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Publically funded adult education has rarely contributed to the increase of educational equality. Often enough, it has been beneficial to those who had already enjoyed their share of education and employment. The author reflects on the German post-war history of continuing education and identifies several cycles of financial distribution. The initial focus of adult education was on educationally ambitious citizens. Based on a socio-political motivation, the learning of employees became increasi…
The article focuses on the development of the global educational discourse from a human rights perspective, particularly with regard to adult education and lifelong learning. The author discusses the historic milestones set by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the consequent understanding of learning as well as the various national implementation strategies of the right for lifelong learning.
The author traces the change in paradigm in educational policy from the perspective of the Ministry in charge as a »fundamental empirical change«. It shows structures and framework conditions underlying pertinent major projects (National Educational Panel, technology-based testing, the Programme for Empirical Educational Research) and draws attention to the output and competence orientation as their “leitmotif”. By the same token it views educational policy and educational research as being dep…
How can continuing education in actual practice really use empirical data on the area of continuing education? The author, a business manager at an adult college special-purpose association, demonstrates in his article the practical potential offered by empirical educational research. The data generated serve as a comparative parameter for local statistics and can help identify and corroborate fields of development. He elucidates this using the examples of milieu marketing and course leader qua…
Educational institutes have always been seen as needing to cooperate: this idea first took shape in education acts and is now increasingly being applied to lifelong learning. In practice, however, there are many arguments against cooperation at institutes of continuing education, not least as it can create unwanted situations of rivalry among the cooperating institutes. To develop models which will help guide schools on issues of cooperation better, further research is required: What advantage…
Looking at consultancy for European project work, the article reveals the common obstacles and success factors for cooperative ventures between adult education institutions as part of EU funding programmes. The author recommends paying particular attention to all the parties' interests to ensure there is joint ownership.
