general community use on school sites. Such developments blended well with the drive by the National


Council of Social Service, later the National Council of Voluntary Organisations, during the 1920s and 1930s, to encourage, support and initiate action to spread village halls and community centres across the country, increasing the practice and appreciation of arts and crafts, music and dance. The concept of all-age learning centres, following the Cambridgeshire initiative, was later adopted in a number of areas, including Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Devon. The Physical Training and Recreation Act (1937) responded to


concern about the physical condition and general health and welfare of the nation and the implications of poor health for the economy. Funds were made available to local organisations and councils. It was some time before there was an acceptance by government that these important initiatives would have far-reaching implications for adult learning. Local authorities, not necessarily Local Education Authorities (LEAs), were given the power ‘to establish or support community centres and recreational institutes and urged the general extension of opportunities for physical training and recreation for older and younger students.’ The 1937 Act enabled authorities, through leisure and recreation departments, to obtain central government funding to meet the cost of staffing and equipment. In this way, efforts to improve the physical training, health and welfare of the country were organisationally and financially linked with efforts to increase and improve the opportunities for adult learning and skills training. Indeed, not only were these activities linked, but the crucial contribution of the voluntary sector in consolidating and improving the quality and range of the arts and culture in local neighbourhoods and communities was recognised and supported. Many years later, the 1973 report of the Russell Committee – set


up in 1969 to find ‘the most effective and economical deployment of available resources to enable adult education to make its proper contribution to the national system of education’ – took this point


further in arguing that adult education should be accepted as being an education-oriented social service, often operating alongside and in conjunction with other services designed to respond to a multiplicity of needs: personal, communal, academic, vocational, work or family. From the 1940s to the appointment of the Russell Committee in 1969, all concerned with adult learning in its many forms shared the hope that a legal framework would be created to embrace the full range of adult learning. The wording of the Education Act 1944 was most unhelpful with regard to adult learning. Subsequent to the passing of the Act, and in recognition of the necessity to improve and increase the provision of vocational, craft and industrial education and training, LEAs were required by the government in 1947 to prepare Schemes of Further Education provision for their areas to include adult learning. Whereas the LEAs were expected to interpret further education with


respect to young school leavers as being work-related and vocational, within the Schemes the references to adult learning related to enriching leisure time activity in the context of defining and contributing to the needs of society. The government’s clear intention was to establish a distinction between vocational and non-vocational, and give greater priority, in terms of policies, programmes and resources, to work- related courses and education for employment for young people. It was later a concern of the Russell Committee, and of many other bodies which sought to emphasise the importance of responding to the motivation, aspiration and wishes of the prospective individual learner rather than oblige learners to fit into neat bureaucratically defined categories of learning.


The above is an edited excerpt from Learning from the Past, Peter Clyne’s paper for the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning: http://www.niace.org.uk/lifelonglearninginquiry/docs/Learning-from- the-past.pdf


Remaking Adult Learning


Essays on Adult Education in Honour of Alan Tuckett Edited by Jay Derrick, Ursula Howard, John Field, Peter Lavender, Sue Meyer, Ekkehard Nuissl Von Rein and Tom Schuller


978-0-85473-885-4 December 2010 £23.95


Remaking Adult Learning provides an exciting and innovative addition to the literature on adult learning. Charting challenges and successes in the sector, it illustrates how taking part in well thought-out programmes can have a positive and sometimes life-saving impact on people’s lives. While grounded in adult learning practice, the book draws upon local, national and global perspectives, contemporary research and incisive analysis to focus on themes including: participation and equality; the role of adult learning in social movements; adults learning and teaching in different contexts; adult learning and policy; and the value of learning for its own sake.


JANUARY 2011 ADULTS LEARNING 25


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