that adult education is increasingly directed towards the aim of reducing poverty by building individuals’ skills and knowledge for the labour market, the organisers developed a programme that drew on the history of adult education, reflecting a much broader definition of learning that develops critical consciousness, social justice and active citizenship.

Academics and practitioners from the fields of social policy, and adult education were invited to present and participate in discussion to explore the potential of adult education to combat poverty.

Following the programme, a resource pack was produced to allow the ideas and resources used in the programme to be shared.

A total of 25 people participated in the programme of 6 sessions which ran from November 2010 to January 2011. The sessions included:

1. ‘Perceptions and deceptions’ A lecture by Adrian Sinfield, emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Political Science University of Edinburgh. (Link here to video)Professor Sinfield’s lecture assisted practitioners to reflect on the experience of poverty in Scotland, how definitions and discourses of poverty change and how these definitions and discourses shape social policy and public services.

2. ‘The role of Adult Education against Poverty’ The aim of this seminar was to explore the impact of political discourses and policies on Adult Education practice and to discuss the relevance and potential of Adult Education to combat poverty.

  • Preece, Julia (2010) ‘Response to Learning through Life: thematic area of poverty reduction’ international Journal of Lifelong Education, 29: 4, 475-485
  • Kelly, Peter (2010) ‘Poverty in Scotland: Three challenges for community development’. In Community Empowerment: critical perspectives from Scotland edited by Akwugo Emejulu and Mae Shaw.
  • McCabe, Lynn (2010) ‘Capacity building for activism: learning from the past for the future’. In Community Empowerment: critical perspectives from Scotland edited by Akwugo Emejulu and Mae Shaw.

3. ‘Real Jobs or Dead End’ - this session focused on communities learning through social action with a presentation by Alison Millar, Development Worker North Edinburgh Trust.

4. ‘Communities explore poverty and social action through film’ - the Anti Poverty Alliance made a film to raise awareness of poverty in Scotland from the perspective of 3 communities, students at Kirkcaldy High School, adults at Clydebank Independent Resource Centre and damned Rebel Bitches at Tollcross Community Centre Edinburgh.

5. ‘Adult education and poverty: some personal reflections’. Ian Martin, Emeritus Research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, assisted participants to reflect on the kind of adult education we envisage, on how we conceive of the problem of poverty and therefore its solutions. Ian argued that education is used as the ‘waste paper basket’ of social policy where solutions to social problems are uncertain or where there is a disinclination to wrestle with them seriously.

6. ‘Building ideas and alliances for social action in Edinburgh’. Drawing on conclusions reached at the previous session, and following a presentation on Participatory Action Research, participants worked in small groups to identify ideas for participatory action research on poverty.

Outcome for learners (practitioners)

Comments drawn from the evaluation of the programme confirm that participants were ‘inspired’, their practice had been ‘greatly enhanced’ and there was a commitment from many to develop their use of social action research in their work.

Last modified: Sunday, 30 August 2015, 6:41 PM