Passing the next day, at noon; all was still in the little shop; except the birds singing. No little crowd of scholars; his little tumble-down window was open, and the upper-half of the street door was open; but his bench was vacant. The old man was asleep in his old arm-chair; his cat sitting on his knee, comfortably tucked up, seemingly asleep too. Read more…
The Hedge Schools came about as a direct result of the suppression of schooling in Ireland. This history speaks of the innate need of humans to share and learn, and how central a part of social fabric it is. This history also speaks of the dark side of dominating powers to withhold knowledge and the means of mutually improvement from whole populations to deliberately undermine people and their chances to live rich full lives. Read more…
Dr William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, or ‘Doctor Du Bois’ as he insisted on being addressed, was a great scholar, historian, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, and pacifist. He was a picture of the modern intellectual and scholar engaging eclectically in philosophies ranging from Calvinism to Socialism. His thought was to shape the world after it emerged in America against the backdrop of considerable racial barriers. Read more…
Here are my notes from when I went back to the archive to look up the Manchester Medical Mission which was affiliated to Charter Street Ragged School and Working Girls Home. It was situated on Red Bank which is on the opposite side of the Irk from Angel Meadow and is now called Green Bank. The information was all in the form of year books from 1901 to 1910. Their evangelising seemed a bit more aggressive than their Charter St counterparts and some of the language they used would now look inappropriate.
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In a previous article, I outlined the educational strands of Working Men’s Clubs (WMCs) as they developed from their mid-19th century origins. Already by the end of that century there were concerns that these were declining due to a rise in popular entertainment. The WMCIU motto was ‘recreation hand in hand with education and temperance’ but few clubs had remained ‘dry’, with most choosing to sell beer. Read more…
It’s for a good reason that I gave my book on working men’s clubs (WMCs) the title ‘Not just Beer and Bingo!’ They were always about much more than drinking and low level gambling. I will outline here the important educational aspects that WMCs started out with which were part of their ‘self help’ ethos. Another article will follow WMCs into the 20th century describing how, whilst educational aspects declined, they did not entirely disappear. Read more…
Don Lorenzo Milani was an educator of the poor who developed methods of critical pedagogy and an advocate of conscientious objection. He is credited with contributing to critical citizenship which holds relevance today for the health of every open democratic society and his utilization of language as a vehicle to transmit his philosophy. Read more…
This is a conversation and interview with Colin Kirkwood who was one of the instrumental people who were involved in setting up the Adult Learning Project in Edinburgh over 30 years ago. Inspired by the work of Paulo Freire, it took an innovative stance of valuing local knowledge and building educational processes around the ideas and issues which the community felt were pertinent to their lives. This is an opportunity to hear Colin talk about how he, and others, proposed the project and brought it into a reality which has served the Edinburgh community for decades.
The Adult Learning Project (ALP for short) was founded in 1979 in Gorgie Dalry in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was an initiative of the South West Edinburgh Area Team of the Community Education Service of Lothian Regional Council, led by Fraser Patrick. ALP was initially funded for three years by an urban aid grant from the Scottish Office. As a result of ALP’s success, funding via urban aid was extended for a further three years, and funding was later taken over by Lothian Regional Council, and later by the City of Edinburgh Council. Read more…