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I consider in this paper the question of balance in popular education between what we can call annunciation and denunciation, inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. By annunciation, I mean the role of love, affirmation, encouragement and profound encounters with otherness; by denunciation, I have in mind the spirit of critique and challenge to the established order of things. In the process, I question the marginalisation of liberation theology in Paulo Freire's work among some radical educators. There has, I suggest, been a sundering of spirituality, and especially religious insight, from rational enquiry in the academic mainstream, which has influenced readings of Freire. Modernity has privileged intellectualism and critical rationality as the only valid way of knowing; matters of faith and varieties of religious experience have correspondingly been privatised.

Historical pageants were important sites of popular engagement with the past in twentieth-century Britain. They took place in many places and sometimes on a large scale, in settings ranging from small villages to industrial cities. They were staged by schools, churches, professional organisations, women's groups and political parties, among others. This article draws on contemporary studies of heritage and performance to explore the blend of history, myth and fiction that characterised pageants, and the ways in which they both shaped and reflected the self-image of local communities. Pageants were important channels of popular education as well as entertainment and, although they are sometimes seen as backward-looking and conservative spectacles, this article argues that pageants could be an effective means of enlisting the past in the service of the present and future.

The Anglican Church congresses sought to foster relations between clergy and lay people. They promoted the Church as part of the social fabric of the nation with parades, civic receptions, services and public talks. Women were a presence at the congresses as platform speakers, organisers, hostesses and members of the audience. Congresses provided opportunities for informal collaborations and networking between organisations including the National Union of Women Workers, Mothers' Union and Girls' Friendly Society. Dedicated women's sections from 1881 provided a space that was exploited by women activists seeking a voice in the public sphere. The congresses reflected a context of increasing professionalisation amongst women. This article celebrates the contribution made by women in the role of popular educators via congress platforms between 1882 and 1913. In addition, the article seeks to commemorate the unvoiced presence of working class women who engaged with the congresses as members of the audience.

Adult education in art galleries sits on a fault line, at once an apparatus upholding the affirmative aspects of museum culture cultivated by global elites, a propellant in the whirring of an increasingly dislocated set of events on trendy and consumable political themes, and a site for 'allyship' and other kinds of radical and socially transformative work. Resurrecting Hannah Arendt's question, 'where are we when we think?' this paper explores how we might move from a moment in which the 'space' of the gallery is replaced by the 'time' of the event (Helguera) and towards embedded space-times that attempt to address contemporary urgencies through situated practices that collectively analyse and respond to conditions. Drawn from examples derived from the author's practice, the paper argues for the use of popular education and anti-colonial pedagogies in the production of adult education in galleries, suggesting that such processes support groups in collectively naming and thinking through conflicts to re-shape both the galleries in which they have congregated and the worlds beyond their doors. This paper suggests that the re-construction and use of the often forgotten genealogies of emancipatory education are pivotal to doing social justice work in galleries.

In this paper, taken from a fuller discussion in my Doctoral Thesis carried out under a bricolage methodology, I will argue, utilising the fictive and imaginative elements of bricolage, that there are possibilities to engender a popular education through several sites of learning: a social movement (Occupy London), a cooperative higher learning provider (The Social Science Centre) and a reorganised University (The University of Lincoln, Student as Producer). I will also discuss, through the use of generative themes, the possibilities of creating nurture and support networks between these sites by understanding their organisational potential and their pedagogical structures. I will attempt to imagine a cyclic trajectory of solidarity and support between them in order to engender a more popular education in all the sites that allows for emancipation from the enclosure of neoliberalised social relations and the fundamental transformation of sociality and social organisation. The paper concludes that there is potential for not only convivial relations between these three layers of pedagogical interaction, but also the potential to create an action research-type cycle on a grand solidarisitic scale.

The business side of the Lancasterian system of mass schooling has been highlighted by some researchers. However, this feature is usually considered of minor importance compared to other dimensions of that system, namely the social control role of popular education in early nineteenth-century Britain. The present surge of projects and mechanisms directed to capitalist valorisation within public education systems provides an enhanced relevance to the study of past experiments with similar meaning and content. In this paper, I seek to understand the processes of educational production and capital valorisation in the Lancasterian undertaking. Succinctly as it may be, I refer to initiatives originated in the Benthamite circle in support of the Lancasterian system and aimed at extending it to superior branches of knowledge and to other social classes. (Contains 66 footnotes.)

