Radical popular education today

Abstract

Popular education is more needed than ever. The Covid 19 pandemic has been highlighting the challenges of widening inequalities, increasing exploitation and oppression, along with persistent xenophobia and violence against women and minority communities. Yet popular education faces threats of its own, and resources have been on the decline, precisely when they have become so urgently required in the contemporary context. Whilst acknowledging these threats, the article goes on to focus on some of the ways in which popular education initiatives have continued to be promoted despite these wider challenges. ‘The World Transformed’ (TWT) has provided evidence of just such initiatives in Britain.The conclusions of TWT’s research resonate with Paulo Freire’s own reflections in the final section of ‘The Pedagogy of Hope’. Despite the challenges he continued to look forward to the future with hope.