Religion, Ethik und Erwachsenenbildung

Religion and adult education

The combination of "Religion and adult education" has conspicuously various facets, especially in practice. Religious adult education will be presented by means of examples of Christian, Islamic and Jewish adult education. But Religion is also subject matter of secular adult education and for that reason it will be considered separately in this context. An additional focus will be on the inevitable reference to religious aspects of intercultural adult education being brought up by current societal developments. This article will reveal work perspectives for adult educators as well as research needs in that area.

God’s people as a learning community
Biblical foundations of lifelong learning

The article presents the around 2.500 year-old roots of a concept of lifelong (religious) learning which is being developed in the book Deuteronomium of the Hebrew Bibel. Learning is considered an existential self-realization of God’s people which encompasses not only ethics, but also history and constitutional law. With respect to the history of people’s duty to learn in Judaism, the author evaluates perspectives for a Christian reception of that notion motivated by the concern of backing up a biblical-theological substantiation of confessional adult education turned to the learner.

The development of interest in adult education

This article presents results of a project funded by the DFG on the development of interest in continuing and further education. We connect our work to most recent research on biographical genesis of interest and focus occuring during an individual’s participation in adult education. As theoretical approach we refer to the Munich theory of interest and the pragmatist approach. We empirically investigate the opportunities and limitations of a qualitative video approach (n=42). Based on accepted theories, we present three phases of interest: latency, expansion and competence. We find that voluntary participants remain in the phase of expansion while those participating involuntarily move on from latency towards expansion.

An idyll of inclusion and exclusion?

The article brings into question the ongoing debate about inclusion/exclusion. For this purpose it draws attention to the circularity of the used arguments being composed of democracy – social inclusion – education. Hence, the paper is aimed at discussing the interdependence of these components, focussing in particular on the ambivalent position of adult/further education in this dynamic. The reference to the work of Jacques Rancière, an influential French political philosopher, allows a highly different approach to the issues in question and, by this, opens up for a new perspective on the role of adult education in the context of inclusion/exclusion – as activity of disagreement about the existing order of the community.