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On the occasion of the passing of the North Rhine-Westphalian budget for 2004/2005 the author takes a close look at the Land’s support of adult education. From the viewpoint of a Catholic association he draws a dark picture of financial means continuously on the decrease that gives rise to the impression that the constitutionally guaranteed promotion of adult education is a model up for discontinuation.
Program analyses are considered as genuine methods of research in further education. The basic understanding is that innovation is not only an invention of new methods, but also an implementation of existing methods in new ways. The most important approaches of program analysis will be presented and discussed concerning their alteration. This is also relevant for qualitative research in further education in general.
Strata, Class, Milieu. Reference strategies in research on continuing education 1957-2007 The author provides a longitudinal look at 50 years of research on participation in continuing education. After presenting some important publications from 1957 (Schelsky, Dahrendorf), he presents sociological reference strategies which were used in the respective time periods to explain the social structure: first strata and class, and then later – due to the influence of Bourdieus – the social milieu: H…
While the calls to take more notice of the significance of migration for adult education are loud and clear, notably little attention is paid to them with regard to work on categories. In adult education, fundamental theoretical work on definitions of “migration” is still far from complete. Even though individual studies deal with the term, it seems that attempts to clarify categories remain scarce. If adult education research on migration has a genuine interest in examining the risks of the hi…
In adult education as an almost deregulated educational sector, governance happens indirectly via support programs and educational initiatives. Money plays a central role as a medium of governance and is also used to promote quality management systems. Quality management itself unrolls a governing capacity in the adult education system: in doing so, different models stress different starting points for quality development. This paper responds to the question which factors influence the developm…
Stepped courses of studies and professionalization of adult education Reflections against the background of first experiences at the Ruhr-University Bochum The contribution takes the occasion of the dynamics of reform, with the transposition of the study into two cycles, to show policy-making decisions which need to be made for the study offers in the area of adult education. One important point of reference is the question, as to what extent the reform counteracts the efforts concerning pr…
Ehses, Christiane; Zech, Rainer: Good organisation – a contribution to the self-conception of the adult education profession Quality standards were found on the empirical basis of analysis of consultancy cases as well as group discussions with heads and consultants of adult education organisations. These quality standards can be the precondition for a comparability of organisations and they can also be quality standards for their organisation’s evaluation by internal or external evaluators a…
Through their employment in adult education, or as an additional means of learning alongside adult education, the media contribute towards the shedding of limitations of the place of learning and are themselves places of disengagement at the same time. The author, in a media-analytic perspective, outlines how communicators from the world of publishing are integrated into the didactic triangle and thus devaluate the pedagogical frame of the learning situation. At the same time new structures are…
The study text provides an introduction to the topic migration and further education with particular attention to the different educational needs of adults with a migrant background. As a starting point, central terms and events in the history of migration in Germany are discussed. Against this background, the current challenges for further education due to migration-related diversity are highlighted. Moreover, the training situation and participation of adults with a migrant background is disc…
Didactic transition between education and working life This article examines the orientation of vocational training towards “learning areas” in the context of the larger thematic topic of “occupation and education”. The pivotal question around which the whole topic revolves is whether and in what ways the concept of “learning areas” can contribute to a constructive change in the dialectic between education and occupation. It is with this in mind that the relationship between education and p…
