Receptive or hostile to continuing education? Course tutors caught between the pressure to conform and resistance This article presents the results of a qualitative dissertation. The author has investigated the acceptance of adult education teacher training courses among part-time and freelance teachers based on the example of the initial adult education teacher training qualification offered by the North Rhine Westphalia VHS (adult education centre) regional association. For the issue of a…
Referred back to oneself. Reflexive modernisation and new learning requirements This article probes the relationship between our risk society, reflexive modernity and individual learning. First, social conditions are illuminated (with reference to Beck, Giddens and Lash) which force people to endure uncertainty (Mitscherlich and Marotzki) and gain critical ego strength. Next the author focuses attention on the reality of contemporary ways of dealing with demands, turning to findings from nar…
Diversity management is a popular management approach. It promises to allow diversity in organisations and thus to appreciate people for what they are. It undertakes to recognise different points of view, ideas, abilities and potentials; not to standardise cultural variety but to reinforce it. For adult education, this concept seems highly promising. After all, one claim of educational management is to promote personality development and personal progress in a business context. However, critica…
Foreign languages à la mode. Trends in adult language acquisition based on the example of the VHS programme Learning foreign languages is a high-status activity in organised adult learning. Based on VHS (adult education centre) statistics, the author shows that foreign languages are an indispensable element of the VHS programme range; hardly any other area is in such constantly high demand, a demand which can also be seen in relation to income status. Now making up 30 percent of all courses,…
Der Bericht erläutert die Ergebnisse einer schriftlichen Befragung von Trainern und Trainerinnen für Frauen in Weiterbildungskursen im Bereich IT und E-Learning sowie einer Befragung von Frauen, die an solchen Kursen in der Tschechischen Republik, in der Slowakischen Republik, in Finnland, Frankreich, Spanien und in Deutschland teilgenommen haben. Er ist im Rahmen des LEONARDO-Projekts „E-Chance for women“ entstanden. Die Befragung hatte sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die Erfahrungen der Trainer und Tr…
