Four recent sound broadcasts discuss the importance of adult education.
Centenary Commissioners Sir Alan Tuckett and Melissa Benn talk about what it does for people today, and what is needed to make it better, in a lively discussion with Union Learning Rep Sue Mann on Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd’s Reasons to be Cheerful podcast (15 Feb). You can listen to this on Acast or Spotify or Apple.
Our Sir Alan is doing it again on Ayesha Hazarika’s Times Radio programme (20 Feb). You can listen to it here – you have to scroll through to the last twenty minutes (2:41:40) to catch the discussion between Ayesha, Alan, the TUC’s Kevin Rowan, and University of East London mature student Danielle Hambrook.
In two other recent programmes, Oxford Professor Selina Todd discusses with others adult education’s part in shaping modern Britain, and its relationship with class, social mobility and empire.
Radio 4’s Start the Week (8 Feb.) is a wide-ranging exploration of Empire and class, shaping Britain with Sathnam Sanghera and Anthony Anaxagorou.
In a Free Thinking discussion on Radio 3 (4 Feb), she explores Class and social mobility with David Goodhart, author of Head, Hand, Heart, socio-linguist Sadie Ryan, and data scientist Timandra Harkness.
What Selina Todd says is explored richly in her new book, Snakes and Ladders: The great British social mobility myth.