History of Adult Education in Ireland

                                                History of Adult Education in Ireland

                                                Megan Stoner

                                                Ball State University

                                                EDAC 631

                                                Dr. Bo Chang

                                                 February 14, 2021

Name	Commented on
Megan Stoner	Godwin Marcus Okyere & Vicki Cooper

History of Adult Education in Ireland

Introduction

In the 80s, adult education in Ireland was non-formal, and we understand it as predominantly community education. Adult education grew during the women's movement and a period of poverty and marginalization. The education was a grassroots response mainly by women, resulting in gender demission and social injustice. Other groups involved in the process were religious, workers association, and the vocational education association. The groups went along with Freirean philosophy and understood it because it was about social action adult education.

During this period, the country was going through an economic crisis mainly because of the oil. The crisis that resulted from oil problems was very devastating because many foreign countries declined, and others tried to win over the companies that were willing to invest. During the time, the education provided enabled critical thinking education, learning communities on local levels that fitted individuals, and matching with their culture. The adults' community education was non-elitist, in contrast to formal adult education, which was more middle-class oriented. The Republic of Ireland was struggling desperately economically since it was in a deep recession similar to the recession in the year 2008. Many people were unemployed during this period. A high number of migration out of the country to other countries by young people was high, resulting in reduced energy and talents.

Politically during the period of the 1980s, Ronald Reagan in the United States. The Falklands War took place in the year 1982, and it was between Argentina and Britain. The event's main aim was to ensure that the Soviet Union and Communist rule collapses in Eastern Europe. In 1989 thousands of individuals were killed in Tiananmen Square in countries like Beijing and China while students protested. The Iranian Revolution saw the start of Islamic Fundamentalism as a political force. It was a decade of the economic boom in the United States and most parts of Western Europe. During the late 1980s is when Apartheid system in South Africa was being demolished after it had dominated for decades due to international pressure. The economy booming in other countries did not reach Ireland because the 80s were a time full of unemployed people, recession, and high emigration. The troubles were worse on the Northside of the country, and hunger was striking, and it resulted in severe unrest in 1981. In 1981 almost 50 individuals died, and nearly 200 got injured in a fire at Stardust Ballroom in Artane, Dublin. Afterward, some investigations took place, and they resulted in changes in fire safety and legislation. In the year 1988, Dublin city celebrated a thousand years of history, and in the same year, on the 18^th of July, Nelson Mandela received Dublin's freedom. During the year 1990 Ireland soccer team qualifies for Italian 90, for the world cup that was held in Italy.

Highlights

            In 1983 there was a referendum to ban abortion in any situation, which aimed to bring equality among the life of an unborn child and the pregnant woman. Two third of the electorate voted to support the motion. In 1985 there was a motion on divorce, and three-quarters of the population voted to ban divorce.  The two referendums resulted in insight into the Roman Catholic's power to force catholic doctrine to the land's law. There was a peace agreement in the North of the country, "The Anglo-Irish Agreement that got signed in 1985 by the British government, Irish Government, and other members of the province's elected representatives. There came Protestants who were against the agreement and forced the dissolution of the agreement, and it resulted in violence that lasted for ten years till 1996. The war in the North of Ireland was not a religious one, but religious leaders played a significant role in it. When the country became a Catholic theocracy, Northern Ireland was a Protestant theocracy. They both resisted social and human rights movements, which resulted in women's emancipation, working people, and other minorities. Unemployment of about 250,000 people out of the three million was another incident during the period. Two hundred fifty thousand individuals left England, the USA, Canada, and Australia, and most were young people. It resulted in a considerable drain of talents and energy out of the country.

             During the period, adult education changed from traditional, which involved training adults in providing adults with qualifications to be professionals and traders. The adults were expected to be professionals in areas like accounting and engineering. The education will help remove illiteracy among adults and to enhance the conscious social initiative. Over 25% of the individual adults experienced significant problems with basic literacy in the country during this period, particularly in class. In the late 1970s, the statutory providers of adult education in the country appointed adult education officers. The education officer who was appointed had the power to provide support for individuals with literacy problems.

