Professor Alan Rogers, one of the world’s prominent professors in Adult Literacy and development, died on April 5, 2022.
Born in 1933, Alan Rogers joined the University of Nottingham for an undergraduate degree in 1951. He got employed in the Department of Adult Education (University of Nottingham) in late 1950s, rising to Reader. Before moving into international development, Alan had a long career in local history – and developed a strong interest in medieval history. He taught history in the Department of Adult Education at the University of Nottingham for over 20 years – and became Director of the Institute of Continuing Education at Magee University College in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1980. Later, he became dean at the University of Ulster. He subsequently worked at the University of Reading where he increasingly moved into work on adult education and international development. In 1985, he set up his own NGO, Education for Development, working on adult literacy and development training and research projects for over 13 years.
He continued to be closely associated with Nottingham and was an honorary professor from 1998 until his death, giving lectures and masterclasses as well as advising doctoral students on a regular basis.
Besides, he was the founding secretary general of the Commonwealth Association for the Education and Training of Adults and also founded the Uppingham Seminar series of international adult education residentials.
As well as early work as a historian of the East Midlands from his time as an adult education tutor at Nottingham, he published hugely influential books in the field of adult education such as Teaching Adults (1986), Adults Learning for Development (1992) and Non-formal Education (2007). Alan continued to be an active scholar and practitioner till his death with his work in his eighties including for the Afghani police force and with the Tanzanian Folk Development Colleges.
He remained a core member of the UEA UNESCO Chair team at UEA since its establishment. Despite suffering pain and illness over many months, till his death, he was engaged in various academic activities like sharing informal interactions, PhD examining, research projects, publishing and reviewing books, articles, presenting on and attending seminars and conferences and preparing policy papers with UNESCO and others. He made enormous contributions to the field of adult education and development.
Above all, as a founding member of the UEA Literacy and Development Group, Alan was an irreplaceable ‘critical friend’ when preparing the proposal for establishing the UEA UNESCO Chair Programme. He continued to play an important role in the development of this programme, strengthening the research direction in informal learning and literacy, and professional development of literacy facilitators – both continuing themes within his research and publications. The three books about to be published in the Bloomsbury series on Adult Literacy, Learning and Social Change (edited by Professor Alan Rogers and Professor Anna Robinson-Pant) will be a rich tribute to Alan’s intellectual influence and drive. It is a pity that he just missed seeing the first book published in this series.
Alan was also a constant mentor for many early career researchers in the field of adult learning/literacy, particularly in our partner UNESCO Chair university in Ethiopia and other countries where there had previously been little qualitative research in this area.
He was a champion of academic welfare; he worked so hard to bring about fairness in academia in favour of those working in the global south. His informal networks and email circles, his publications, his supports, etc. are witnesses for this.
Alan was a beloved father and grandfather.
His funeral was held at Southwell Minster on Friday 22nd April, 2022 at 2.00 p.m. in the presence of his family and friends.
Please take a look at the tribute booklet set up by the UEA UNESCO Chair team in memory of Alan.
