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Is there anything to the cliché of the xenophobic and violence-prone East German? More than many will like: Three modernization and informalisation defects more common to the society of the former GDR than to the Czech Republic or Poland make these defense mechanisms against foreigners more understandable: • a certain „intergenerational resistance to modernisation”, • a GDR-specific „egalitarian outlook“ and • a continuation of subtly racist attitudes within families. The addressing of construc…
The article deals with the question of organizations' internal control problems, which appear during the implementation of scientific continuing education, and how these problems relate to the implementation process and also to the general opening of universities for higher education to adult learners. Based on qualitative empirical results from a currently ongoing DFG project, three control problems are deployed and appropriate forms of action are demonstrated. The results provide evidence of …
The ageing population presents a series of policy challenges, for which our current three phase model of the lifecourse is unhelpful, especially by overlooking the changing nature of the “third age”. Encouraging people to stay longer in paid work is a key priority for Government, and training is often advocated as a way of encouraging this. This paper summarises the demographic challenge and presents a proposal for rethinking the lifecourse. It then describes the findings of a project, which ex…
Research on learning of distance learners An empirical insight into the practice of distance learning Albeit the high relevance of distance education and distance studies in the field of lifelong learning strategies, there is only few knowledge on the actual process in which the distant student learns. This article presents and discusses the results of a research project, in which distance students filled in questionnaires concerning their learning several times a week over a period of thre…
In the face of accelerated structural change (“transformation society“) in-company further education can no longer just rely on familiar forms of learning and teaching. It must evolve into a form of guidance for personal development, by which managers are directed towards continuous introspection (“culture of reflection”). The author shows that such phenomena can be empirically shown to exist at this moment in time, and outlines in which way they can be seen as pedagogical communication, by way…
The Northrhine-Westphalian labour ministry, in a research project carried out by the Landesinstitut für Qualifikation (State’s Institute for Qualification) in Soest, investigated what possible contribution to immigrant integration might be expected from the State’s institutions of further education. The results, laid down in the study „The contribution of further education twoards the integration of immigrants”, look like a list of shortcomings: insufficient data, an unclear market structure, a…
In today’s societies literacy is regarded as the prerequisite for participating in the professional and private spheres of everyday life. It is regarded as a human right, a tool for personal empowerment and a tool to influence the behaviour of individuals, families and communities. Despite the international consensus that literacy skills determine opportunities and provide access to today’s information-based societies, many adults in both industrialized and developing countries find themselves …
Based on the background of selective access to further education institutions and the relevance of intercultural understanding and opening, the focus on transition processes within further education institutions will provide benefits for research and development in further education. Results from a qualitative study that was part of the LIQ project will be presented. The analysis of the interviews could be used to highlight diverse and complex aspects that influence the transition from target g…
This report from England is part of a research project entitled Literacy/Basic Education – State of the Art from a historical and systematic Perspective in terms of Transferability. It focuses on the way adult (il)literacy has been approached, dealt with, discussed and analysed both politically and scientifically in England. It provides a historical overview on government strategy papers and outlines central ideas in theoretical discussions regarding literacy and literacy practices. However, in…
Learning at the workplace – an “intimate” event The author takes the example of two female employees with a background of migration to show how strongly adults’ motivation to learn and their learning decisions are influenced by personal, deeply private motivations, even when they are pushed into learning by an external influence, as is often the case in companies. The theoretical basis on which the author interprets the case examples in the light of the “intimacy of lifelong learning” is th…
