Erwachsenenpädagogische Ethik

Seen before the backdrop of adult education being a necessary moral practice, the limited presence of ethical reflections in research and practice on adult education may surprise. This article aims at presenting an overview of pondering on such questions in recent years. Due to the small number of contributions to this issue, the author will include international and school related research as well. Thus, the article will open the view for innovative research aspects and projects stimulating further ethical reflections in adult education.

The paper examines the extent to which the principles of biomedical ethics can be used for an ethics of pedagogy. First, the principles of biomedical ethics are presented. Second, attention is drawn to similarities in terms of the epistemological status and challenges in medicine and in education. Possible links between principles of biomedical ethics and an ethics of pedagogy are examined.

It is widely acknowledged that adult education is a moral enterprise in many respects. There is a demand for empirical research on which groups of actors are dealing with professional ethical issues and which specific ethical problems arise in adult education practice. The authors analyze ethical standards and policies of adult education associations in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Based on the outcomes of this analysis, they present a proposal on how a discourse on ethical standards in adult education can be established, that includes both researchers and the adult education practitioners. In this way, the article provides a basis for further empirical research on ethical concerns of adult education teachers, facilitators and trainers whose professional approach to ethical issues contributes significantly to the success of adult education.

The process of regulation in the heterogeneous field of education and examination necessarily creates encounters and collaboration of persons, who are standing for different positions and have variable styles of action. In a research project, initiated and financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research, the transfer of formal regulations for examination in certain fields of further education into the reality of the examination has been analyzed. The project utilized three regulated examples as relevant for this task, the “Master Craftsman in Metal Industry”, “Technical Specialist” and “Business Expert (BBiG)”. The requirements of formal regulations generate serious pressure to perform for all sort of actors and demand the acceptance of a high level of responsibility. The as a consequence thereof developing tensions between regulations, practice and (subjective) demands concerning the examinations in further education stresses every involved person. This requires continuous conversation. Tensions and discussions lead to ambitious settings in the examination and in this meaning in a fostering way. In the investigated three examples of regulated further education the accepted free space of flexible practice generates an adequate diversity and variety of examination.

The German Adult Education Centres (VHS) consider themselves as further learning institutions for all whose aim it is to address the population at large. However, the data basis on the extent to which socially disadvantaged groups are reached is restricted. The present contribution investigates to which extent persons with a low level of school education are represented among the participants of the Adult Education Centres in Berlin. The investigation is linked to previous results of the research programme „Social Inclusion/Learning in Social Spaces“, which indicate that the reachability of educationally disadvantaged groups is difficult even for further learning providers whose key objective the inclusion of all status groups is.