1st Edition
The Working Men's College and the Tradition of Adult Education
The Working Men’s College is the UK’s oldest continuously running adult education institution, and a very distinctive example of the British adult education tradition. This volume brings the history of the WMC up to date, following the 1954 centenary history by JFC Harrison.
Contributions from a range of professional educators explore topics such as the philosophy of the College, the issue of women’s entry, college governance, and the notion of community as it applies to changes in the composition of the student body. Additional features include a chapter on the architectural history of the College; an interview with Satnam Gill as the key figure who drove through crucial change at a time when the College might have died; a chapter from the latest member of a family which has been closely involved with the College over four generations; and a range of personal contributions from tutors and students from the past six decades.
This book will be of interest to historians of the 19th and 20th centuries, all those in UK adult education, along with local Camden/London community and political groups and the WMC’s extensive family of former students and tutors.
Introduction
Tom Schuller and Richard Taylor
Part One
1. From FD Maurice and Christian Socialism to secular radicalism: continuities and differences
Richard Taylor
2. From benign neglect to narrow utilitarianism?: Adult education policy since the Second World War and its impact on the College
Alan Tuckett
3. The College building: embodying the ethos
Susie Barson, Robin Bishop, David Brady and Alan Johnson
Part Two
4. The governance of the College: accountability, strategy and ethos
Tom Schuller
Appendix to chapter 4: Money matters
Bill Barker
Personal memoirs 1
Christine Buchanan and Norman Gilby
5. The educational context: the changing programme and curriculum of the College
Richard Taylor
Personal memoirs 2
Michael Johns and Susie Barson
6. Learning communities
Marj Mayo
7. Interview with Satnam Gill: leading the College into the twenty-first century
Tom Schuller
8. Interrupting the ‘fellowship’: women, equal opportunities and change at the WMC
Miriam Zukas and Lucy de Groot
Personal memoirs 3
Susan Mary Archer and Heather Niman
9. The Franklin family and the College, 1882 to 2017 and beyond
Nigel Franklin
Personal memoirs 4
Robert Solomon and Mark Guthrie
10. Fellow institutions: the College in relation to other SDIs
Jill Westerman and Mark Malcomson
Personal memoirs 5
Naeem Nisar and Nazma Rahman
Part Three
11. The ‘College tradition’ and future challenges
Tom Schuller and Richard Taylor
Biography
Tom Schuller chaired the Governing Board of the Working Men’s College from 2008 to 2018. He is a former Dean and Professor of Lifelong Learning at Birkbeck, University of London. His latest book is The Paula Principle: Why Women Lose Out At Work (2017).
Richard Taylor is Emeritus Professorial Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and was Professor and Director of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning at the Universities of Cambridge and, before that, Leeds. His most recent book is English Radicalism in the Twentieth Century: A Distinctive Politics? (2020).
