33 Historical perspective on International Organizations in Adult Education

Structure

Introduction

1.1. Early Adult Education Movements (18th and 19th Centuries)

1.2 Adult Education from 1900 to 1950

1.3 Adult Education after World War II

Conclusion

Learning objectives

At the end of this module, the learner will be able to –

1.    Relate important Early Adult Education Movements of the 18th and 19th Centuries

2.    Explain Adult Education movements from 1900 to 1950 and correlate these with social movements of that time

3.    Describe Adult Education after World War II

Introduction

Adult education became a reality with the advent of the industrial society. The first industrial societies appeared in Western Europe and the first modern adult education practices emerged and grew in the countries that were the flagship of the new capitalist system of production, such as England. Modern adult education practices were documented during the first half of the 18th century in Norway, where, according to Federighi (1999), the first state provisions in favour of adult education were also found. However, apart from these provisions, which were an exception rather than the custom, adult education was mainly the work of humanitarian, religious, and other non-state-related groups, whose aim was to raise the literacy levels in the population.

Bown (2000) contended that “many of the seminal ideas and innovations in twentieth century adult education came from the South” (p. 3). In the literature related to adult education and lifelong learning, there is a recent tendency to refer to regions of the world in the process of development as “South” and here, the term shall not be understood geographically. It seems, however, that there is no logical reason why ideas and innovations did not occur before then. Indeed, adult education practices are part of the human tradition everywhere. What changed, though, is the interaction and exchanges between cultures. Now we know more about each other. There are also differences in the way different cultures have recorded their adult education practices. The oral form of knowledge dissemination was and still is dear to many cultures in the world, although it may lack the visibility of the print-based form. The Transylvanian School (Şcoala Ardeleană) movement (1730-1800) is an example of what today would be called an adult basic literacy campaign. This campaign aimed to eradicate illiteracy among the Romanian population and impose Romanian as the de facto language of instruction in a period of foreign occupation, in which its use was banned. During this time, hundreds of schools were built, so that by the late 1700s every town and village had at least one school, which was used both for the education of children and for adult literacy training. However, because this movement was neither reported, nor well documented, it did not exist in the literature related to adult education and lifelong learning.

Adult education developed and became established as a field of practice during the most intense period of the Industrial Revolution. The causes of this were threefold. First, adult education was propelled by the industrial bourgeoisie’s interest in having available manual labour, which was capable of participating in a productive activity, undergoing constant educational development. Second, the emerging working class was interested in directing the new training possibilities brought about by the new production processes. These new training possibilities were tied to its desire for emancipation and for overcoming exploitation, as well as to the effects of the early capitalist social division of labour. Third, throughout Europe, the new needs and interests of the emerging social classes (bourgeoisie and proletariat) together with their raised aspirations contributed to the formation of national states. Thus, adult education was perceived as an important means of achieving national unity and cementing the power of the newly formed national states.

By the turn of the 19th century, adult education, in the form of schools and professional training centres for adults or young workers, was an established field of practice. The practice had been “exported” overseas well before the independence of the United States, and the first historical study on adult education in the United Kingdom was published in 1850 (Federighi, 1999).1

Some of the more salient movements in the international history of adult education are described in this module. However, none of these can be neatly assigned to time periods and any attempt to classify them will lead to overlapping. Many are time-enduring examples of activities that continue today.

1.1        Early Adult Education Movements (18th and 19th Centuries)

The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed a plethora of activities aimed at the education

of adults or youth. There are many examples, such as the agricultural schools promoted by Marquis Ridolfi in the 1830s throughout Italy; the courses in Paris for gunsmith teachers; evening and Sunday classes for women workers in Massachusetts; the schools for adult workers founded by the German gun company Krupp, and the Ilyrian movement in Croatia in the 1830s (Federighi, 1999; Lavrnja & Klapan, 2000). As well as having a cultural character, such early adult education movements had a strong national revolutionary character. The movements described in this section are particularly noteworthy, either due to their span in terms of the number of people involved or their longevity or both. In addition, they proved especially influential on the developments that occurred in the theory and practice of adult education.

