Popular education and Adult Education. The role of CPIAs

Abstract

Popular education is a pedagogical construct and, at the same time, it is the political project of a social community, interested in taking care of adults and young people in disadvantaged situations. The study examined the Italian context, where popular education has a long tradition, with the aim of investigating relationships and boundaries with adult education, where questions of particular importance for the formation of contemporary man arise. What pedagogical criteria distinguish popular education from other educational activities aimed at the adult population? Does the reference to popular education still have a meaning in today's reality?  Which are the concrete advantages that derive from this discourse for the work that the Provincial Centers for Adult Education (Cpia) are called to do in the current Italian educational system?