Is popular education still relevant today?
What do youth and cultural centers, youth hostels, and the Scouting movement have in common? Each of these movements or organizations is linked to what is known as “popular education,” which aims to improve the functioning of society without relying on traditional institutions.
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier and Mathieu Depoil, Paul Valéry University – Montpellier III
But how can we define this non-formal educational approach more precisely? Popular education has its own history, principles, and specific practices. What does it represent today? How can it serve as a truly innovative political and educational initiative in the21st century?
Knowledge for Empowerment
Historians of popular education highlight the lack of a clear scientific definition of the term, while affirming its importance for understanding our educational history. Is it merely an approach aimed at giving as many people as possible access to knowledge? Popular education is much more than that.
As both a component of continuing education and lifelong learning, with the goal of making education accessible to all, it can be defined as a commitment to individual and collective empowerment through active and concrete practices.
Enabling everyone to access knowledge and learning in order to empower themselves and transform society is an ideal that dates back to the French Revolution. However, it was in the early19th century, with the rise of industrial and capitalist society, that the ambition to educate the people and empower workers began to take concrete shape.
This emerging popular education took many forms. When the Republican movement founded the Education League in 1866, it was focused on providing supervision for young people outside of school hours, even before the establishment of a secular and compulsory school system.
The labor union movement promotes political education for workers through labor exchanges and people’s universities. For their part, Christian groups establish their own popular education associations, such as the Young Christian Workers (JOC) and the Catholic Agricultural Youth (JAC).
A golden age?
The rise of popular education became evident following the introduction of paid vacation in 1936 and the progressive policies of the Popular Front implemented by Jean Zay, Minister of National Education, and Léo Lagrange, Secretary of State for Youth and Sports.
This marked the beginning of a boom in popular education with the creation of the Cemea (Centers for Training in Active Education Methods) in 1937 and numerous summer camp associations, which served as spaces for education and socialization for young people. The movement continued after the Liberation with the creation of the National Federation of Francas (Movement of Francs and Franches Camarades) and the establishment of the Maisons des Jeunes et de la Culture (MJC), which carried on and expanded this popular education initiative to provide access to culture and knowledge for all.
At the same time, popular education became institutionalized. In 1953, the National Institute for Youth and Popular Education (INJEP) brought together the various movements, and an official status for professional facilitators was established. While becoming more firmly established, popular education seemed to lose sight of its socially emancipatory nature by confining itself to the sociocultural sphere.
New areas of action?
In 1998, the founding of Attac exemplified this return to a political conception of popular education. The social harm —further exacerbated by the current health crisis—requires, now more than ever, an awareness of the growing inequalities in our society and the worsening poverty in France.
ATD Fourth World and Emmaus—to name just two of these iconic organizations—have been actively involved for decades in the fight against social inequality through popular education and training initiatives.
Should we therefore view it, as a May 2019 report by the Economic and Social Council points out, as a “modern and pioneering concept” and a “permanent laboratory for innovation and active methods”? For today we are witnessing a revival—or, as sociologist Christian Maurel puts it, a “bifurcation” —or perhaps even a return to the very roots of popular education.
In fact, in May 2021, the Injep report on the development of popular education outlined the many possible areas of focus for popular education inthe 21st century: lifelong learning, people’s universities, as well as support for urban policy initiatives, efforts to combat inequality, and all forms of discrimination.
Adult education is deeply rooted in all areas of life and serves as an educational tool for all social groups and generations, as exemplified by the work of the Federation of Social Centers on aging.
A Vision for Society in the 21st Century
Given its history, popular education has its own leading figures in the field of education, such as Fernand Oury and Gisèle de Failly. It also has its own educational approaches, such as the “decision-making” approach—“enabling individuals to decide matters that concern them”— social pedagogy, theorized in France notably by Laurent Ott, and critical pedagogies inspired by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire.
The fact that Philippe Meirieu, a leading figure in the field of education, serves as national president of Cemea is, in this regard, a symbol of the reaffirmation that education can be at the heart of a vision for society.
But the strength of popular education also lies in this connection between active methods and political education, which underscores the need to rethink a vibrant democracy in which all residents have a place, can take action, and can influence decisions.
The Scope of Adult Education in the 21st Centurye There are, therefore, countless examples from the 19th century. The desire to create activities such as direct democracy, specific forms of public expression such as gestural lectures or new educational spaces, such as adventure parks ...which are redefining the role of children in the city are just a few examples of this educational and political momentum.
Sylvain Wagnon, Full Professor of Education, School of Education, University of Montpellier and Mathieu Depoil, Ph.D. candidate in Educational Sciences at Liderf – University of Montpellier, Paul Valéry University – Montpellier III
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