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The author provides a row of examples for the overlapping of practical social work and adult education existing already today. In the light of the task of making it possible for all people to come along in the accelerated life and work life, both disciplines should go together more strongly. Adult education needs to open up to social work and the social work needs to understand itself as being pervaded by adult education.
This article provides an overview of the debate on learning environments and learning locations within adult education research; the authors use a historical review of main research topics in order to understand current learning environments and recent theoretical and empirical discussions. The term of learning environments or learning locations has been introduced into research on adult education in the 1970ies; since this time, each following decade can be characterized by several specific re…
Following Piaget and recent research on psychodynamics, the author establishes theses on distinctively suitable adult learning. She recapitulates essential theses from her book »Zur Konstruktion des Erwachsenen« (On the Structure of Adults) and refines them with regard to autonomy as a learning incentive. The author believes that learning processes, which are characteristic for adults, occur mainly when old structures are overcome and learning procedures are modified. The learning incentive is…
South-east European countries are receiving support from “western” institutions in developing their education system structures. One professional involved in development cooperation in the field of adult education is dvv international, the German Adult Education Association’s institute for international cooperation. By evaluating work in Romania, Serbia and Kosovo, this article reflects on strategic decisions resulting from this work. It demonstrates that it is correct to take account of differ…
The scope of literacy courses. Results of a representative survey among adult education centres As part of the EQUALS project, the German Adult Education Association (DVV) collected statistical data on literacy courses at adult education centres; this article presents the data and compares it with figures from 1994. The number of courses has risen, as has the number of participants, but fewer institutions than before provide this service. Compared with 1994, the participants are older and t…
Adult education is more and more affected by social change due to migration. This paper analyses the marginal adoption of the topic by research in the past and describes recent trends, also in practice. Perspectives for institutions of adult education such as widening access to adult education for migrants, organisational development and professionalisation are discussed. Furthermore the author names challenges for research. There should be more cooperation within the field of educational resea…
Inclusion – An Organisational Challenge. Steps towards Inclusive Adult Education. Part 1 The report evaluates the option of offering inclusive adult education at adult education centres on a larger scale. The compatibility of the new policy statement in adult education centres and the principle of inclusion are pointed out. Implications of the concept of inclusion are presented, which lead to the conclusion that inclusion can only be implemented with a comprehensive organisational developmen…
The Observation of the Observer Constructive adult education The entry of constructive perception into adult education is closely linked to the name of Horst Siebert. Together, and in the debate with Rolf Arnold he began, at the beginning of 1990, to “perturb” or rather refresh thinking on adult education. How this “fresh thinking” developed in the shaping of scientific thinking is the question which, based on three texts from Horst Siebert from 1991, 1993 and 1999, will be analysed in this…
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…
Warum nehmen Erwachsene an Veranstaltungen der allgemeinen Bildung teil? Wie verlaufen Vermittlung und Aneignungsprozesse in der gegenwärtigen Bildungspraxis? Was bedeutet dies für die Aufgabenbestimmung und Definition von Erwachsenenbildung? Diesen Fragen wird in der qualitativen Studie auf der Basis von Interaktionsprotokollen aus über 20 Kursen der sozio-kulturellen Erwachsenenbildung nachgegangen. Die konkreten Untersuchungsergebnisse beziehen sich auf die Problembereiche - Reaktionen …
