Community Work and Adult Education in Staveley, North-East Derbyshire, 1969-1972: Retrospective Consideration, Selective Re-presentation, and Reflective Critique

In 1969, Colin Kirkwood took on the job of Area Principal for Adult Education in north-east Derbyshire. There he formed a remarkable creative partnership with Rob Hunter, a brilliant young Community Worker. This is the story of their collaboration and dialogue with the people of Staveley, a small coal, steel and chemicals town in the north-midlands of England. Together they created the local newspaper, Staveley Now, the Staveley Disabled Group, the Staveley Festival and much else. Community Work and Adult Education in Staveley, North-East Derbyshire celebrates this important collaboration by drawing on letters, interviews, poems, issues of the local newspaper and reports and articles written at the time. The research and critical assessment of their work together in the early 1970s can be linked with that of Paulo Freire in Latin America and throughout the world.