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 proletarian culture of manual work in coal and steel. South Yorkshire, a heartland of twentieth century social democracy, developed a tradition of workers' popular adult education integrated with a range of left social movements. Popular adult education institutions emerged post 1945 which "educated" a wide range of labour movement organisers--politicians, union officers and leaders. The institutions were often formed out of popular adult education initiatives by students of past programmes and staff who were themselves politicians, trade union advisers and activists in left social movements. South Yorkshire was de-industrialised in the 1980s and 1990s and since 2000 has become a destination for refugees, and migrant workers from Central Europe. The anti-deportation social movement is based on experienced activists drawing on the experience and values of a "society of purpose" in South Yorkshire and expressing a "politics of outrage". The organisations within the social movement exploit what remains of the popular adult education traditions but also deploy a range of antiracist and political education methods. Asylum seekers and refugee activists involved in the movement pursue "really useful knowledge" for personal, political and collective liberation. The article sheds light on the interrelationships between organising and educating, and the importance of re-historicising and politicising social movement theories. (Contains 6 notes.)

Brian Simon's "Studies in the History of Education", 1780-1870, published in 1960, set out to counter nearly all work previously produced on the history of education in Britain in this period, and to direct the field towards a new course. It provided a Marxist perspective that drew upon Simon's involvement in campaigns for educational reform over the previous decade. It also reflected the character of the Cold War in the academy in Britain at this time. Overall, it produced a form of people's history that was shaped by politics and ideology and informed by Simon's leading position in the British Communist Party. His work in this period marks him out as a highly significant Marxist historian, as well as one of the leading Marxist educators of his generation. (Contains 113 footnotes.)

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 research findings illustrate the relevance of the global and indeed the regional levels, when addressing concerns with active citizenship, locally. The article then moves on to examine experiences of global citizen advocacy coalitions, experiences from which participants have been drawing differing lessons "about" global citizenship. Finally, the conclusions raise questions about the scope for adult learning and community development in the current policy context, shaped so significantly by neo-liberal agendas. Social movements in general and popular education movements, more specifically, would seem to have vital roles to play, facilitating adult learning for critical democratic engagement with the structures of governance, locally and beyond, internationally. (Contains 4 notes.)

This paper is about how the transformatory pedagogical practice of popular/liberatory education can be further articulated within geography. It is based on the experiences of a third-year undergraduate course, "Autonomous Geographies", in which the author developed some of the core values of popular education, namely engaging with movements for change, making space for emotions, developing strategy and overcoming powerlessness, and building solidarity and cooperation. These were put into practice through coursework involving contact with social movements, a praxis-based reflexive journal, action planning and spokescouncils. The author reflects on how he engaged students with the possibilities of becoming active, critical and defiant citizens engaged in social change, as well as problematizing his own position and aspirations. On the author's part, this paper is a call to re-energize the links between geographical education and freedom, and a plea that we do not retreat from naming and confronting oppression. (Contains 5 figures and 8 notes.)

Born in France in 1997, the ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Aid Citizens) movement is popularising IPE (international political economy), the interdisciplinary field of study born in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. The affinity between the ideas and main concerns of ATTAC and IPE can be clearly stated. ATTAC is a popular education movement, promoting a critical reading of globalisation. It uses critical pedagogy and is largely supported by "resisting intellectuals", who are the newborn "organic intellectuals" once envisioned by Antonio Gramsci. (Contains 1 table and 7 notes.)

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of the arts curriculum and pedagogy in a British primary school. The policy context for the study is the school's involvement in promoting creative partnerships between teachers and artists. The pedagogies of three different artist-led projects are analysed, using a Bernsteinian framework, and are characterised in relation to notions of "competence" and "performance" pedagogies. These characterisations are then used to consider the impact of the artists' pedagogies on teachers in the school, and the extent to which the different pedagogies promote inclusion. Broad conclusions are drawn about the relative difficulty of adopting competence pedagogies in the current educational culture of British schools; more specific conclusions are drawn about the importance of time, text, discourse and interpretation in arts pedagogies. (Contains 4 notes.)

During the Latin American oppression of the 1970s, as the rapidly increasing number of grassroots "popular" social movements sought to profit from and expand the ideas of the radical Brazilian educationist Paulo Freire, there developed, in its own right, a "popular education" movement which engaged in radical education for change independently of and often in direct opposition to the state. With the apparent demise of open dictatorship and the rise of formal, albeit limited, "democratic" states in the 1990s, the popular education movement began to debate the type of relationship it should now have with the state in this changed political context. In recent years the election of a number of left-leaning governments has made the issue even more urgent. Drawing comparisons with practice in the UK, this article explores the relationship between "popular" and "state" education in Latin America and argues that the strength of the popular education movement outside the state is the most likely determinant of its impact within it.

