10: Arguing Back: Challenging Classist Discourses Through Critical Pedagogies

In this chapter the impact of participation in higher education is examined through the experiences of four working-class community activists. It focuses on a special degree program, the Lothian Apprenticeship Scheme Trust (L.A.S.T.), that enabled activists to gain the professional degree in community education. It draws on two sets of interviews. The first in 1996 when the students were in the second year of their degrees and the second in 2023 when they were asked to reflect on its long-term impact. It uses a “cultural wealth” model to explore the assets that working-class people bring and shows how “classist education discourses” (Darmanin, 2003) can be challenged using critical pedagogies.