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In view of the demographic change the investments in education for elderly population are becoming increasingly more important. At the same time the educational system’s endeavours of repair are rather targeted at the very young. How can the educational investments be divided usefully between the old and the young? By showing examples of Scandinavian countries, the author elucidates a double strategy of high educational investments for the phase of youth and in adult life. The countries have su…
The article presents the results of the author’s study on the views of pedagogy students on politics and education. The research has been undertaken subsequently to the 2015 parliamentary elections won by the party “Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc” (“Law and Justice”, PiS). During the election campaign, this party’s program offered radical changes, also in the Polish educational system. The aim of the study was the recognition of the level of interest in politics, the approach to democracy and education…
This article investigates the internationally-comparative question how basic education policy is understood at the national level of policy formulation (policy), and how this basic education policy is – taking into account the institutional rules and responsibilities of the multi-level-system (polity) – implemented by a constellation of actors into national education policy (politics). On the basis of empirical data from the project “EU-Alpha”, the interplay of policy, polity and politics in ba…
This article addresses learning, educational and activity-related prospects upon entering into retirement age and the search for meaning in one's career associated with this. The topic is explored at various levels: first of all autobiographically taking the example of a new, self-employed orientation. At the second level, the case example can be interpreted as part of a societal trend towards activities crossing the age border. Finally prospects for the topic in the context of adult education …
The market for distance education of adults is experiencing a change of paradigm that has serious consequences on the financial structure of private schools for distance learning. The article sketches the chances and risks of this development: on the one hand the internet offers new possibilities in the form of net-based training concepts (NBT), on the other hand free of charge courses on the internet could cause the financial collapse of distance schools. The author gives reasons why this is n…
From 2002 on the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will be sponsoring 80 regional networks in the context of the „Learning Regions – promotion of networks“ programme. This programme will be scientifically monitored by a consortium formed by the German Institute of Adult Education (DIE), the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW), and the universities of Duisburg and Munich. The author will be in charge of the overall scientific supervision. In his article he pres…
English version of the "Counselling" tape. What functions can counselling fulfil in literacy courses? Two projects carried out by the former Pedagogic Section of the German Federation of Adult Education Centres clarified this issue in the 1980s ["Literacy" (1982–1985) and "Elementary Education"(1985-19888)]. This summary of the results of both projects clarifies the concept of learning counselling, clarifies the central meaning of non-verbal forms of expression using practical examples and intr…
The concept of self-optimisation is closely linked to discourses on lifelong learning and has been discussed in adult education research for some time. The talk about selfoptimisation is mostly articulated as a critique or critical analysis, appears as almost self-evident and thus gets caught up in the pull of normalisation. The established problematisation of self-optimisation is therefore also subjected to problematization in this paper in an attempt to reopen the thinking of the problem. Th…
Further education networks from the view of the sociological neo-socialisms The contribution analyses chances and perspectives which are opened up by applying the theory of sociological neo-institutionalism to network research carried out within the field of adult education. The theory is understood as complementary to those network theories and concepts which are referred to within research already. In a first step basic assumptions and concepts of the sociological neo-institutionalism are …