Putting glitter on the shit: working in-against-and-beyond adult education in Scotland

Abstract

First paragraph: Our dialogue was inspired by the pamphlet 100 Years of Radical Adult Education in Scotland: Building Hope for the Future (Burton et al., 2020), consisting of transcribed talks commemorating the centenary of the 1919 report on adult education (Centenary Commission on Adult Education, 2019). The 1919 report influenced the building of a national, state organized, adult education infrastructure, coinciding with a period of working-class radicalism in Scotland. Revisiting that history served to remind us that after the Great War, radical adult education had been integral to collective refusals to accept social injustice and inequality. Scottish adult education at that time was characterized by multiple influences, including independent working-class education, separate from the state, incorporating a strong temperance movement (Cooke, 2006). Perhaps this largely obsolete Scottish radical education tradition is best summarized as education sourcing collective strength and compassion in response to indignity and despair.