1.1.1 The Religious Schools of Griffith Jones

1 Pole, T. (1814; 1816). A history of the origins and progress of adult schools. Bristol, UK: C. McDowell and J. Richardson (republished by A. G. Kelley [New York] and Woburn Press [London] 1969). Effectively the first history of adult education, this book contains a mix of documents and charts on the development of provision and provides significant insight into the thinking and practice at that point.

Griffith Jones (1648-1761) was a minister of the Church of England and a member of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.2 In 1731, he started schools throughout Wales to teach people to read. These circulating schools were held in one location for about three months, before being moved to another place. The instruction was in the language of the people, Welsh. The people greeted his idea with enthusiasm and, by his death in 1761, it is estimated that over 200,000 people had learned to read in schools organised by Jones (Davies, 2002).

1.1.2 The Nordic Folk High Schools

The Folk High School (Folkhögskola) movement, a characteristically Nordic phenomenon, started in the mid-19th century in Denmark and later spread to Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This movement is particularly important in the history of adult education because it has endured the proof of time. Indeed, not only have these Folk High Schools endured, but they have proliferated throughout Northern Europe and inspired other regions to follow. The movement’s main goal is to offer general education to adults and youth through courses that cover a wide spectrum of subjects, including, in some cases, vocational education.

The idea of the Folk High School can be traced back to Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872), a Danish priest, historian, poet, and public educator. One of the most well-known personalities in the history of Danish culture, Grundtvig presented the vision of a “school for life” rather than the formal, rigid secondary and higher education of his time (Bergstedt, 2006). He sought to dissolve the gap between the elite and the common man, but on the premises of the common man. In his view, the existing school system fostered elite of intellectuals, professionals, and experts who suffered from “a tinsel disorder,” “conceit,” and “arrogance” with their barren and lofty knowledge and this system was at the root of all human and public misery. He believed that, first and foremost, teaching should be for the general

public, have the public’s current conditions of life as its point of departure, and be inspired by history and poetry that resembled the public’s conditions as closely as possible. The ideas of popular education were thus born. Through popular education, Grundtvig intended to inspire people to fight the powers and forces that threatened

2 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is the oldest Anglican mission organisation; it was founded in 1698 to encourage Christian education and the production and distribution of Christian literature. The SPCK has always sought to find ways to communicate the basic principles of the Christian faith to a wider audience, both in Britain and overseas. (Wikipedia, 2006) human life and human dignity.

Inspired by Grundtvig’s ideas, the first Folk High Schools were founded in his native Denmark in 1844 and then in Norway in 1864, in Sweden in 1868, and in Finland in 1889. One pedagogical method employed in these schools was the study circle, which was based on the view that the participants’ life experiences should be a core element in the learning situation and that teaching should be based on and related to their life experiences if there was to be any hope of motivating them to continue their studies (Carlsen, 2006).

Currently, there are about 400 Folk High Schools in the Nordic countries. Each country has its own system, but even in the same country, none of the schools is exactly similar. Every school has its own characteristics because it is free to develop the content and direction of its particular courses. These schools diverge from ordinary schools in that there is no centrally established standard curriculum and each school makes its own decisions regarding teaching plans, within the limits set by a

special ordinance. They do, however, share the underlying philosophy of the Folk High Schools, which presumes that all citizens are free and independent individuals, with the right to participate in all aspects of a democratic society. This recognition of ideological freedom continues to be a basic element of the movement. Currently, there is a focus on groups with special educational needs, for example, people with little basic education, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Folk High Schools are voluntary and open to everyone regardless of their educational background.

