Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the international history of community culture and culture-based adult learning through showing the initiatives of a Post-Socialist country through introducing some initiatives from 1950, without claim for completeness. Additions to the History of Community Culture and Culture-based Adult…

The Workers' Educational Association (WEA) has supported adult learning for over 120 years. Participating in adult learning brings a range of benefits for individuals and communities. These go much wider than solely education benefits and include better health, increased participation in community activities, and increased confidence and critical…

Institutionalised forms of adult learning and education (ALE) such as community learning centres (CLCs) and related models are found in most parts of the world. These are spaces offering opportunities for literacy and skills training, health and citizenship, general, liberal and vocational education, in line with fuller recognition of the meaning…

This article introduces Kominkan and its practice on Japanese social education and how it facilitates Japanese adult education and lifelong learning in local communities. Historically, social education was understood as all education that promotes social development and societal progress. Kominkan, as Japanese social education institutions for…

The Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative commenced in July 2014, led by the Office of Pro Vice Chancellor of Indigenous Leadership at Charles Darwin University (CDU). WCE aimed to build the aspiration, expectation and capacity of six remote and very remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory to participate and achieve in…

When academics, who occupy a traditional position of power and privilege, engage with community members whose thinking, attitudes, and responses have been shaped by ongoing sociohistorical oppression and disadvantage, democratic participation is not easy to attain. Yet, unless community members feel able to participate freely, the valuable local…

Community development and adult learning have long shared a common agenda--and often a common fate. People in both sectors are concerned with supporting people to develop their skills and knowledge, and to put them to use in the world around them. They often share a belief in social justice and democratic process as guiding principles for their…

This study examines the educational philosophies and teaching styles of Extension agents in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. The Philosophy of Adult Education Inventory (PAEI) designed by Zinn and the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) developed by Conti were the instruments used in this study. The PAEI identifies the educator's…

The concept of Big Society provides inspiration--working "bottom up" to promote "collective action, reciprocity and a new, more engaged relationship between local people and public services". With so much written about the theory of the Big Society, this seems like an ideal time to put a little more practical detail into the mix. The authors argue…

This paper explores the informal and social learning dimensions of activists as they learn skills and knowledge through participating in social action. In doing this I draw on Lave and Wenger's epistemology of situated learning and Bourdieu's theory of "habitus". I argue activists learn an array of community development skills in the…

Like a lot of people, the author has been trying to get his mind around David Cameron's Big Society agenda, and what it means for his own institution, City Lit. There has already been a lot written about this subject, especially in the press, much of it reflecting a degree of scepticism. Where to start? The author thinks the Prime Minister tried…

Political leaders like to put forward guiding ideas or themes which pull their individual decisions into a broader narrative. For John Major it was Back to Basics, for Tony Blair it was the Third Way and for David Cameron it is the Big Society. While Mr. Blair relied on Lord Giddens to add intellectual weight to his idea, Mr. Cameron's legacy idea…

Local authorities have a strong tradition of supporting communities to help themselves, and this is nowhere better illustrated than in the learning they commission and deliver through the Adult Safeguarded Learning budget. The budget was set up to protect at least a minimum of provision for adult liberal education, family learning and learning for…

It is just about impossible to find an adult education department in Canada that does not have a critical social justice orientation, quite often oriented to community development. Many of the faculty identify themselves with the local and or global activist community, and they see their work as merging learning and justice concerns to build up…

This article identifies historical connections between adult learning, popular education and the emergence of the public sphere in Europe, exploring potential implications for adult learning and community development, drawing upon research evaluating programmes to promote community-based learning "for" active citizenship in UK. The…