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The article is based on the assumption that there is a dialectical correlation between biography and society. The authors develop an analytical category to better conceptually capture the influence of education policy frameworks through individuals’ professional performance. The main focus will be on the life stories of two figures which are pivotal for the development of the Hessian or even German history of adult education: Walter Korn and Rudi Rohlmann.
Based on the development of modern information and communication technologies, the author tries to get to the bottom of the significance of reading and writing skills for the participation in society and the job market. He recognises a growing replacement by auditive and visual formats such as voice recognition and pictograms. Against this background, he calls for the recognition of developing smart technologies as the key for handling insufficient reading and writing skills.
In welchem Verhältnis stehen Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit? Wie kann dies dialogisch gestaltet werden und welche Bedeutung kommt dabei der Erwachsenenbildung zu? Ulrike Felt hinterfragt kritisch Stellung und Bedeutung wissenschaftlicher Bildung in der Wissensgesellschaft. Es stellt sich die Frage nach den Kompetenzen, die es braucht, um Wissenschaft zu kommunizieren, z.B. von Experten (Peters) und von Journalisten (Göpfert). Im DIE-Gespräch erläutert Hans-Olaf Henkel, Präsident der Leibni…
Referred back to oneself. Reflexive modernisation and new learning requirements This article probes the relationship between our risk society, reflexive modernity and individual learning. First, social conditions are illuminated (with reference to Beck, Giddens and Lash) which force people to endure uncertainty (Mitscherlich and Marotzki) and gain critical ego strength. Next the author focuses attention on the reality of contemporary ways of dealing with demands, turning to findings from nar…
In today’s societies literacy is regarded as the prerequisite for participating in the professional and private spheres of everyday life. It is regarded as a human right, a tool for personal empowerment and a tool to influence the behaviour of individuals, families and communities. Despite the international consensus that literacy skills determine opportunities and provide access to today’s information-based societies, many adults in both industrialized and developing countries find themselves …
People with low literacy skills are often experiencing difficulties to manage their everyday life. For example, filling out forms, correspondence or banking may pose huge challenges. But what about the political participation of functional illiterates in a society which is dominated by the use of literacy? The following article focuses on how participants of literacy classes use their possibilities of contribution. These assumptions are based on first results of the qualitative research project…
Is there anything to the cliché of the xenophobic and violence-prone East German? More than many will like: Three modernization and informalisation defects more common to the society of the former GDR than to the Czech Republic or Poland make these defense mechanisms against foreigners more understandable: • a certain „intergenerational resistance to modernisation”, • a GDR-specific „egalitarian outlook“ and • a continuation of subtly racist attitudes within families. The addressing of construc…
Das Heft behandelt "Polarisierungen" in den unterschiedlichsten Bereichen, angefangen bei ethno-sozialen Konflikten, Polaritäten zwischen den Generationen, den Chancen und Problematiken des Ost-West-Verhältnisses in Deutschland bis hin zur Debatte über Qualifikation und Wissensverfall. Aus dem Blickwinkel „Polarisierungen“ werden Handlungsfelder der Erwachsenenbildung neu beleuchtet: gesellschaftliche Spaltungstendenzen (Fischer), Förderung des generationenübergreifenden Dialogs (Wolf), Lernber…
In the face of accelerated structural change (“transformation society“) in-company further education can no longer just rely on familiar forms of learning and teaching. It must evolve into a form of guidance for personal development, by which managers are directed towards continuous introspection (“culture of reflection”). The author shows that such phenomena can be empirically shown to exist at this moment in time, and outlines in which way they can be seen as pedagogical communication, by way…
The economy of education identifies various kinds of usefulness of education: individual benefits and also so-called external benefits, by which society profits (internal as well as external benefits can be monetary or non-monetary). These dimensions of usefulness differ in the degree to which they can be quantified. The benefits of education have not been researched as thoroughly as its cost. The more far-reaching welfare effects of further education are especially hard to measure. The evalu…
