Lernorte und Lernwege

This article provides an overview of the debate on learning environments and learning locations within adult education research; the authors use a historical review of main research topics in order to understand current learning environments and recent theoretical and empirical discussions. The term of learning environments or learning locations has been introduced into research on adult education in the 1970ies; since this time, each following decade can be characterized by several specific research questions concerning structure and impact of learning environments. From the turn of the millennium on, research on learning environments in adult education has focused on two topics: research on the link between learning and “every day life” as well as organizational aspects such as learning networks and cooperation in adult education. Most recently, the theory of neo-institutionalism is being adopted to research on learning environments in adult education.

As a priority of education policy Lifelong Learning implies flexible individual learning pathways in different settings. Within the demographic change and the demand of higher skills higher education qualifications become increasingly important to reach employment, why higher education institutions need to open up against new target groups. This article focuses on further education offered by higher education institutions and intends to give a picture of the current demand and supply. Empirical results indicate great potential for growth, but higher education institutions are required to implement adequate structures for governance, financing and organisation of further education.

Due to the increasing blur of learning boundaries, the need arises for re-defining the concept of learning space. Based on an understanding of learning space, which refers to the local circumstances within organized education programs, the article initially aspires to include the debate on learning space in the discussion of informal learning, before it then focuses on the relation between time and location and the significance of virtual learning spaces. The article itself does not re-define the concept of learning space, but points out the necessary context of a redefinition.

A video-study of language courses in adult education analyses the transformation of a learning side into a pedagogical space. The definition of pedagogical space is linked to the theory of social space. Space is thus viewed as an arrangement and perception between human beings and social goods. This recasting of social space as a pedagogical space specifies social space to include two additional elements: the representation of knowledge and pedagogical media. For this study, the transformation of a learning side into a pedagogical space comes about by dealing with these four elements. The analysis focuses on how teachers and learners in adult education courses deal with each element. Single observable acts are condensed to a description of spatial practices.

Sites and trajectories of learning disconnected from schooling and traditional training are discussed against the background of a new scientification of work related to the shift towards an information technological mode of production. This scientification is rooted in a new relation of theory and practice at work. Accordingly, workers play a new strategic role in work processes: they have to optimize procedures, define and search for reasonable objectives, reflect on methods and strategies of action etc. This scientification provides the possibility to link “lifelong learning” to “developmental work and technology research” and to overcome effects of exclusion within the educational system. A subject scientific approach to learning is essential for this.

The following article focuses on the debate on organizational learning from an adult-educational point of view. In most approaches to organizational learning the members of an organization are regarded as the main drivers of organizational learning processes. However, such approaches do not systematically incorporate important presumptions of learning-theory, although this promises to create a better understanding of adult-educational experiences within organizations. Hence, the article presents organizational learning as a subject-oriented learning process. Furthermore, the article points to empirically generated implications for learning support.

In adult education, fields of activity have lost their strict boundaries: administrative employees also perform pedagogical work – such as counselling, for instance – and full-time pedagogical employees also have to handle administrative work – e.g. in project management. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, administrative employees play an important role in the pedagogical functioning of institutions of adult education, although this factor is often neglected in both research and measures of personnel development. The article analyzes the work of administrative employees with pedagogical responsibilities as a basis for reflections on further education. The empirical basis is provided by the results of the Project KomWeit, a project for the promotion of competences among teachers in further education, in the context of which a survey among different occupational groups was carried out. The article examines in how far administrative employees with pedagogical responsibilities find themselves at the intersection between administration and pedagogy with regard to both their responsibilities and their positions.