Beteiligung und Motivation

Participation in adult education and learning motivation

In this introductory contribution firstly the history of the educational sociology of research in adult in Germany is reconstructed in keywords. The current discussion on social exclusion/inclusion is scetched here and further deepened in the following contributions of this book. In the final chapter of this contribution the results of an educational biographical study are presented. Here nine types of participation in adult education and learning activities can be observed.

Report system adult education: the decline of participation in adult education

Adult education and lifelong learning rate high; equally high are the expectations towards it, especially with regard to individual employability, the firms ability to be competitive and the location site Germany. But all pleas and support obviously do not have the anticipated impact because the participation in adult education has decreased. Does this mean that an upward trend of decades is interrupted or is it possibly just a interim low? On the basis of the results of the report system adult education VIII (Berichtssystem Weiterbildung VIII) this contribution works out in which areas and with which target groups striking results concerning the participation of adult education were found and how these may possibly be interpretated and evaluated.

Exclusion by precarious inclusion and the “new spirit” of adult education

“The social question in Europe has a new name: Exclusion” (Kronauer 2002, p. 9). A growing number of groups of the society are in danger of being excluded from the support of the society: the shield against social risks, in the first place unemployment, illness and poverty is increasingly becoming weaker; compensation benefits against a missing justice and selectivity such as for example adult education training opportunities are being limited. The negative consequences of the economic development are said to be caused by the people themselves who are concerned. The contribution describes backgrounds of policies of society concerning these developments and takes a critical look at the impact of the influences of the economy and rationalization on the individual.

Adult education for people without school graduation or graduation from vocaltional training
Report on a study for the OECD

Germany participated in the partial undertaking “adult learning of the low educated and low skilled” within the OECD-programme “Thematic review on adult learning: The second round”. The contribution describes the decrease of the level of qualification of the younger population and from this it names the resulting requirements to adult education.

From gender related education via the gender mainstreaming to the gender competence

The different participation of women and men in adult education gives clues for their different circumstances in life and attributions that have a hierarchic impact concerning the gainful employment and securing of financial existence. These gender typical contexts are traditionally subject matter part of the women's movement or gender related educational work that took up a large space in the adult education from the 1970s to the 1990s. Today gender is mostly a theme in terms of gender mainstreaming, a political instrument that also contains gender competence trainings. If these textual offers are designed on the basis of current gender research then the there are good chances for a professional, gender sensitive work in education.

Participants related and milieu related aspects of participation in adult education

It is assumed that the participants quotas, participants interests and participants motivation do not only differ regarding the central sociodemografic features but also differ strongly with regard to the respective milieu affiliation. Theoretically the milieu studies add on to the traditional pilot studies of adult education (cp. Strzelewicz among others 1966) and the differentiating analyses of the modern research concerning social structure (cp. Müller 1992; Bourdieu 1982; Hradil 2001). In this contribution not only a look is taken at the differentiation of concrete adult education behaviour (participation, choice of adult education institutions, choice of theme) according to sociodemografic factors but also at the milieu specific adult education behaviour.

Self-controlling of learning processes – a basic approach of an empirical substanciation

In the first part of the contribution a heuristic systematization of the construct of the self-controlling is carried out. Then selected parts of the results of this theme are presented, taken from a representative questioning of the population concerning adult education behaviour and attitudes towards adult education.

Education or competence – a pseudo alternative?

It is a platitude that the structural change of society also leads to structural problems of further education. Therefore this is discusses intensively for some time past and the practical transpositions are gross. The impression of the authors is that it is argued, latently or explicitly, dichothomic even though that in fact is not necessary. In this contribution the authors want to expand on two such contradiction theorems with the intention of emphasizing their anyhow given relative consistency. Therewith it is expanded on the meaning of the competence term for the realisation of life guiding learning.