1.1.3 Adult Schools of the Society of Friends in England

In the development of non-conformist Christian religious thought in England, direct access to the Bible for all was an important requirement. With it came the need to be able to read, which accelerated the Church’s efforts to educate around literacy. Consequently, the first schools for adults were organised by the Methodist church and by the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers. The first adult school is said to have begun in Nottingham in 1798 to meet the needs of young women in lace and hosiery factories. Run by William Singleton (a Methodist) and Samuel Fox (a Quaker) the school was independent of any other organisation (Rowntree & Binns, 1903, pp. 10-11; Smith, 2004, pp. 26-28). Its main focus was on reading the Bible and then writing from dictation or copies. Other specifically adult schools were founded in 1814 in Southwark and in 1815 in the City of London (the inaugural meeting was held at the New London Tavern, Cheapside, on July 11), according to the first study of adult education by Quaker Thomas Pole (1816). These schools were basically non- denominational Bible classes, which usually met on Sunday mornings and afternoons, were run by voluntary teachers, and generally aimed to teach reading, especially the New Testament (Kelly, 1992).

The number of schools was relatively small, and their numbers appeared to have declined until about 1850. At that point, a slow revival of adult schools began, and the efforts of two Quaker businessmen — Joseph Sturge and William White — in Birmingham were of particular significance. Sturge’s Severn Street School, for example, added evening classes in arithmetic, geography, and grammar. As well as broadening their range of subject areas, the administrators of these schools made a conscious effort to retain participation, largely through a growing emphasis on discussion, fellowship, and mutual aid activities, such as book or library clubs, savings banks, sick funds, and temperance societies. By the end of the 19th century, there were some 350 schools involving some 45,000 participants, 29,000 of whom were associated directly with schools run by Quakers (Rowntree & Binns, 1903, p. 33). The National Council of Adult Schools was formed in 1899 to federate existing adult school associations and promote their work. As with other forms of working-class adult education, adult schools experienced a rapid jump in participation in the period up to World War I. By 1909-10, there were some 1,900 schools involving over 114,000 adults, which was the peak of participation (Smith, 2004).

The decline in the number of people attending adult schools set in just before World War I and accelerated during and after it. There were several reasons for this decline. There was, of course, the direct impact of the war and the sapping away of both teachers and participants. Another factor was the emergence of other adult education organisations such as the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). However, many people within the movement believed that the main factor was the changing mood of the time and the schools failure to recognise it. The schools maintained their emphasis on Bible study and religious exploration and, significantly, male membership dropped dramatically, although female membership fell far less quickly. In 1910, adult schools were male dominated (by 2 to 1); by 1937, they were largely female dominated (by nearly 2 to 1). By 1970, there were just 2,000 participants in adult school classes (Smith, 2004).

1.1.4 The Chautauqua Movement

Initially, the Chautauqua movement focused on teaching Sunday school (religious) teachers. Founded in 1874 by businessman Lewis Miller and Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent, it started as a summer camp event for families in western New York State on Lake Chautauqua (Canning, 2000). This summer camp promising “education and uplift”

was so successful that copies of it arose quickly across the United States. By 1904 there was a “circuit Chautauqua,” and by the 1910s circuits could be found almost everywhere in the United States. As well as evangelical speeches, the backbone of a Chautauqua was a set of lectures that were offered on various topics from current events to travel to comic storytelling. Readers and elocutionists performed, as were plays, although theatre performances in the real sense of the word were not offered until 1913. The Great Depression brought an end to most circuits, but a few continued until the beginning of World War II. As a sort of diverting, wholesome, and morally respectable vaudeville, the circuit Chautauqua was an early form of mass culture and is considered an early adult education movement (Canning, 2000).

1.1.5 The Workers’ Education Movement

The workers’ education movement began in the so-called Mechanics’ Institutes, educational establishments that were formed in the United Kingdom to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working men. As such, they were often funded by local industrialists on the grounds that they themselves would ultimately benefit from having more knowledgeable and skilled employees. These institutes served as “libraries” for the adult working class. The first institute was established in Glasgow in 1821, the second in London in 1823, and a third in Manchester in 1824.