Influential Factors

                            Among the Influential factors are the women's meetings in kitchens, community halls, and spare rooms all over the country. They started to learn from each other, and later it was named women's community education. Educators who were lucky to be among the education development could educate women on women's studies in the kitchen and at the parish center's back in 1985. There was a slogan for these developments which stated NO CLASSES WITHOUT CRECHES. The slogan meaning was that adult women with children were allowed to bring children to the classes, and the children could benefit from the education at a young age. The early childhood education was provided to the children who came with their mothers to the community education, which helped the community have educated children. The fact that mothers could bring their kids to classes significantly influenced the development of adult education. The processes and methods to be used in educating adults were developed, adequate research was done, and a policy was developed in the 1990s and published in 2000.

                            After developing women's education in the community, there emerged education for those who were unemployed. Individuals employed in the European-funded programs brought their experiences from feminist education to the unemployed field. The experiences included methods and practices used in feminist education, philosophy of fostering the human spirit in the faces of conflicting social forces. For instance, there was pressure between training and employment agencies whereby the employment agencies were much focused on trained skills when an individual applied for a job. The conflicts included the provision of perfect CV/Resumes and practicing interview skills. The pressure created room for a high unemployment rate, and the unemployed individuals' responsibility was placed on the shoulders of the unemployed individuals instead of the social context. The educators shifted their programs from that orientation, and most of the learners went ahead with the education that resulted in more effective and better social justice community activism. The community activist cooperated with other vulnerable groups like drug misusers and individuals suffering from discrimination and exclusion.

                            The new millennium progressed, and Ireland started to experience people from other countries and continents like Africa and Eastern Europe. The new population came to Ireland with hopes that they will benefit from the progress in the economy experienced in the country. They were also running away from intolerable social conditions in their countries. The intolerable conditions included corruption, exploitation of profound violence, and sexual abuse in the immigrant's home countries. Adult education responded to this new population in a similar spirit.

 

Implication

Since the recession that took place globally in the year 2008, using violence and crisis to ensure the intended plan is promoted is well known today. The ideas or agendas that need to be promoted can be seen as multi-faceted, but the plan is initially individualistic. It can be about consumption, labor activation oriented, underpinned with a keen interest in the market's invisible hands-on public affairs. It was perceived that adult education's success could be seen after reaching out to invisible people and motivating them using the plan. The situation is evident in Ireland, where individuals' side-lining and socially developing adult education favors labor skills. The worse thing is that adult education's social project's erosion towards a singular, narrowly defined labor activation one.

Adult education helped create meetings for adult educators from all over Europe, and these meetings help us realize the c0ommon ground that we have. Everyone is committed to adult education that enhances human beings' spirits as individuals for community purposes like socialization and cultural terms. Adult education is supposed to be related to relationships and educating people on how to relate and connect with different people. Education should educate us and help us develop the sense of making us conscious as human beings and not just workers and consumers. The essential thing in the European community individuals can assist each other and collectively resist the agendas that bring violence and are individualistic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Areas	Summary
Social backgrounds	Economic crisis, political violence in the North of Ireland, recession, unemployment, emigration, The Falkland War between Argentina and Britain, dismantling of the Apartheid system in South Africa, Death of Thousands in Tiananmen Square in China and Beijing.
Highlights	Migration of young people, a decrease of talents and energy, unemployment, Referendum of both divorce and abortion, The Anglo-Irish Agreement and changing of the adult education.
Influential Factors	"NO CLASSES WITHOUT CRECHES" slogan, Women Community Education, Education for Unemployed and women being given a chance to take their children to the classes, Educators willingness to educate women, The new millennium progress and migration.
Implication	Adult education requires to continue, expand and grow; adult education brings people together; it enables people to understand the way to relate with others and care about them. Adult education requires the continued support of the government.

        

Works Cited:

 Golding, B. (2020). Sixty year ALA history, including the broader Australian adult

 and community education (ACE) context: Time line. Australian Journal of

Adult Learning, 60(3), 538.                                                                

Freeman, M. (2020). Adult education history in Britain: past, present and future

(part I). Paedagogica Historica, 56(3), 384-395.