Anti-austerity adult education in Canada: a survey of a nascent field

Abstract

As the realities of austerity agendas exert pressure on adult education around the globe, this paper attempts to map the developing, albeit small, field of anti-austerity adult education in Canada. In doing so, I attempt to trace the connections between anti-austerity education and existing fields of adult education. I argue that the cases we see of anti-austerity education have distinctive features of new political realities. While not unrelated to popular pedagogical projects of the past, anti-austerity adult education sits in compulsory opposition to what Albo and Fanelli describe as the austerity initiated ‘disciplinary democracy’ project of neo-liberalism. As a result, new adult educators and educational initiatives are emerging in relation to a morphing political-economic hegemony.

Keywords:

• austerity
• Canada
• political pedagogy
• adult education

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jon Summers for his research work on this project. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their time and comments in helping to refine this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.