By the mid-19th century, there were over 700 institutes in towns and cities across Britain, the United States, Australia, and Canada. In Australia, the first Mechanics’ Institute appeared in Hobart in 1827, followed by the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institute in 1839. Beginning in the 1850s, they quickly spread throughout the State of Victoria wherever a hall, library, or school was needed. Although nearly 1,000 were built, just over 500 remain today, and only 6 of those still operate their lending-library services. In Canada, the movement found fertile ground and led to the birth of the public library system. The Mechanics’ Institute of Montreal, established in 1828, contained a small library, the oldest lending library in Canada. On Christmas Eve 1830, Toronto established a similar institute, its library becoming the seed of the Toronto Public Library system (Baragwanath, 2000).

In Spain, the workers’ movement emerged about the mid-19th century. Even in its initial stages, it supported a number of educational initiatives, although popular education did not appear explicitly on its political agenda until after the September Revolution of 18683. The Spanish section of the First International developed the first education programme in the country that was specific to workers, the so-called ensenanza integral (integral education). In the late 19th and early 20th century, socialists and

3 The September Revolution of 1868 was a rebellion led by Gen. Juan Prim to overthrow Queen Isabella II.anarchists were the main agents of popular education in Spain. Both groups developed new ideas about the connection between education and revolution and set in motion a number of initiatives in different fields: adult education, vocational training, educating the children of socialist and anarchist workers, and cultural and artistic activities (Ferrer, 1996).

1.1.6 University Extension

University extension is the practice of offering courses to communities outside the walls of the university, in the form of lectures. Some believe that the practice arose in England during the late 1860s as an adult education movement (see, e.g., Woytanowitz, 1974), while others have reported that university extension lectures

were offered in Providence, Rhode Island, in the United States, as early as 1785 (Mitchell, 1993). The aim was to provide, by means of itinerant lecturers, university-style education to all people, but especially to middle-class women and the labouring poor.

In the United States, university extension became widespread in the 1880s and in the following decade became an important educational movement under the ægis of leading American academics. It was developed and expanded through Extension Divisions of universities and through independent societies that hired professors as lecturers (Woytanowitz, 1974). By the late 1890s, however, efforts to reach the working class had been mainly unsuccessful and the middle class, which had provided the majority of extension students, had developed new interests. By 1910, most extension organisations were dead or dormant. At the same time, a new type of extension appeared at some state-owned universities, especially the University of Wisconsin, and the practice was transformed from an English system to a fully American practice (Woytanowitz, 1974). Since then, the U.S. extension movement has taken many diverse forms.

University extension, or simply “extension,” has also been employed on a large scale as a form of adult education in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

1.1.7 Frontier College and Teacher-Labourers

Frontier College was founded in Canada in 1899 by Rev. Alfred Fitzpatrick and a group of university students, with the aim of making education available to labourers in the country’s work camps. Fitzpatrick believed in the need to educate the whole family wherever they worked and to teach them how to grow physically, intellectually, and spiritually.

To reach this goal, Frontier College trained university students to be teacher-labourers and sent them out to the camps to work alongside workers by day and teach them to read and write by night, a uniquely Canadian concept (Evans, 2001).

1.2 Adult Education from 1900 to 1950

Adult education movements of this period were noted for their strong relationships with social movements (workers’, women’s, and co-operative movements) and for their institutionalisation and professionalisation. Other influential factors were the rise of Christian socialism and social democracy and the national liberation aspirations of colonised areas, such as India.

1.2.1 Workers’ Educational Association

In 1903 in England, Albert Mansbridge established the Association to Promote the Higher Education of Working Men. In 1905, it was renamed the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA).

