Learning from other countries? International perspectives on participation in continuing education at schools of higher learning This article adopts an international comparative perspective to identify the conditions favouring or impeding participation in university continuing education and seeks to answer the question of what we can learn from other countries. To this end, data selected from seven countries through secondary statistical analyses is presented and systematically compared to t…
In consideration of the omnipresent commitment to the significance of lifelong learning, the article analyses the role of continuing education within public education funding. Over the past 20 years, public continuing education funding has been reduced by 41 %. The low participation rate in continuing education, particularly among the less qualified and atypically employed, encourage an increase in public investments. Funds should enhance staff counselling, qualification and professionalism as …
The project set out during its first stage in 1999 to produce an overview of available data on continuing education/adult education in Europe. For this purpose, it was necessary to concentrate on what is available on the Internet, focusing on an examination of the texts, tables and graphics in EURYBASE, run by the Information Network on Education in Europe (EURYDICE). The EURYBASE data were collated in a synoptic overview. The information was supplemented by data from European countries outside…
For various reasons adult participation in lifelong learning does not measure up to expectations tied to the agenda of lifelong learning. The article suggests that adults relate learning activities to their conceptions of life stages. Therefore, participation in institutionalized continuing education must rather be linked to life-stage-dependant decisions based on sociocultural patterns than to the acceptance of lifelong learning in general. Specifically in the stage of professional life, these…
Bildung ist wertvoll! Wer wollte dies ernsthaft bestreiten? Dennoch – und vielleicht gerade weil man die Benefits von Bildung für Individuum und Gesellschaft einfach als selbstverständlich gegeben ansieht, kann sich die Forschung in Deutschland bislang auf wenig empirische Evidenz berufen: Welche monetären und nicht-monetären Erträge kann die Weiterbildung eigentlich nachweislich erzielen? Worin bzw. woraus bestehen die sog. »wider benefits of lifelong learning«? Last but not least: Sind die E…
Popular education is a term which has been used for a considerable time. At the outset, however, it should be pointed out that there are multiple perspectives, but they do not “speak” much to each other. There is a tendency to define popular education in narrow and formulaic terms, according to which tradition one is drawing on. I counter this by discussing four traditions and attempt to distil common features across the multiplicity.
The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) reflects upon adult learning from the perspective of a life profile. The article describes the system and methodological approach of the NEPS with a special focus on the group of adults. The education and employment history as well as the consequent competence development of the adult working age population is analyzed. Overall, 60,000 people are surveyed in the NEPS including more than 11,000 adults. First data is already available to the expert publ…
Das Heft 2/2000 fragt nach den Ursachen von Lernwiderständen und -blockaden. Arnold referiert über identitätsbezogene und emotionale Ursachen, Schäfer sieht Widerstände als Reaktion auf pädagogische Intentionalität, die zur Lernzumutung wird. Wenn Angebote den Bedarfen nicht entsprechen, ist eine Verweigerungshaltung die Folge (Klein/Kemper). Spezielle Zielgruppen stehen im Mittelpunkt zweier Beiträge: Im Gespräch berichten Praktiker über Lernschwierigkeiten und -widerstände von Migranten und A…
The author presents first-hand and personal accounts of what popular education looks like in a classroom. Barbara Bee has had over 30 years teaching experience in adult education programs with poor and disadvantaged learners. She is regarded as one of the leading Australian practitioners in that time who drew inspiration from Paulo Freire. She describes how teaching in the 1970s and 1980s was so different to today. Back then teachers were encouraged to negotiate the curriculum with students. Bu…
