Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
Services
Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
Institute
We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
The demographic development in Germany will lead to the society servicing more older people than younger people. Against this background the contribution shows in which way institutions of communal adult education are called upon for developing specific offers that consider the different educational requirements and educational necessities of a very heterogeneous age group. By means of examples from the work at adult evening classes (Volkshochschulen) the author clarifies how contents, teaching…
Learning a language is an indispensable prerequisite for participating in both public and working life. Adult education, also in Germany, is currently facing a great challenge in the area of language teaching: In addition to language teaching for migrants and refugees, a key problem is the alphabetization of German and non-German speaking functional illiterates. This paper looks at the conditions for successful language learning by the adults here in focus in organized teaching and learning set…
The author diagnoses the dynamics of acceleration in our society in three parts: technological acceleration, which results in a “destruction of space”, accelerated social change, which leads to a “shrinkage of the present”, and – as a result of both of these trends – an acceleration in the subjective perception of time. The “society on the move” creates a pressure to make use of as many options in life as possible. The author shows that only deciding not to exploit all these options can help e…
This paper deals with a new approach in the promotion of literacy, which focuses on social integration. This approach has been inspired by a concept of adult education aiming at integration and by social work oriented to the life world of the addressees. These concepts are being adapted to the work with functionally illiterate persons. The approach discussed here includes different forms of action promoting literacy: both learning and consulting, and also institutional cooperation in networks. …
With this article, the author (of the Institute of International Cooperation, an institution within the German Adult Education Association, IIZ/DVV) opens up a readers’ discussion in this publication on the subject of education and the EU extension. In his article, an overview of the points of discussion is given. After the breakdown of the socialist societies in the middle and Eastern European countries, educational facilities suffered a severe loss of authority. This has only partly been ba…
The paper discusses learning as a way of obtaining recognition in adult life. Recognition is one of the basic categories of A. Honneth’s notion of justice. The opinions presented in this paper have been formulated on the basis of the research carried out among non-traditional students of OSW. Adult students who pursue education often express deep satisfaction they experience in the course of their studies, claiming that the process has helped them to boost their confidence and increase their ow…
Adult Education is rarely associated with genuine research methods. But recently a number of innovative methodical approaches have emerged which have been implemented in adult education. Often these empirical approaches are interconnected and therefore will be in the focus of our attention. This edition of REPORT will present and evaluate these innovative research methods in adult education.
Using the crisis-ridden Afghanistan as an example the authors show the importance of adult und continuing education for the positive development of a conflict region. By strengthening the employability of young people in transition from school to university or professional life it helps preventing frustration, aggression and violence – and thus also the emergence of new conflicts.
The requirement for improving one’s life also concerns the family – and therefore family education. In his documented speech on the occasion of the ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the Catholic Education Centre in Bonn, the author pleads for creating spaces for meetings and relationships as well as for conveying »serenity competences« with family education instead of supporting improvement mania.
The author comments on his essay’s title which should refer to a „human being“ rather than to a „migrant“. With examples drawn from literature, theatre and real life he underpins his theory of an increasing malfunction of language as a means of communication. Finally, he reflects on cultural identity and a (German) concept of integration into a target culture.
