Community Education, Lifelong Learning and Social Inclusion

Lynn Tett has updated and expanded her discussion about community education. The book provides a clear account of the development of community education. It illustrates the conceptual as well as political debates about the role, purpose and practice of community education. She moves behind the policy rhetoric to recognise and explore some of the tensions in current policy trends, particularly the danger of seeing social marginalisation as an individual problem rather than as a result of structured inequalities. A number of community education projects are examined giving a real sense of the approach being advocated and making the case for a model of lifelong learning focusing on democratic renewal. The task of community educators is not an easy one: recognising competing interests but still enabling voices to be heard and, at the same time, seeking ways of building mutual understandings and cooperation. The challenge for community education is considerable but this book provides a real sense of its possibilities. The book is an established text used on CPD and teacher training courses throughout the UK.