Otherness or oven cleaning

Where were you on the night Kennedy died? I am told this event was so significant to my generation that we always give an honest answer. The publication of Adult Education for a Change must have had the same effect because in Adult Learning, Critical Intelligence and Social Change the contributors seemed unable to write anything without referring to it as a sort of talisman. Many seemed to want to re-examine significant events with regard to the history of adult education so that the social change aspect of the title looks as if it will fall off the agenda. But after finishing the collection of chapters, and I had made a conscious decision not to read them in order, I found the themes integrated in such a way that illustrated that the debate had not only moved forward but has probably also made way for the next edition in the new millennium.

This will be a valuable collection for students of adult education. Keith Jackson's chapter skilfully combines a re-examination of the Russell decisions with funding policies as well as definitions of adult education and its roles within the "wider education industry". It also has links to Paula Allman and John Wallis's view of adults being able to collaborate in their own learning. Chris Duke's chapter also gives us hope that it is possible to make changes, even if slowly, in our own bureaucratic institutions.

A new optimism seemed to develop through these chapters, which is a relief from the acceptance of the inevitable economic model of the past few years. I too shared Jane Thompson's despair at the accreditation verve of Terry Melia and I have learned to live with my anger at the lost years when so much could have been done for women (and men) by a female prime minister. In this collection there is new enthusiasm. Examples of imaginative schemes such as that described by Katherine Hughes at Ruskin College show how small groups can be supported in their learning and then cascade their learning to others. Wilma Fraser uses reflection of the knowledge gained in making experience count and Keith Forester has the strength of his convictions to call back trade unions as "learning organisations" creating "more varied and wider learning experiences" enhancing learning opportunities in and out of work. When did we last allow ourselves to articulate such beliefs for our profession?

What does concern me about this collection, though, is the almost obligatory need to embed all developments in postmodern explanations of society. This may be an attempt to undermine the dominant economic discourse of the policy makers but at times the language alone is enough to turn away many who might otherwise wish to be champions of adult education. There are authors who do have the courage to question postmodernist analysis. Tom Steele urges us to "leave for a moment the hermetically sealed rituals of the academy, where the internal debates reach scholastic dimensions of dizziness". Jane Thompson in her own chapter, while illustrating her prowess with the tools of postmodern analysis, seems to admit that "the emperor might not be wearing any clothes".

The strength of this collection is its courage to reflect on our history, to locate the fight for the place of adult education in the manipulation of the rhetoric of modern policy-makers that at times is nothing short of profit-and-loss accounting with people's lives. At the same time, though, as the contributors create theoretical frameworks to gain academic credibility, they never lose sight of the real individuals they set out to support.

Engaging with Difference: The Other in Adult Education at first did not seem to be doing that at all. Mary Stuart and Alistair Thompson claim to set out to challenge some of the boundaries and assumptions of adult education in the 1990s. Immediately all the same themes and underlying problems were revisited and wrapped in postmodernist prose. This is probably inevitable given, as Stuart and Thompson say, "the inconsistent and incoherent educational policy of the last decade". We must move away from the blame mentality created by Tory educationists and if we have to use the tools of postmodern analysis to make adult educators and their students kick against the constraints of policies and practice so be it. My plea would be to make the language more accessible lest the analysis itself excludes more than it recruits.

This exclusion did start to make me feel like an outsider and I began to share the view of Pam Coare that I would "get the oven cleaned" rather than expose my lack of understanding of who the "other" was in this collection. Some attempt at defining the learners early on would have been useful but, of course, that would have excluded other "others". But, again, as I read at random, and started to share experiences with the contributors I developed an identity with, and understanding about, real people. As a result it also brought into perspective the issue of labels and the need for a deconstruction of language to give a better understanding of the world in which we offer our provision. Foucault's belief in knowledge constructing what is taken to be true rather than what is true takes on real meaning in this context. The strength of these studies is their contribution to the construction of knowledge and in that they are powerful agents for change. Martha's comments as she masters the totally alien environment and then goes on to cotutor an introductory course makes compulsive reading, as does accepting the focus of where the learner wants to be and not where the system wants them to start, as told through attempts to learn English by Anne Bellis and Sahar Awar.

The real strength of Engaging with Difference is when it does what it claims to set out to do and the academic writing does not "deny or conceal the autobiographical experiences". Gus Garside's "She's doing too much music" gives more than professional perceptions of a learner's needs. It gives a real warmth and understanding of what we should be doing to help "others" learn. Sharing this experience of raising musical awareness and the process of self-discovery for learner and helper epitomised what Engaging with Difference really meant.

It was sad to read in the afterword that funding had been withdrawn from some of these projects at the Centre for Continuing Education at Sussex. Significantly Sinclair Goodlad begins his preface to Students as Tutors and Mentors with thanks to BP for its financial support for the conference that led to this publication. This is a much more specific collection of articles in a growing area of interest. Again, though, the term mentoring needed some definition in context. His introductory chapter did begin that process and helped to dispel concerns about these developments undermining the professionals or providing teaching and learning on the cheap. Goodlad quietly but authoritatively points to the fact that money is needed to pay organisers and facilitators and to devise and assess the way it is spent.

I was then able to move through the chapters and find a wide variety of schemes worldwide. What was enlightening was that the aims were not always subject related and a number were aimed at the development of self. Although at the end of the Goodlad-edited chapters I still felt an outsider, I did value the learning experience. I am willing to take on board thoughts gained from engaging with Gus Garside that "the problem was me!" Ann Hanson is staff tutor for education, North West Region, Open University, Manchester.