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Within the framework of a four-year project (2015-2018) supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and des ESF, among others, the competencies and the orientations guiding the practice of validation personnel in adult education are inquired. While most of the existing research concentrates on competency validation arrangements and instruments, the present research uses a qualitative research design to look at the actors and their practice from the perspective …
Over the past 15 years, a variety of approaches have been developed in (adult) education contexts to validate formal, non-formal and informal competences and thus harness them for lifelong learning purposes. Despite the development, testing and evaluation of appropriate procedures as well as process-accompanying research and procedural clarification processes, a nationwide implementation can not be observed. It can be deduced from these findings that the low degree of implementation of correspo…
The article focuses on reflexive competencies, their importance in the context of adult educational professionalization and professionalism, and their embedding in existing procedures for the validation of competencies. Reflexive competencies are a key component of adult educational professionalism. Their recognition and certification, however, is particularly challenging because it cannot be based on detailed descriptions of these competencies. Therefore, it will be examined how the recognitio…
When crediting non-university previous achievements in higher education courses, the term “professional competence” is often used. However, the results of the 2014 “AnHoSt study” and the 2016 “Anrechnungsmonitor” show that the crediting procedures at German HEIs have so far mainly related to formal qualifications, but not to competences acquired in non-formal or informal learning contexts. Even individual crediting procedures are generally based on the formal curricula of apprenticeship and fur…
Volunteering in the field of migration/refuge opens up a potential learning space for the acquisition of numerous competencies. The paper is based on an empirical pre-study from Austria and focusses on an analysis of political learning processes amongst volunteers and their implications for the development of active citizenship and the connected challenges for adult education. Diverse factors influencing the engagement of volunteers, such as political and media discourse about refugees, are con…
Popular education refers to education for, by, and with, the people. In using examples from the pro refugee movement in his article, the author outlines how this concept supports practice and research to improve the reflection of effects and effectivity of actions in civic organisations.
Participating in social movements can support educational success and stabilise educational paths. Ingrid Miethe draws this conclusion after conducting a study with 85 biographic narrative interviews with successful education achievers. The article presents five aspects to illustrate the connection of being involved in movements and educational success.
How can virtual spaces, digital media and its potential be utilised for cultural education programmes? The authors analyse the issue by looking at three good practice examples from adult education centres and point out the contributive effect of a reasonable and elaborate use of digital tools in cultural education for the participants’ digital education.
