Introduction

At the end of 2007, after 11 years of a conservative national government whose adult education policy could best be summed up as rampant privatisation, a new Labor government took office in Australia, bringing with it a mantra of ‘The Australian economy needs an education revolution.’ This was music to the ears of many adult educators working with equity groups for whom the range of public provision had been diminishing; however, now, more than ten years after the Labor victory and with the conservatives winning back the government, the adult education policy setting is starker than ever before. Historical reflection on the field of adult basic education (ABE) in Australia reveals how radically it has been transformed over a few decades, from one where practitioners worked in, and identified with, a vibrant social justice-motivated community of practice, to a field where practitioner voice in policy deliberations has become restricted.

We examine the emergence of the hegemonic discourse (Mayo, 1999) impacting upon the current Australian ABE field and identify possibilities of resistance to it. We analyse the changes to ABE practices using Engeström's (2001) formulation of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). CHAT affords a structured historical analysis of the field that can inform possibilities for the future.

We first explain our claim of a policy vacuum, and why a vacuum of the kind we write about creates a problem rather than affords agency for practitioners in the field. Although the concerns and history that we write about are not unique to the state of New South Wales (NSW), much of our evidence is drawn from our experiences in NSW and the research project on the history of ABE in NSW undertaken by Pamela Osmond (2018). We then outline key concepts from CHAT that we use to examine selected key policy moments in the history of ABE in Australia. The last section looks to the future and what may help activists to reclaim the agenda.

Trapped in a vacuum

Neoliberalism has legitimated an ideological shift from the state assuming responsibility for the provision of lifelong education to individuals initiating ongoing learning by whatever means they have. As the role of government diminishes, the role of the private sphere increases.