Marxism and Adult Education in Britain

Abstract

In British adult education Marxism has been a persistent if marginalised current that has consistently informed its more radical movements and practitioners. This article firstly introduces some contested Marxist perspectives on adult education, particularly around the issues of ideology and incorporation into bourgeois society. Secondly, it examines the adult educational context, contrasting the themes of middle-class-provided ‘liberal’ adult education and ‘independent’ working-class education. It then focuses on the trajectories of workers’ education in the twentieth century and the contrasting roles Marxist education played in the Communist Party and the National Council of Labour Colleges up to the Second World War. In the post-war period the rebirth of community education in the 1960s and 1970s absorbed more cosmopolitan Marxist influence, such as those of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire. The article ends by assessing what remains of the Marxist tradition in the twenty-first century and the authors conclude that in a capitalist system that remains deeply unequal and globally exploitative, Marxism still offers a valuable framework of analysis through which adult educators may be able to engage in a dialogue with emergent social movements.