This workshop, promoted by the University and College Union (UCU - Nottingham University Branch) and the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA – East Midlands Region), provides an opportunity to reflect on what our communities need, and what kinds of response is required from the education system – especially from universities, colleges and adult education organisations such as the WEA.

Colin Kirkwood will reflect on a lifetime of community education that began in a mining town in the East Midlands, but took him on to continuing engagement – over five decades – with adult education in deprived communities in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Colin’s latest book is Community Work and Adult Education in Staveley, Derbyshire 1969-72