Participation and the Pursuit of Equality: Essays in Adult Learning, Widening Participation and Achievement

This book is a tribute to a leading researcher in participation studies, as well as a look back to the lessons to be drawn from past struggles to secure greater equity for marginalised groups, and forward to the social, political and educational policy challenges facing providers, administrators, politicians and public in securing life-wide and life-long learning for all.

The opening chapters cover the relationship between informal learning and the pursuit of learning for everyone; the central section addresses women’s education, social class and adult learning, older people, learning and work, and the place of volunteers as learners and teachers in their own right; followed by two chapters looking at widening participation in further and higher education. The final chapter returns to the key theme: evaluating Veronica McGivney’s work in participation studies, and considering its implications for adult learning and active citizenship.

The contributors are leading practitioners and theorists of adult and continuing learning. Together, they present a powerful, coherent case for the support of adult learning, in Jane Thompson’s memorable phrase, ‘for a change’, asserting that the pursuit of an inclusive and egalitarian society through inclusive and egalitarian polices for the education of adults is right for a civilised society and a dynamic economy.