Over the past few years a constellation of social movements and organisations concerned with issues of globalisation and world poverty have exploded onto the world stage. They have mobilised demonstrations, organised mass gatherings and conferences, created e-networks and websites and become major players in international political lobbying and policy change. There are strong historical linkages between social movements and adult education. In this author's view, popular adult education has always been, and still is, central to movements pledged to social and political change. He believes that there is still a challenging agenda of social and political change in the UK, which adult educators and social movements can address together, and that the emergence of new movements against globalisation and world poverty is an opportunity to force democracy and social justice back onto the mainstream education agenda.

Access to higher education is still largely determined by social class. To succeed, social reform movements must include popular education, which has a long tradition in Britain. (SK)

For those working in adult learning, supporting active citizenship has become one of those principles-turned-platitudes they like to recite, but they need to search hard in the small print of recent White Papers to be sure that the Government cares about the wider purposes of learning beyond functional training for employment. "Active citizenship" is one of those formerly radical terms that used to be associated with audacious grass roots energy, participatory democracy and progressive social change--in the days when adult education was considered to be "a movement" with organic links to some of the most influential social movements of recent times, such as the labour and trade union movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement and the peace movement. It has now become a happy-clappy soundbite--like "empowerment", "participation", "social inclusion" and, most recently, "respect"--that New Labour routinely appropriates to pretend a radical-sounding approach to an otherwise authoritarian pre-occupation with micro-managing the potentially troublesome attitudes of the lower orders. When faced with a rather limited view and moralistic application of the language of participation and citizenship, it is worth considering what has been won and lost when those employed in adult learning talk about active citizenship. The conceptual shift, over the last 15 years, from adult "education" to adult "learning", has made a huge difference to what they actually "do". Instead of specialist teachers and enthusiasts, teaching a wide range of subjects, designed to stimulate and challenge a relatively wide range of people, the day job for most of them now entails enticing and cajoling the poor and other minorities into activities designed to make them healthier, more socially competent and more likely to get a job. Either that or processing the blizzard of paperwork routinely required to prove that the latest short-term initiative has been delivered on time, on budget, and in line with government targets. In this article, the author contends that it is about time adult educators get back in touch with the energy, commitment, and anger that fuels active citizenship and rediscover the educational potential and significance of popular social movements. After all, states Thompson, there is nothing left to lose. Education for pleasure has virtually disappeared. Education for activists in trade unions, community groups, and women's organisations has been regulated out of existence or readjusted to the requirements of the skills agenda. And education for the poor has everywhere become a condition of benefit, employment, or citizenship, designed to keep them busy.

This paper concerns the relationship between teaching and political action both within and outside formal educational institutions. Its setting is the recent period following the 2010 Browne Review on the funding of higher education in England. Rather than speaking directly to debates around scholar-activism, about which much has already been written, I want to stretch the meanings of both teaching and activism to contextualise the contemporary politics of higher learning in relation to diverse histories and geographies of progressive education more generally. Taking this wider view suggests that some of the forms of knowledge which have characterised the university as a progressive institution are presently being produced in more politicised educational environments. Being receptive to these other modes of learning cannot only expand scholarly thinking about how to reclaim intellectual life from the economy within universities, but stimulate the kind of imagination that we need for dreaming big about higher education as and for a practice of democratic life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brian Simon's Studies in the History of Education, 1780-1870, published in 1960, set out to counter nearly all work previously produced on the history of education in Britain in this period, and to direct the field towards a new course. It provided a Marxist perspective that drew upon Simon's involvement in campaigns for educational reform over the previous decade. It also reflected the character of the Cold War in the academy in Britain at this time. Overall, it produced a form of people's history that was shaped by politics and ideology and informed by Simon's leading position in the British Communist Party. His work in this period marks him out as a highly significant Marxist historian, as well as one of the leading Marxist educators of his generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The story of King Edgar being rowed on the River Dee at Chester in 973 by eight subordinate kings was once well known. This article examines how it was used in popular history writing from the eighteenth century onwards, with greatest development in the mid nineteenth century, and subsequent decline into its present obscurity. It served English political and cultural ends, being used to demonstrate the natural superiority of that race over the others in the Union, particularly the Scots. Decline of imperial sentiment and ignorance of pre-Conquest history have relegated it to incidental mention in county histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the history and relations of the educational bill in Great Britain. It is noted that the English popular education has been a center of interest for many months. The new education bill extends the ideas of reorganization and unification of the London schools. The situation is considered the most natural phase of school evolution.

This article examines the system of popular education in Great Britain. The educational periodicals in the United States give much adulation to the British system of education and generally compare this to the education in the United States. However, if logically seen, this particular system is not as praise worthy as it seems. Besides, the education system in the United States has its own merits.

The article discusses the arrangement of the school system in Great Britain and the United States. A portion of the English public came to the conclusion that the arrangement for the popular education in Great Britain is not doing a needful work in terms of the compromise among the churches and the different theories of state support while the American people are getting tired of their experiments in universal education.