Mansbridge was the son of a carpenter. Due to his family’s poor financial circumstances, he had to leave school at 14 and, as a result, was largely self-educated. However, he was able to attend university extension courses at King’s College in London and eventually taught evening classes in economics, industrial history, and typing, all while working in a clerical position. His growing concern that these extension courses, which had been started in 1873, were aimed solely at the upper and middle classes led him to found WEA. The association was quickly recognised by universities, and Mansbridge left his clerical position in 1905 to become WEA’s full-time general secretary. He founded branches of WEA in Australia in 1913 and later in Canada and New Zealand. Mansbridge also formed several other adult-education groups, including the World Association for Adult Education in 1918, the Seafarers’ Educational Service in 1919, and the British Institute of Adult Education in 1921, as well as founding the National Central Library, a tutorial system and scholarly library for working people not connected to an academic institution. He was a member of numerous church committees and government education

committees, and in 1929, he and Morse Cartwright of the U.S. Adult Education Association organised the first world meeting of adult educators, which was held in Oxford, England (Olechnowicz, 1997).

Today, WEA is considered the largest voluntary provider of adult and community education in the United Kingdom. It remains committed to providing adult education and learning for adults from all backgrounds, but particularly those who have previously missed out on education.

1.2.2 German Folk High Schools

German adult education before 1933 stressed group experience in the family, clan, and culture rather than knowledge and the individual. Outside trends, especially from England, Austria, Denmark, and the United States, repeatedly influenced the German movement. Although lecture institutes, university extension, and other learning activities were important, the Folk High Schools were the greatest single force in German adult education. The first schools (Volkshochshulen)

were created before World War I, but grew in number and in importance after the war, especially during the severe economic crises of the 1920s and 1930s. Like their Nordic counterparts, and perhaps influenced by English adult schools such as Woodbrooke and Fircroft Colleges, some of these schools embraced the residential form (Heimvolkshochshulen).

Following World War I and the revolutionary period of 1918-1921, the Weimar Republic (the new German democratic republic) experienced a series of deepening economic crises in the industrial and agricultural areas. This situation included uncontrollable inflation and growing unemployment, as well as unstable coalition governments, a civil society dominated by competition between militant socialist and communist organisations, a nascent nationalism, and resurgent confessional groups. These complex economic, political, and social divisions in German society exerted an immense influence on the development of adult educational ideologies and practices in postwar Germany. German adult education was fundamentally split between the remaining supporters of university extension and popular universities — described as the “old” direction of liberalism and mass education within the workers’ movement, which was partially rooted in the Enlightenment — and those who supported the rapidly developing “intensive” movement, predominantly influenced by the Neue Richtung with its neo-romantic ideas of holistic, intensive, intuitive, and personality-oriented education. Moreover, there was a strong socialist-humanist movement within German adult education that increasingly stressed international solidarity and secular human progress within a conception of klassenbildung, in opposition to notions of volksbildung.

Thus, the residential Folk High Schools of the Weimar Republic were characterised by a broad range of ideological orientations. Those associated with the “neutral” or “free” adult education movement distanced themselves from religious or political partisanship, while the socialist residential centres varied from Christian Socialist to social democratic to communist. The latter were often associated with the trade unions and political parties of the organised working class and criticised as organisations for politically partisan leadership training. Finally, there were Folk High Schools of religious character (Roman Catholic and Protestant).

With the rise of Hitler’s National Socialism, the residential Folk High Schools eventually became involved in organising work camps. These became a form of residential re-education that, combined with hard work, served to develop in the youth of Germany a sense of national solidarity and a “true” conception of labour, in the spirit of National Socialism.

1.2.3 The Co-operative Movement

The co-operative movement, both social and economic in nature, emerged in Europe as a reaction to early 19th century industrialisation. Co-operative organisations — enterprises owned by and operated for the benefit of their members — follow a set of principles best defined in 1844 by co-operators in Rochdale, England. The key principles were: members each had one vote, regardless of the investments made; anyone could join; surpluses or profits were distributed to members according to their level of participation; and educational activities were to be undertaken for members (Macpherson, 2013).

