An event for practitioners, policy makers and others interested in the future of adult education in Edinburgh.

Adult Education: The Challenge of Change – often referred to as the Alexander Report – was the foundational document for the development across Scotland of Community Education Services. Forty years on is perhaps an apt time to take stock of what it achieved for adult education, and its legacy.

Back in 1975, the Alexander Report was guided by the desire to increase and widen participation in adult education provision as part of Scotland’s democratic heritage. A lot has changed since then. In 2004 these services were renamed Community Learning and Development with the notable disappearance of the term education and a greater emphasis on local provision to address national Government policy priorities. Today adult education is in further decline as local authority resources shrink and change in response to austerity measures. In this seminar we want to look back to the Alexander Report and look forward to the future of adult education in the current era of learning and austerity. We have a small panel of speakers, with experience of different aspects of the field of adult education, to help us discuss this theme.

PANEL SPEAKERS:

Ian Martin, former Research Fellow, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh

Gary Fraser, doctoral student, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh

Lyn Tett, Emeritus Professor, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh

This seminar has been organised by the Edinburgh Adult Education Group in collaboration with Community Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Edinburgh.  To book a place or for further information email Caroline Bamford at: [email protected]