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Volunteering in the field of migration/refuge opens up a potential learning space for the acquisition of numerous competencies. The paper is based on an empirical pre-study from Austria and focusses on an analysis of political learning processes amongst volunteers and their implications for the development of active citizenship and the connected challenges for adult education. Diverse factors influencing the engagement of volunteers, such as political and media discourse about refugees, are con…
Do-it-yourself literature opens up a broad autodidactic field - though explicit references to "learning" are hardly relevant. In the light of a complex constellation of a contemporary production of knowledge and values, the repertoire of adult education is capable of taking a critical look at the postulated performance of do-it-yourself literature, as well as (re)discovering dimensions such as reactions, physicality or emotions of the learning self.
PIAAC reveals the deficits of basic competences within the adult population. To master this problem, which also applies to the labour market, the author calls for establishing a Federal Office for the protection of basic education. This office may be an opportunity for people with and without a migrational background, persons seeking employment as well as precariously employed people to attend vocational education and training programmes, which are funded by the government.
The Author presents a shortened version of the report »The Social and Personal Benefits of Learning: A Summary of Key Research Findings« by the »Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning (WBL)«. The wider benefits of early childhood education as well as school, university and adult education are examined. The wide range of positive educational benefits contains crime prevention as well as a reduced nicotine consumption or increased tolerance.
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…
Similar to the literary cafés there is the model of “philosophical cafés”. It first came into being in France in 1992 by M. Sautet. By now it is also recited by adult education. It is based on the statement “All people are philosophers“ and it animates a daily routine of philosophical discussions. With the example of the theme “joy“, the author sketches his experiences as a manager of such a café.
Against the self-misunderstanding of quasi therapists within the adult education scene The topic will squirm itself around a complicated relation when it is about naming the establishment of psycho therapists’ “elements” and thereby simultaneous medical “elements” within the practice of further education and concerning this matter simultaneous commenting when esoterical components are added. This interconnection shall be debated system theoretically. Finally the question of regulating possib…
In the jargon of the product generations the characteristics of “new” and “old” organizations are identified. In this way the alteration of generations in the organisation of adult education institutions are described. The alteration of generations is performed on three levels, at the organisational comprehension (service provider instead of administrator of offers), at the inner structures (internal flexible making) as well as at changes that overlap institutions in coherence with lifelong lea…
The article points out the need and the direction of changes in points of view, the planning and the character of programmes, the role of teachers and the organizational structures regarding the further development of the German Adult Education Institute „Volkshochschule“. Schneider identifies development processes towards a customer-oriented institution as balancing out different interests of different learners, clients and cooperation partners, and education management as a new competence of …
Resistance against education and learning as a result of pedagogical and didactic acting: The article reports two research projects in adult education at the University of Kaiserslautern focusing identity-relevant and emotional aspects of learning resistance. While both aspects are rather neglected in the research on education and learning they are substantial for the understanding of learning resistance phenomena as well as for the reconstruction of the own pedagogical practice.
