The paper raises the question of how inclusion, in the sense of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is operationalized in institutional learning settings for adults. It presents findings of a qualitative pilot study. Based on a relational theory of space, the findings elicit a conceptual model of the architecture of inclusion at public places of learning for adults. The model illuminates the way social space is constituted in and by the actions of professionals, and th…
Functional illiteracy is often perceived as being connected to a strong taboo. Nevertheless new empirical results show, that there is a widespread personal knowledge about functional illiterates. About 40?% of adults know someone who shows low performance in literacy. This knowledge theoretically offers great potential to inform those performing low in reading and/or writing about possibilities in Adult Basic Education. This potential however is by far not fully exploited. By the majority those…
Publically funded adult education has rarely contributed to the increase of educational equality. Often enough, it has been beneficial to those who had already enjoyed their share of education and employment. The author reflects on the German post-war history of continuing education and identifies several cycles of financial distribution. The initial focus of adult education was on educationally ambitious citizens. Based on a socio-political motivation, the learning of employees became increasi…
Environmental education that fosters meaningful community participation and learning has been considered a requisite to sustaining our human and natural environments in many of the global conferences, agreements, declarations and charters since the 1972 UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm. Despite this growing consensus there is a small amount of published research in Australia in this field of practice we have decided to call popular and informal environmental education – education t…
From the “Göttinger 18” in the “Wyhler Wald”. The learning movement of a social movement beginning in 1957. 18 German nuclear physicists signed a declaration in 1957 in which they refused to take part in the production, testing and use of nuclear weapons. This “Göttinger Declaration” was the beginning of the anti-atomic energy movement, which subsequently developed into a self-organised educational scene. One symbol of this is the Wyhler Wald Adult Education Centre in Baden, which the article …
The demographic development in Germany will lead to the society servicing more older people than younger people. Against this background the contribution shows in which way institutions of communal adult education are called upon for developing specific offers that consider the different educational requirements and educational necessities of a very heterogeneous age group. By means of examples from the work at adult evening classes (Volkshochschulen) the author clarifies how contents, teaching…
Computer aided data analysis in the qualitative adult education research Experiences with the software MAXqda 2 and Atlas.ti The qualitative social research has various different programmes to choose from when evaluating data which can make the systemization and organization of data easier. In the contribution two works from research in adult education and respective usage of software for qualitative data analysis are exemplarily discussed. Thereby especially the process of the (network) …
Schäffter, Ortfried: Innovation consultancy in the pedagogy of adult education Institutionalisation of innovation in the organisations of extended vocational training Firstly the contribution shows to which extent an organisational theory on the pedagogy of adult education offers explanatory possiblities for an ongoing innovative structural change. Then the implicit aspect of innovation in concepts of pedagogical organisational is being expatiated and conceptually differentiated. The diffe…
The article focuses on the presentation and commentary of the PIAAC study in the German press. Whereas the interpretations varied in the journalistic and political area, the associations and interest groups agree on the increased necessity for investments in the field of adult education.
"Adult education students" as subject of the participation research After a short introduction into the questions and methods of a research project of participation research at the further education Danube University Krems, a partial result for motivation structure is sketched.