Call for Papers: Reconstructing Adult Education for the Common Good
Posted on 18/04/2024
Contributions are invited for the Autumn 2024 number of Forum (66.3) for which the copy date is Monday 22 July. The number, to be edited by Professor John Holford, will appear online at the beginning of November with a hard copy version available by the end of the month.
This special issue of Forum focusses on why a comprehensive system of lifelong learning must encompass “generous and humane” provision of adult education for all. The aim is to reignite debate and to empower ministers in a (hopefully incoming) Labour government to imagine and construct a system of adult education that meets the needs of the 21st century in the spirit of the classic 1919 Ministry of Reconstruction report.
We encourage contributions from those engaged in all areas of educational provision for adults – whether as tutors, trainers, managers, governors, students or learners. We also welcome proposals from researchers on adult and lifelong learning. We hope the special issue will provide a critique of the current dire state of British adult education, and point to how it can be rebuilt. Some contributions may take an historical perspective. Proposals on the nature and potential of community adult education, workplace education and training, the voluntary sector, and professional education, are welcome. We also hope to include explorations of the relationship between schools and lifelong learning.
Forum welcomes writing which is heart-felt as well as thought-through. There’s no set length for a Forum article. Although many weigh in at about 4000 words, many are shorter. Nor is there a set way of writing an article. We certainly welcome academic papers, but personal reflections, critically-alert consideration of issues and experiences, and informed discursive writing are welcome too, as are texts written by more than one person.
If you have an idea for an article, or would like to discuss the possibility of contributing, please email John Holford (john.holford@nottingham.ac.uk) as soon as possible. In any case, please contact John beforehand to let him know you are sending in a text.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Patrick Yarker
John Holford