Adult Education Policy Research Articles

Adult education and migration in Cyprus: A critical analysis

Migration as a political process and migrants as political subjects or as active participants in the educational process are largely absent from the adult education system in the Cypriot context. This article attempts to inquire on this absence by offering a critical analysis of key policy texts and proposals as well as prominent programmes and initiatives that have shaped the recent transformations of adult education in Cyprus. On the one hand, it is important to reflect on the gaps, mishaps and silences of Cypriot educational policies in relation to the challenges posed by migration in the era of globalised mobility. On the other, it is also critical to highlight the connections between adult education policies and the formulation of the state’s policy towards adults’ migration and its concrete initiatives towards fostering a politics of integration. The article offers a critique of the presence situation in Cyprus, arguing that it confines adult migrants to a position where they cannot play a significant role in co-shaping how adult learning is organised, structured and implemented in Cyprus.

Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Policies

This article discusses adult education policies in Greece and Portugal according to the model proposed by Lima and Guimarães (2011), which encompasses three analytical perspectives on adult learning and education. After the introduction, the methodological path followed is presented based on the document analysis of Greek and Portuguese national reports and the theoretical framework about adult education policies is discussed. A critical analysis of adult learning and education in both countries is made, based on a comparative approach. The conclusions stress the Europeanisation of adult education policies in the frame of human resources management policies as well as concerns about participation in adult education following modernisation and state control aims and conceptual elements. The findings show that both countries promote adult education as a strategy for modernisation and competitiveness in line with European Union guidelines but that there is a lack of evidence concerning democratic and emancipatory policies in adult education.

Adult education and development

The Incheon Declaration 2015- “Towards 2030: a new vision for education,” recognizes the important role of education as the main driver of development, and therefore commits to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all(p. i).” The declaration further commits to “ensuring that all youth and adults, especially girls and women, achieve relevant and recognized functional literacy and numeracy levels and acquire life skills and that they are provided with adult learning and training opportunities (p. 7).”” This commitment is a clear recognition of the role of adult education in development. Sadly, although adult education and lifelong learning are key for achieving social change and reducing poverty levels, the sector receives minimal attention in development matters in many African countries. According to UNESCO the adult education sub-sector of state education systems remains relatively underfunded and marginal despite the improved living conditions in many African countries since the 1990s. Few countries have specific, ratified national adult education policies while in some others adult education is seen as a human right but only practically enforceable subject to availability of resources. This paper outlines evidence of positive changes accrued from literacy and skills training project in one region in Somaliland. In addition to literacy and numeracy, the participants in the project were trained in tailoring or cookery as well as on health, nutrition, hygiene and entrepreneurship. More so, the project offered micro-credit to those wishing to start small businesses. Major developmental changes including employment, healthier families, businesses and better civic participation were realized by the individual participants, their families and the community. From this evidence the paper argues that it is important for countries in Africa to seriously harness the adult education sub-sector for development as one way of translating the Incheon commitment to tangible achievements

Construção das Políticas de Educação de Jovens e Adultos em Pernambuco: qual a racionalidade?

Este texto objetiva analisar em que medida a participação cidadã no campo da racionalidade dialógica, permeou a construção coletiva das políticas públicas de educação de jovens e adultos, no período 2012-2015 em Pernambuco. Adota referencial teórico que considera o cidadão no campo da racionalidade dialógica. A pesquisa utiliza a metodologia qualitativa e apresenta como fonte de coleta de dados, entrevistas semiestruturada envolvendo profissionais da educação. A apreciação dos dados utiliza-se da análise de conteúdo de Bardin (1977). Os resultados indicam que as políticas públicas de educação de jovens e de adultos, se orientam por uma lógica gerencialista, o que enfraquece as possibilidades de diálogo e da participação (Habermas, 2012). A despeito do enfraquecimento da participação, os sujeitos deste campo, por vezes, usam a autonomia na tentativa de reverter a lógica dominante.

Harmonization of Adult Education Policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Status and Perspectives

Thanks to European integration, harmonization of policies, thus adult education policies as well, has become one of the inevitable andragogical topics. Due to its European commitment, but also because of its specific state organization, the process of harmonization of policies is of major scientific and practical importance for Bosnia and Herzegovina. the aim of the research, whose results we present here, is to determine whether and to what extent adult education policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina are harmonized. The results of the research, although generally indicating high level of harmonization, biasedly in some segments deviate from recommended umbrella document. The reasons for the identified discrepancies lie outside of adult education policy, in higher spheres of politics, and cannot be eliminated by applying solely educational intervention.

