George Wilson has worked in higher education for the last 14 years. In Edinburgh and Lothians, in both paid and voluntary positions, he has been involved in formal education as well as community education.  With a particularly interesting view on the questions which should be asked surrounding widening participation and who it is benefiting, here his challenge shifts the issue from inside the institutional space to considering wider participation from the external perspective.

His work has very pertinent things to say about barriers – for carers, care leavers, and the most deprived (MD20) sections of the population – and asks questions about who it is in the ‘wider’ world that we want to be ‘participating’, bringing up relevant things like how ‘initiatives’ may run the risk of patronizing and be focused on what authority wants rather than what the people want.

With an uncompromised attention to detail, he continues his exploration by asking questions, in an attempt to clarify his own thinking.

 

Interview With An Educator: George Wilson by Ragged University on Mixcloud