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Diversité, n°206/2025

L'éducation populaire : une école de l'émancipation ?


Diversité



Popular education: an emancipation school?

What is popular education? What kind of education is it? And what are people, and how do they express themselves here? Are we talking about an education that focuses on individuals as citizens in the making, with the aim of transforming the world and society, but also of building active and committed citizens? This raises the question of the content, knowledge and methods of

popular education, and how they relate to and complement those of school education.

The fact remains, however, that this lack of clarity enables it to potentially designate a wide range of social and cultural activities, extending from after-school childcare to the political arena, via the worlds of culture, social work and sport (Lebon, 2020, pp. 15–19). Whether we adopt an extensive definition of popular education (it's everywhere, confused with "non-formal education" according to the European understanding) or a narrow one (it corresponds to a few places: leisure centers, social centers, training organizations, etc.), many questions remain debated (Lebon, Lescure, 2016). Does popular education relate to schools? Children or adults? The political and trade union field or just the associative world and the professions of animation?

To answer these questions, the dossier is structured around 4 themes:

  1. Popular education: what are we talking about?
  2. Organizations and articulations in the field of education
  3. Knowledge and educational practices
    4. The commitment of young people and professionals