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Initial results of the Level One Survey Germany (leo.) show that functional illiteracy affects 14.5 percent of working-age population (18–64 years of age). This translates into 7.5 million people who lack functional literacy skills in Germany. We will first introduce the method and design of the study. We will then explain the decisions taken in order to obtain the estimate of the dimension of functional illiteracy. These decisions were carefully taken, and they have contributed to a rather con…
This article presents results of a national medical impact analysis of relaxation and stress-management courses. The impact on health was examined on 132 persons at 40 adult colleges (VHS) at the beginning and end of courses as well as three months thereafter. The courses attained high levels of satisfaction among the participants and significantly improved health-related quality of life, psychological and physical ailments, and this effect remained three months after the end of the course as w…
Proceeding from the educational policy objective of achieving greater participation in continuing education, this article presents a set of instruments with which the learning and educational behaviour of adults can be measured statistically. Taking the example of data selected from the Continuing Education Reporting System (Berichtssystem Weiterbildung (BSW)) and the Adult Education Survey (AES), the potential for analysis and the generation of knowledge offered by statistics on continuing edu…
A video-study of language courses in adult education analyses the transformation of a learning side into a pedagogical space. The definition of pedagogical space is linked to the theory of social space. Space is thus viewed as an arrangement and perception between human beings and social goods. This recasting of social space as a pedagogical space specifies social space to include two additional elements: the representation of knowledge and pedagogical media. For this study, the transformation …
Literacy as a social practice in a district. An ethnographic theory for basic education practice In German-speaking countries, the theoretical discussion on literacy work is characterised far more by a focus on deficits than is the Anglo-Saxon debate. This article narrows this theoretical gap by adopting Barton & Hamilton’s ethnographic research approach to local literacies for an empirical investigation into literacy practices. The project presented here studies how and why reading and wri…
Serving oneself. The new voluntary work and the role of full-time educationalists People’s own learning and development motives play a more important role in the “new voluntary work” than before. This article relates subjective descriptions by volunteers of the learning motives underlying their commitments and adopts a profession-oriented theoretical perspective to relate these to a strategy of support for volunteers by full-time educationalists, referred to as learning and development supp…
This article presents the results of an empirical research project in which participants in continuing education and employees were surveyed about their learning times. The survey indicated that (1) continuing education is co-financed on a large scale through the devotion of private time. (2) Individuals show flexibility and commitment in creating their own learning and continuing education times. (3) Times can no longer be clearly assigned to “learning” and “working” even from a subjective poi…
Foundation of a family as a predetermined breaking point? On the interaction of parenthood and participation in adult education and continuing education Within the context of an empirical longitudinal research project, the processes and turning points of the continuing education practise are documented and discussed in a gender-typical context of life. The survey proves the gender-typical change of the (continuing) education behaviour of men and women when they become fathers and mothers: The …
Personal and organisational educational counselling The need for support in the search for tailor-made educational programmes is growing along with the ongoing individualisation of educational pathways. Counselling of individuals and organisations is gaining importance in this context. This issue focuses both on new theories as well as educational policy developments, devoting attention to current challenges in various fields of action: the training of vocational counsellors, research of coun…
Due to special legal status, differences in social structure, and fewer chances on the labor market, people with migration background are less successful in initial schooling and vocational training programs. They are also under-represented in the area of adult education. The role of continuing education counseling, therefore, is to inform immigrants interested in education of the many individual educational opportunities that are available, to purposefully remove educational barriers, and to p…
