The mature adult who participates voluntarily in free educational programmes is a basic assumption, which equally often supports theories and practices of adult education as it is empirically challenged. Neither supply nor demand is consistently characterized by voluntariness. Up to a certain degree, programmes and participation are mandatory. The assumption that responsible adults do not want to, should not and cannot be taught is also considered to be problematic. The article reveals good rea…
Voluntary engagement is firmly integrated in the structures of our society. To be able to foster it, one has to understand who is engaged and why. Drawing on data of PIAAC and CiLL surveys, the authors show that age is not a relevant factor in why someone is engaged. Rather, education is a key factor in taking up volunteering activities. This, it is shown, is also true for non-formal activities of adult education.
In this article the theory and practice of adult education are described as a system which sustains itself using certain rules of play. The author starts out with an introduction to the term »play/game« placing particular emphasis on the fact that this game sets off further acts of communication: further moves are made. Next, four dimensions are identified in which ways of playing games can be observed: the personal, the social, the organisational and the community dimension. Adult education is…
Local responses to local challenges Marketing strategies of adult education centres during times of demographic change As a result of their course offerings and their target groups, adult education centres offer excellent prerequisites for structuring and shaping demographic change at the local level. These centres thus fulfil a necessary social function while at the same time strengthening their own position. Target-group oriented marketing by the same token plays a major role in order to …
Parent and child programmes are the most frequently offered programmes in family education. The intergenerational experiment of education and lifelong learning has proven its worth in adult and family education and may be regarded as a counter weight to the »expertisation« during the early childhood.
„Construction“ and „self organization“ in adult pedagogy Deliberations on the pedagogical status of two concepts Constructivistical concepts have pervaded the younger adult pedagogical discussion in equally promissory as problem marked forms. The contribution unfolds an exemplary analysis fo the two constructivistical key notions „construction“ and „self organization“ which calls attention to the notion logical presentation of a problem as it is so far widely unconsidered in the adult peda…
The Observation of the Observer Constructive adult education The entry of constructive perception into adult education is closely linked to the name of Horst Siebert. Together, and in the debate with Rolf Arnold he began, at the beginning of 1990, to “perturb” or rather refresh thinking on adult education. How this “fresh thinking” developed in the shaping of scientific thinking is the question which, based on three texts from Horst Siebert from 1991, 1993 and 1999, will be analysed in this…
Critical adult education Adult education in the horizon of contemporary societal criticism The essay contacts basic lines of the early critical theory in order to connect it with power analytical surveys on neoliberal restructuring of education. Foucaults analytics of power serves as a guide to decipher the current self-organisation discourse in adult education as part of a power-knowledge-complex. Thereby the present reform strategies manifest themselves as gouvernemental arrangements for …
Das im vergangenen Jahr gestartete Projekt INAZ fragt nach den Qualifikationen, Kompetenzen und Bedarfen des pädagogischen Personals in der Erwachsenenbildung. Die Autorinnen und der Autor skizzieren im Beitrag die zugrunde gelegten Annahmen über die Gelingensbedingungen Inklusiver Erwachsenenbildungsangebote.
The author presents examples of good practice and defines central tasks and processes of modern libraries, which are regarded as central learning spaces for adults. Using the criteria »shortage – surplus«, »consumption – co-creation« and »product – process«, the relevant social challenges for libraries and adult education are described. It becomes evident that libraries and adult education are in a period of transition, which requires suitable architectural solutions.