In England, the movement was “fathered” by Robert Owen, a social reformer and industrialist. Credit for forming the earliest co-operative society in Britain goes to the dockers of Chatham and Woolwich, who had their own businesses up and running as early as 1760, while a “Co-operative Supply Company” was operating in Oldham by 1795 (Mathias, 1990). From England, the movement spread quickly to other European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland (the Migros co-operative movement), and then across the ocean to the United States and Canada. The co-operative movement was also the basis of numerous utopian community experiments throughout the world. Two such experiments were Gandhi’s Phoenix Farm (1904) and Tolstoy Farm (1910) in South Africa. Gandhi acknowledged the influence of British philanthropist John Ruskin’s letters to the working men of the West Riding in England, which were published as Unto This Last, as a source of inspiration for the two farms (Steele & Taylor, 2000, p. 10).

1.2.4 The Women’s Institute Movement

If the co-operative movement spread from England to Canada, the Women’s Institute (WI) movement spread the other way round: from Canada overseas. The first WI was founded in 1897 by Adelaide Hoodless of Stony Creek, Ontario, as a method of educating rural women in the subject of domestic science, with the purpose of improving their lives. Rural women in Ontario readily welcomed the concept and the WI grew dramatically. By 1903, Ontario had 12 institutes with 1,500 active members, and by 1908, those numbers had grown to 24 institutes and 4,500 members.

Institutes were established in all Canadian provinces between 1910 and 1913. In 1915, an institute member, a Mrs. Watt from Vancouver Island, introduced the WI concept to the British Isles and helped form Britain’s first WI in Anglesey, Wales.

The idea of forming a national group was raised in Canada in 1912 but postponed due to World War I. When the war ended, the idea was revived and in 1919 a representative from each provincial WI met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and formed the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada (FWIC).

The First International Conference of Rural Women was held in London in 1929; 46 women from 24 countries, including Canada, attended the four-day conference. In1930, at a conference in Vienna, a liaison committee of all rural women’s organisations was formed. Three years later, in Stockholm, those committee members became the founding members of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW). As of 2005, this organisation operated in 70 countries and had a membership of 9 million in 365 member societies (Dirksen, 2005).

The Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada still exists and is affiliated internationally with the Associated Country Women of the World.

1.2.5 The Hunan Self-Study University

In August 1921, Mao Tse-Tung and his supporters inaugurated the Hunan Self-Study University in China. The university’s main role was to provide education to people who could not afford to attend government-sponsored universities. This new institution encompassed a radically different form of university instruction, one that expected students to study by themselves and do research together. The traditional university form of instruction was criticised for its lack of affection between instructors and students and for wasting students’ time by using stereotyped pedagogical and administrative methods.

The major critique of the traditional system, however, was that it was far removed from the common people and being used an instrument of control. The new self-study form of university was to be available to everyone. Although it was recognised that the university could not be linked to every Hunanese, it could nonetheless strive to become a public institution of learning “in spirit” for the whole Hunanese society (Mao, 1978). In 1937, the war with Japan halted the functioning of the university.

1.2.6 The Antigonish Movement

A truly Canadian contribution to both the theory and the practice of adult education, the Antigonish movement evolved from the pioneering work of Rev. Dr. Moses Coady and Rev. Jimmy Tompkins in the 1920s in Nova Scotia. This local community development movement originated as a response to the poverty afflicting farmers, fishers, miners, and other disadvantaged groups in Eastern Canada. Coady and his associates used a practical and successful strategy of adult education and group action that began with the immediate economic needs of the local people. The philosophical principles of the Antigonish movement were well established in the early 1930s as guidelines for their work. However, they were not articulated until 1944 when, in a lecture to students at Nova Scotia’s Acadia University, Professor Harry Johnson defined six principles that, on reflection, he claimed were the defining critical principles of the original Antigonish movement. These six principles, which were later endorsed by Coady, were:

1.    The primacy of the individual, based on both religious and democratic thought

2.    Social reform through education

3.   Education that begins with the economic, because the economic problems of the world are the most pressing

4.    Education through group action. Group action is natural because people are social beings. Not only are people commonly organised into groups, but their problems are usually group problems. Any effective adult education programme, therefore, must fit into this basic group organisation of society. Moreover, group action is essential to success under modern conditions; you cannot get results in business or civic affairs without organisation.

