Abstract
Raymond Williams is usually associated with Cambridge, but he spent 15 years as an Oxford University adult education tutor from 1946 to 1961. His adult education activities began even earlier, in 1939, at the age of 17 or 18, as a lecturer for the League of Nations. Then, after obtaining his degree at Cambridge, interrupted by war service, Williams approached the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) Eastern District to offer his services as a tutor in English and current international affairs. He enjoyed considerable success with a class in the Fens consisting mainly of agricultural workers, and later in giving single talks at various places in East Anglia, ‘earning great praise from the WEA branch members.1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Oxford, application and appointment, and H. P. Smith to Williams, 6 August 1946; Raymond Williams, Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review (London: New Left Books, 1979) pp. 12, 78.
Oxford, Jacques to Smith, 18 July 1946. It was from Barnstaple that Williams sent his application to Oxford. The novel Williams worked on while living in Barnstaple was Brynllwyd, the first version of Border Country. See J. McIlroy, ‘Border Country: Raymond Williams and Adult Education’, Studies in the Education of Adults, vol. 22, no. 2(1990) pp. 129–66, at p. 131.
R. Fieldhouse, Adult Education and the Cold War (Leeds University, 1985) p. 1.
Fieldhouse, Adult Education and the Cold War, pp. 5–28. For similar activities in North America, see M. Welton, ‘Conflicting Visions, Divergent Strategies: Watson Thompson and the Cold War Politics of Adult Education in Saskatchewan 1944–46’, Labour/Le Travail, vol. 18 (1986) pp. 111–38, and M. Law, ‘Adult Education, McCarthyism and the Cold War’, unpublished paper presented to the Adult Education Research Conference, Calgary, May 1988 (obtainable from the Kellogg Project, Syracuse University, NY).
R. Fieldhouse, ‘Insecurity of Tenure and Academic Freedom in Adult Education: An Historical Perspective’, Journal of Educational Administration and History, vol. 19, no. 1(1987) pp. 36–46.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1993 Roger Fieldhouse
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fieldhouse, R. (1993). Oxford and Adult Education. In: Morgan, W.J., Preston, P. (eds) Raymond Williams: Politics, Education, Letters. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22804-1_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22804-1_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-22806-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-22804-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)