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The paper reviews trends in adult learning in England in the ten years from the election of Labour government in 1997. It highlighted an initial focus on expanding and widening participation in a wide range of initiatives in the years to 2002. From 2003 there has been a dramatic narrowing of focus giving priority to funding qualifications related to the labour market. Throughout the period it highlights restless change in institutional structures.
Colleagues from various European countries were invited to an international lecture series at the University of Duisburg-Essen to talk about trends in adult and continuing education. Looking back on this lecture series, we intend to examine different approaches to the term “trend” as well as to outline results of current research in adult and continuing education. We will then give an overview of main arguments of the essays presented in the following. Finally, common trends in European adult a…
In Retrospect: On the Conception of REPORT and its Development A conversation with the founding editors The reason for this interview is REPORT’s 30-year existence. Thus, the time has come to once again recall the events and experiences in its long history. In 1978, the “Literature and Research Report Continuing Education” was published for the first time and was essentially a review journal created to give an overview of the still widely scattered and developing discipline of adult and con…
Despite a relatively similar education system, the way how people can get a qualification for adult and continuing education is different in Germany and Switzerland. Germany has established an academic track within educational sciences with the focus on planning and management. Switzerland follows a vocational track with a basic qualification for teaching adults that could be extended by qualifications within the vocational system for positions in planning and management. This paper analyses th…
The DIE (German Centre for Adult Education) programme “Learning in Social Spaces”, the social quarter approach is a key element of the inclusion matter. Focused on the social environment, continuing education can include the local community and the resulting participation and networking potentials. The article discusses extracts of interviews conducted with representatives of adult education centres in Berlin and Hamburg, revealing the extent of social space orientation work in the context of i…
The process of regulation in the heterogeneous field of education and examination necessarily creates encounters and collaboration of persons, who are standing for different positions and have variable styles of action. In a research project, initiated and financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research, the transfer of formal regulations for examination in certain fields of further education into the reality of the examination has been analyzed. The project utilized three regulated e…
The development of interest in adult education This article presents results of a project funded by the DFG on the development of interest in continuing and further education. We connect our work to most recent research on biographical genesis of interest and focus occuring during an individual’s participation in adult education. As theoretical approach we refer to the Munich theory of interest and the pragmatist approach. We empirically investigate the opportunities and limitations of a qua…
