Chapter The Fight for Social Justice – Lalage Bown: A Lifetime’s Mission

Abstract

This chapter examines the life and legacy of the remarkable and inspiring Emeritus Professor Lalage Bown, OBE, who died in 2021, aged 94. The author locates Lalage’s commitment to adult education to a post-war Second World War period, when many believed that the kind of injustices suffered under colonial rule had to end. It is demonstrated that she was a globalist who believed that all humanity was interconnected, and that education could promote transformative change across and within national boundaries. An eminent women’s literacy advocate, who devoted her life’s work to improving education for the disadvantaged, especially women, Lalage sought to bring university opportunities to the widest possible sections of society. She was immersed in a tradition which regarded adult education as a catalyst for significant social change, and this chapter highlights how she developed new inclusive, post-colonial approaches to education, including the reform of university curricula across many countries in Africa and Europe.