5.    Effective social reform involving fundamental changes in social and economic institutions, which may prove unpopular in certain quarters

6.    A full and abundant life for everyone in the community. Economic co-operation is the first step in achieving this ultimate objective of the movement, but it is only the first step toward a society that will permit every individual to develop to the utmost limit of her or his capacities.

To honour the legacy of the Antigonish movement and recognise its importance, St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia established the Coady International Institute in 1959. Today, it is a centre of excellence in community-based development, with a global reach that has grown immensely over the past four decades. During this period, nearly 4,000 leaders of development organisations from over 120 countries have taken part in the institute’s campus-based programmes.

1.2.8 The Highlander Folk High School

The Highlander Folk High School was started in 1932 by Miles Horton and Don West as a small, independent residential education centre in Monteagle, Tennessee, on the Cumberland Plateau in the southern United States. At that time, it was a coal-mining area.

After leaving graduate school in sociology at the University of Chicago, Horton went to Denmark to study the Danish Folk High School movement, hoping to gain insight for his idea of a community school in the United States. Influenced by the ideas of Nikolaj Grundtvig, he returned to Tennessee in 1932 and, along with Don West, started the Highlander Folk High School. Horton served as the school’s director for the next 40 years, until his retirement in 1972.

When Horton and West started their school, their overall intent was to better the lives of the people in the region, one of the poorest in the country, but they had no clear plan for how to bring about this social change. At the time the school was founded, the coal market was depressed and the region was the site of a harsh struggle between the coal companies operating in the region and the miners. The miners’ union began a strike in 1932 that became a crisis of hunger, injustice, and murder. Already conscious of class and labour injustices, Horton’s exposure to this crisis solidified his commitment to restoring the Appalachian people’s dignity and self-respect through education. His experience also gave birth to some of the strategies for social change that those at the Highlander school came to embrace. By the 1940s, the school was a residential education centre for the Congress for Industrial Organisations (CIO), providing education for union leaders from around the southern United States (Bell, Gaventa, & Peters, 1991).

In the early 1950s, the school shifted its focus to the most significant movement at the time in the American South: the movement against racial segregation. For the next decade, it was a meeting place and an educational ground for the leaders of the emerging civil rights movement. Many of the meetings and workshops held at the Highlander were followed by civil rights activities that brought about major changes in U.S. race relations. For example, Rosa Parks had attended the Highlander only a few months before she sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a boycott that gave rise to the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was also involved with the school. A request from Esau Jenkins, a black community leader, for a programme that would teach black people to read and write in order to gain the right to vote led the Highlander to develop Citizenship Schools, which proved influential in the mobilisation of the civil rights movement. As the school emerged as a force in the empowerment of the desegregation movement, its leaders came under attack from the white power structure in the southern United States.

In 1954, during the McCarthy era, Myles Horton was investigated for his alleged communist connections, and in 1959, the Highlander Folk High School was confiscated by the State of Tennessee. Horton responded by renaming it the Highlander Research and Education Center — the name it holds today — and moving it first to Knoxville and then to New Market, Tennessee (Bell, Gaventa, & Peters, 1991).

Today, the centre continues its work throughout the southern United States. Although some issues are new (environmental concerns), others are the same (poverty, economic justice, youth empowerment, leadership development), as is its underlying philosophy of education for empowerment.

1.3 Adult Education after World War II

After World War II, the theory and practice of adult education experienced exponential growth, in both scope and nature. It was a period of profound changes for the entire world, and adult education movements were at the root of many of these transformations. Moreover, at the same time as adult education acted as a catalyst for change, change acted as a catalyst for adult education, thereby strengthening it. During the last five decades of the 20th century, key developments took place worldwide in political, social, and economic spheres. Technologically, there were revolutionary developments in particle physics (atomic bomb/atomic energy), in electronics, and in information technology (informatics/cybernetics). The latter has been deemed a third Industrial Revolution that will eventually lead to a knowledge society. Politically, victories against colonialism paved the way for the emergence of new national states, while the formation of popular and socialist republics led in turn to the Cold War. Colonialism changed hats, becoming less overt but equally influential in the quality of life of people worldwide. The phenomenon of globalisation occurred, with profound consequences for the entire world. Added to this were the ecological consequences of industrialisation, which have become increasingly difficult to ignore

