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The author bridges the gap between culture and education by dealing with two sides of the coin. He initially observes a currently active interest in culture. Cultural education is a generally accepted objective in the field of cultural policy. By using a historical outline, the author illustrates this attribution to a lack of visions in cultural policies. Beneficiaries are institutions for cultural education as well as classical institutions for adult education such as adult education centres. …
Does law governing continuing education distinguish between general and vocational education? This article examines the question as to whether and in what manner applicable law governing continuing education in Germany distinguishes between general and continuing vocational education. The analysis of the historical line of development shows that this was definitely the case especially during the phase of the so-called “qualification campaign” in the 1970s and 1980s. In the present, on the ot…
Searching for the third way. A statistical look at the practice of winning third-party funds over for further education institutions. The article provides empirical backgrounds for winning third-party funds over for further education institutions through the database of the German Institute of Adult Education. According to the database 17 % of the total financial backing for the Community Adult Education Centres came from third-party funds in 2005, after a maximum of 20 % in 2002. As a comparis…
In recent years, the discourse on competences as well as the increasing importance of informal learning particularly at workplaces have attributed a prominent position to the procedures of visualization and balancing of vocational competences within the educational practice as well as in education policy debates.However, most of these procedures focus on apprentices or participants of further education courses. This rather limited view has largely excluded teachers and/or dispositive employees …
Publically funded adult education has rarely contributed to the increase of educational equality. Often enough, it has been beneficial to those who had already enjoyed their share of education and employment. The author reflects on the German post-war history of continuing education and identifies several cycles of financial distribution. The initial focus of adult education was on educationally ambitious citizens. Based on a socio-political motivation, the learning of employees became increasi…
Education and equity are certainly central issues of educational research as well as topics of controversial public debate. On the one hand, Social Justice and Inequality Research focus on adult education, on the other hand adult education addresses the subject itself. Through the re-analysis of organizational structural data gathered from adult education providers in the state of Hesse, Germany, this article takes a closer look at the field of adult education. It aims to examine participation …
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 …
Adult education increasingly occupies the center of education policy and hence the corresponding governance aspirations on the national, supra- and international level. Large-scale-assessment studies, like PIAAC, further raised public attention for adult education with a focus on the low educated. This study analyzes overall and spatial participation in adult education in the national context using multi-level modeling. Using data from the European Labour Force Survey 2013 it shows that (1) the…
Professionalization in adult education and the memory culture The discussion of the adult education and its history opens for a closer look at the process of its professionalization. The position of the temporal delimitation and the focusing on the contents come into focus. It turns out that the history of woman education is not represented explicitly in textbooks on the history of the adult education. Focussing on historical factual knowledge and experience knowledge, the analysis of memor…
In the past, continuing higher education at university level has been a marginal phenomenon in Germany, both within universities and the context of adult education on the whole. Internationally though, adult education has gained significant importance / relevance in recent years. While implementing the objectives of the bologna-process, German universities are undergoing a far-reaching transition. In addition, the rules of market economy will apply for universities increasingly. This very devel…
