Adult Education's Hidden History: Interrogating the 'Great Tradition'

Thirty years ago, Derek Whitelock, a Continuing Education lecturer at my institution, the University of New England, wrote 'The Great Tradition', the first attempt at a comprehensive history of Australian adult education. In the period since then, not only has adult education been transformed by globalising capitalism; so too has the practice of history writing, making Whitelock's notion of one 'great' tradition, emanating from the liberal university, decidedly anachronistic. This paper invites Conference participants to consider another tradition in adult education, ignored by Whitelock and his liberal colleagues, a tradition which tied education to the need for radical social change. It also aims to stimulate discussion on the relevance of this critique to more contemporary history writing in adult education in Australia and internationally.