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The author describes and evaluates actual streamings of men’s studies at the background – and as a result – of the history and development of women’s studies. Ursula Müller’s main questions are: How is gender construction defined by men’s studies? Is it critical research in the sense of social criticism and self reflection? Her answer: It depends on the author. The position of Ursula Müller is grounding on the concept of Robert W. Connell’s plaedoyer for taking serious men as a specific social …
The German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) works as a provider of scientific ser vices for both research and practical work in adult and fur ther education, supplying institutions and researchers with statistical data, documents and support. Its strategic position at the interface between theory and practice corresponds with the institutes specific understanding of its own supportive function and distinctive corporate identity: transmitting scientific knowledge to practice and vice versa, p…
Numeracy practices are always dependent on the social context in which they emerge. These contexts, however, are unstable because of a range of technological and socio-political changes. How does this instability affect people’s agency in the world? After reviewing key approaches to numeracy practices research, we distil key findings from recent numeracy studies. We introduce the concept of the numerate environment to examine the context in which opportunities, supports and demands present them…
Most learning activities in continuing education are assigned to enterprise-provided continuing vocational training. There is wide-spread interest in this field and its development. But many researchers point out that the theoretical and conceptual foundations for researching and shaping this field are not adequately unfolded. The variety of enterprise-provided continuing vocational training requires approaches, which allow for differentiation between diverse realities and interests of actors. …
The development of typologies is used as a method in social and educational research that helps to systematically reduce complex information. Thus, developing typologies facilitates theoretical as well as empirical clarification and contributes in this way to the attainment of scientific insights. Typologies are based on the results of comparisons derived from analysing empirical material. These results are then clustered and outlined as dimensions for allocating individual cases, identifying i…
The European Qualification Framework and the National Qualification Framework of Germany are two offer-specific reference instruments, which should be implemented in the German educational and employment systems. Both of them are difficult to estimate in regard to their transparency, penetrability and support of labour market mobility. Enterprises and educational institutes seem to be different in their logic of action concerning their educational and qualification achievements in the society. …
Adult learning professionals are understood in the context of European Policy as key factor for the quality of adult education. In this paper a transnational European study programme, the European Master in Adult Education, is focussed on as an academic contribution to the professionalization of adult learning professionals: What core themes of European Adult Education can be identified? What didactic approaches are required for a transnational curriculum? How is the labour market taken into co…
Pioneers from the Islands - National Qualifications Framework in England, Scotland and Ireland This article looks into the genesis and structure of the qualifications frameworks in England, Scotland and Ireland, compares them and concludes with notes to be taken into account for developments in Germany. The qualifications frameworks described, which are considered the forerunners of the EQF, have improved connections between the educational sectors. Their recognised benefit is the transpare…
Between prestigious office and everyday support. Voluntary commitment in continuing education When people engage in voluntary work in the field of continuing education on behalf of an institution, this is often because organisations believe they can obtain social capital in this manner. These persons then operate as organisers or in development associations. The focus of the author, however, is on those people who voluntarily provide support but often remain invisible – referred to in the li…
Learning from other countries? International perspectives on participation in continuing education at schools of higher learning This article adopts an international comparative perspective to identify the conditions favouring or impeding participation in university continuing education and seeks to answer the question of what we can learn from other countries. To this end, data selected from seven countries through secondary statistical analyses is presented and systematically compared to t…
