Developing Social Equity in Australian Adult Education: Lessons from the Past

Developing Social Equity in Australian Adult Education: Lessons from the Past presents a case study of the trajectory of an Australian adult basic education program in New South Wales from its humanist, social justice beginnings, through forty years of destabilising change.

It identifies the influences and influencers that have directed this change; those that were responsible for the creation of the field in its foundation years, and that were displaced by other, more powerful actors representing the global influence of the neoliberal ideology. The story is told largely through archival evidence and the voices of those practitioners who helped shape the discourse and practice of the foundation years, and who were required to respond to constantly changing policies and socio-economic contexts. It discusses some lessons that might be learnt from the past in order that a new set of actors might be mobilised to promote an alternate discourse.

This book will appeal to students and scholars of social justice and adult education, and practitioners involved in adult education.

Pamela Osmond has worked in the field of adult basic education in Australia since the 1970s in teaching, management and curriculum support roles in the technical and further education (TAFE) system. She has been employed as a teacher educator at the University of Technology Sydney and at TAFE NSW.