A multitude of important developments in the theory and practice of adult education took place. Two types of phenomena are particularly importance. The first is that a number of UN specialised agencies such as United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) began to take on the responsibility of adult education as part of inter-governmental body (the board of UNESCO comprises of member of states of the UN system. (Member states typically means National or Federal Governments and typically means the Ministry of Education in that government.) Among all the various themes that UNESCO’s mandate provided UNESCO decided to convene its first international conference on Adult Education in 1949 in Denmark. These later came to be known as CONFINTEA, the UNESCO Conference for Promotion of Adult Education. UNESCO went on to hold 8 more international conferences on adult education, the details of which are available in the section on ‘Learn more’.

Conclusion

Adult Education needs to be understood in the larger context of Lifelong Learning. It is not mere sessions outside of schools and colleges for adults. It is an everyday process, witnessed in community gatherings, movements etc.

Spread of Lifelong Learning will lead to an increased democratization of the polity. Beyond the various examples that have been provided, we need to understand the process of Adult Education in everyday life. The process becomes continuous and not spatially or temporally constrained. It is when adult education is seen through these lenses can we truly ensure the empowerment of the masses through knowledge dissemination.

References

• International Association Znanie. (2014). International association “Znanie”: history. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from International Association “Znanie”: http://interznanie.ru/en/pages/id/history-en.html
• ActionAid . (2014). Who we are. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from ActionAid International: http://www.actionaid.org/who-we-are
• Belanger, P. (1995). Adult education and the changing role of UNESCO and of the UN organisations. In B. Benner-Cassara (Ed.), Adult education through world collaboration (pp. 3-21). Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing.
• Benner-Cassara, B. (Ed.). (1995). Adult education through world collaboration. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing.
• CEAAL. (2014). Homepage. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from Consejo de educacion popular de america latina y el caribe: http://www.ceaal.org/v2/index.php
• Dolff, H. (1988). The German volkshochschulen and the German adult education association (dvv). Adult Education and Development, 30, 167-176.
• dvv International . (2014). Development-oriented adult education and international cooperation- Lifelong and global learning in one world. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from The Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association: http://georgia.dvv-international.ge/dvv-international-about.html
• EAEA. (2014). Brochures and leaflets. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from European association for adult education: http://www.eaea.org/en/resources/eaea-publications/brochures-and-leaflets.html
• Fordham, P. (1988). Training adult educators from Africa: A report from the U.K. Adult Education and Development, 30, 399-403.
• Hall, B. L. (1995). Building a global learning network: The international council for adult education. In B. Benner-Cassara (Ed.), Adult education through world collaboration (pp. 187-210). Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing.

• Kidd, J. R. (1975). Training for development. Adult Education and Development, 4, 1-3.
• Knoll, J. H. (2002). Adult and continuing education in and through international and supranational organisations. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from dvv international: http://www.iiz-dvv.de/index.php?article_id=405&clang=1
• OECD. (2006). Education at a glance — OECD indicators 2006 edition. Paris: OECD Publishing, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation.
• Open Society Foundations. (2014). About us. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from Open Society Foundations: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about
• Schindele, H. (2005). Action by the dvv International and its partners after the tsunami in Asia. Adult Education and Development, 65, 187-194.
• Tandon, R. (1987). Networks as an instrument for strengthening the adult education movement. New Delhi: PRIA.
•       (2014). UN millenium development goals. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from United Nations Organisation : http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
• UNESCO. (2009). UNESCO. What is it? What does it do? Retrieved February 9, 2014, from UNESCO: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001473/147330e.pdf
• World Bank . (2014). World bank: working for a world free of poverty. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from World Bank:
• http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTABOUTUS/Resources/wbgroupbrochure-en.pdf