Rioting usually achieves nothing in itself, but it can tell the people a lot about their society. For anyone interested in adult learning, the experience of the public debate has been salutary, with any attempt to explain the events being dismissed as "condoning" the looters. While it would be arrogant to assume that everyone now knows…

This article examines the historic uses of the phenomenon recently defined as "Deep Politics" to shed light on the underlying realities of the contemporary War on Terror. Deep Politics describes the multiple uses of misinformation to marshal public sentiment in directions desired by dominant political and economic forces. Facing the reality of…

In the 1960s, evaluation thrived in the sunshine of political support for our work. We also experienced the dark side of the force of politics: efforts to introduce partisan biases favorable to special interests. In response to politics as contamination, at least two families of stances developed: populist and public interest. The populist stances…

This article constitutes a short personal tribute to Len Barton in honour of his work and our collegial relationship going back over 30 years. It covers how Len saw his intellectual project of providing critical sociological and political perspectives on special education, disability and inclusion, and his own radical political perspectives. Len's…

This study examines how aspects of a militarily enforced occupation have influenced continuing education at Palestinian universities. It focuses on three influences: the impact of the politics of occupation on the history of continuing education; the effect of travel restriction, violence, and a damaged economy on participation; and the influence…

The article is based on activist research working in an anti-deportation social movement, and on sixteen interviews with both experienced and less experienced activists between 2009 and 2011. The anti deportation social movement made up of a range of organisations, is identified as a left social movement situated in an historic producer…

In August 2006, Australia's conservative prime minister John Howard convened a history summit in Canberra. The purported goal of the summit was the framing of a nationally-acceptable curriculum in Australian history. However, as this article suggests, Howard's hidden intention was to use the summit as a device for introducing a narrowly…

During the 1940s and 1950s the U.S. Communist Party upgraded and broadened its adult education schools, abandoning or ideologically modifying the militant pedagogical centres that had sprung up during the 1920s and 1930s in many American cities. In New York the transformation was complicated as two Party schools (the Workers School and the School…

Edgar Snow scored an extraordinary scoop in 1936 when he persuaded Mao Zedong to tell his story. The resulting book--"Red Star Over China"--was a best-seller in the West and translated editions caused a sensation in China. Adult education was the centrepiece of Communist revolution and featured prominently in Red Star. It is now the…

In many countries in both the Mediterranean region and the European Union (EU), interest in the quality of, and improvements to, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems has increased progressively in recent years. The main reason underlying this interest is a growing awareness of the key role played by education and training…

Within the discourse of the New Education Fellowship (NEF) in Australia in the mid-twentieth century, active engagement in creative recreation and discussion of social and political issues was highly valued. Members were exhorted to traverse personal boundaries by participating in practical and creative arts. In this discourse, NEF Creative Arts…

To improve current civil society and achieve the possibilities globalization offers, we must incorporate an education-for-empowerment approach to lifelong learning. This chapter explores the potential, promise, and implications for local action and dialogue.

This bulletin has been prepared in response to many hundreds of requests for information about public affairs forums. It is impossible in such limited space to give a comprehensive description of the forum method of adult civic education or its application in various parts of the country. However, the authors have tried to include in the bulletin…