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Within the bounds of constitutional law, the Federal Government has educational-political powers concerning educational contents. These it exercises in manifold programmes and initiatives, among others in the area of further education. Veronika Pahl, head of the competent department in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) gives a summar y of the most important initiatives along with the political considerations that form their background. Quality problems are grouped in categor…
In Switzerland, experienced teachers can validate their competencies which they have achieved in the field of adult education. By submitting a self-assessment which is oriented along a competency profile, to the Swiss Association for Continuing Education (SVEB), the teachers demonstrate in a comprehensible way that they possess the necessary competences to teach in adult education. Experts examine the submitted self-assessments and use the competency profile as a reference standard. The experts…
During the last two decades widening adult participation in higher education has become a central issue in international and especially European lifelong learning policy debates. At European level this is reflected in the Europe 2020 strategy set out by the European Commission. One headline target is to boost the share of the population aged 30–34 that has completed tertiary or equivalent education to 40 per cent by 2020. In the face of general trends such as the intensive use of ICT, the evolu…
An essential task for administrative staff in adult education is to develop and offer courses. In the field of economic education (basic education), there exist only very few offers and didactic material. Hence, there is a great demand to describe requirements concerning competencies to be taught in this area. Such requirements for competencies may serve as a base for the development of courses in adult education. This article explores the questions on which requirements concerning competencies…
While the calls to take more notice of the significance of migration for adult education are loud and clear, notably little attention is paid to them with regard to work on categories. In adult education, fundamental theoretical work on definitions of “migration” is still far from complete. Even though individual studies deal with the term, it seems that attempts to clarify categories remain scarce. If adult education research on migration has a genuine interest in examining the risks of the hi…
So far, numeracy as part of basic education has only been considered peripherally in the German-speaking countries, regarding the scientific as well as the practical approaches of adult education. In this article, theoretical and conceptual lines of the discourse are linked systematically. In addition, it is argued for an extension of the discourse by including the concept of subject-oriented basic education, which is based on the concept of numeracy as social practice. Initial findings from tw…
The following report offers an insight on the theoretical and empirical issue of cultural adult education. It is understood as an institution for the refinement of the aesthetic senses which, according to Welsch, can easily become anesthetic – a situation of suspended sensitivity. A second empirical approach presents the current provisions systematized by three “Portals of Participation“. Cultural educational provisions may be attributed to the “systematic-receptive type“, the “independent-crea…
Until now, the organization-specific proportion in professional development has received little recognition despite its significance for the occupational biographical professionalization of teachers and continuing educators. The book “Organization as Context for Professionalism” was written subsequently to a research and development project, which was aimed at the educational management of continuing educational organization for the professional development of educational employees. The result …
The Northrhine-Westphalian labour ministry, in a research project carried out by the Landesinstitut für Qualifikation (State’s Institute for Qualification) in Soest, investigated what possible contribution to immigrant integration might be expected from the State’s institutions of further education. The results, laid down in the study „The contribution of further education twoards the integration of immigrants”, look like a list of shortcomings: insufficient data, an unclear market structure, a…
