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European countries, North America and Japan are strongly affected by demographic change and ageing populations. In these countries a discourse emerged about using the potentials of older people and the role of lifelong learning in this process. This text focuses on international results of further educational participation of older people and outlines concepts of learning in later life in Germany.
Cartoons are media of political and cultural education. By exaggeration they point out existing problems, asking for action and solutions. In this article some cartoons are presented as examples, dealing with the problem of illiteracy and the task of reading, followed by an interpretation regarding the pedagogical impact. The role of cartoons in an educational context is valued, more research on the topic is proposed.
Hans Georg Rosenstein describes the objectives and priorities of the renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning, which was adopted by the European Council in 2011. Both, the role of the European Commission are analyzed as well as the tools and budget for the agenda’s implementation. The article concludes with a critical classification of »Erasmus for all«, the new EU-programme for general and vocational education.
The article deals with a change in public, political, and scientific understanding of migration and integration issues, which has to be taken into account by organisations of adult and continuing education. Furthermore the present focus on migration and integration offers new challenges as well as opportunities to improve the role of organisations of adult and continuing education in shaping the German society as an immigration society.
People learn in manifold ways in football clubs. This article illustrates this by examining the manager-licensing system of the German Football Association and initiatives aimed at strengthening the role of volunteers in clubs through special qualification strategies. This article supplements a retrospective text which shows that clubs are an important place of learning and the roots of adult education lie in the domain of clubs.
For over 40 years, the „Bibliography of Adult Education“ has been published. This service of the DIE (German Institute of Adult Education) has now been changed into a more modern online format. Looking back, the bibliography may well have been a little hampered by its aspiration to completeness, but it still has performed an essential role in making adult education an important discipline within educational science.
Based on communication and body, the report points out modern cultural practices and focuses on options characterised by new technologies which have been established in everyday life and used in various designs. It also discusses the role of continuing education within this process of change. Here, the author refers to the reflection of shaping a cultural identity, the development of cultural competences and holistic approaches – integrating head, heart and body.
In consideration of the omnipresent commitment to the significance of lifelong learning, the article analyses the role of continuing education within public education funding. Over the past 20 years, public continuing education funding has been reduced by 41 %. The low participation rate in continuing education, particularly among the less qualified and atypically employed, encourage an increase in public investments. Funds should enhance staff counselling, qualification and professionalism as …
Japan’s population is aging and shrinking at unprecedented speed. One central issue that emerges in the ongoing discourse on how to meet the manifold demographic challenges Japan faces deals with the central role the nation’s senior citizens can take on when it comes to providing and fostering social capital. The concept of lifelong learning in this context has been established as a central means of being engaged in actively shaping the future of Japan.
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 …