From Economics to Political Economy: Contradictions, Challenge, and Change

AbstractThe nature of the challenge to mainstream economics needs to be carefully considered. This article presents an overview of the challenge, emphasizing that it is not just a matter of heterodox economists developing non‐neoclassical economic theories. The embrace of a pluralist method and pedagogy is equally significant. The development of a transdisciplinary approach adds further to the breadth of the challenge. Weaving these elements together as political economy provides an alternative paradigm to mainstream economics. Extending its influence requires focus on adult education, the media, and public policy, as well as sustained efforts within universities.

Adult education in Croatia after 1990

The main goal of the paper is to explain key elements of three cycles of adult education policy in Croatia from 1990 to 2018. The first cycles encompasses changes in the 1990s. The second begins in 2000 and is marked by the process of Europeanization within the process of Croatia’s accession to the European Union. The third begins with the accession of Croatia into the EU (2013) and with the passing of the Strategy of Education, Science and Technology (2014). In each cycle adult education policy instruments, actors, goals are analysed. In the last two cycles similar policy goals, instruments, actors as part of Europeanisation adult education policy are maintained, while first cycle is marked by political, ideological and institutional severing ties from the socialist education system. Final results of those processes are not satisfactory, and adult education is still marginalized with small participation in adult education.

Politike izobraževanja odraslih v državah na območju nekdanje Jugoslavije

Politike izobraževanja odraslih v državah na območju nekdanje Jugoslavije

In search of identity: Adult education in Bosnia and Herzegovina between the socialist legacy and neoliberal tendencies

The paper presents an analysis of the key processes in the field of adult education in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) referring to its socialist past and current tendencies dominantly motivated by the country’s aspiration towards accession to the European Union (EU). Any effort to offer a systematic overview of the history of adult education in BiH faces ambiguity and a lack of systematic data. Unlike other parts of the education system where historical accounts are to a certain extent preserved and subject to scholarly studies and investigations, adult education in BiH seems to be a field without a documented past. Based on critical discourse analysis, the paper intends to unravel the intricate socio-political texture that has shaped the key themes in adult education both in the country’s socialist past and its democratic present. The results of the analysis indicate several quite clear patterns: (a) the ambiguous treatment of the socialist past, from romanticising to annihilating its achievements and arrangements; (b) the rise of private institutions in adult education in the post-socialist period and the diversification of the education on offer; and (c) tensions between aspirations towards global and European trends on the one hand and insistence on localisation in terms of shaping adult education policy on the other.

Comparing national adult education policies on a global level. An exploration of patterns of difference and similarity in international policy contexts by method of lexicometric analysis

ABSTRACTThe article sets out to compare national adult education policies on a global level and explores patterns of difference and similarity by presenting empirical findings of a lexicometric analysis. The data bases are national reports published in the context of the UNESCO-conference CONFINTEA VI. They were analysed on the background of the question, if differences in the understanding of adult education can be identified depending on EU or non-EU membership of the analysed countries. Theoretically, the enquiry refers to the framing of world polity and empirically, it employs the quantitative procedures of lexicometric analysis developed in linguistics, which enable to analyse huge amounts of text with regard to macrostructures of discourses by calculating word frequencies, keywords and collocations. The empirical analysis shows differences in understandings of adult education depending on EU membership. It becomes obvious that even if the reports were published in the context of and oriented to demands of UNESCO, patterns of difference between EU and non-EU states can be found in the discourse as regards frequency, keyness and collocation analyses.

Competences of adult education professionals in the European and Slovene context

International and European intergovernmental organisations and the adult education research community all emphasise the importance of well-qualified personal working in the field of adult education. However, as previous research has shown, the diversity of the field is a ‘challenge’ to the greater professionalisation of adult education. Therefore, this paper investigates how the European Union conceptualises adult education professionalisation in the 21st century and how this is reflected in the Slovene adult education policy. For this purpose, the core official European Union and Slovene policy documents on the professionalisation of adult educators were analysed using documentary analysis. The theoretical framework of the Europeanisation of education was used, along with international and comparative perspectives in studies of adult education. Our findings indicate that in the Slovene context, the emphasis is on the recognition of different professional roles and competences that adult educators need to work successfully in different contexts rather than on the unification of their competences, which can be found in the European context.

FORMAÇÃO DOCENTE NA EDUCAÇÃO DE JOVENS E ADULTOS: ESPECIFICIDADES, IDENTIDADES E POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS

This paperpresents an analytical reflection on teacher education in Adult Education. The objective of this study was to analyze and to contextualize the bibliographical productions about this teacher training, delineating the specificities, identities and public policies of teacher trainingin Adult Education, according to the historical and specific needs of teacher education in the Adult Education. In this context, it was observed that it is necessary to reflect critically on the process of teacher training in the Adult Educationand to re-evaluate the possibilities and theintentionalities of this process. It is understood that the formative experiences have to stimulate the development and the reflection about the theories and the teaching methodologies previouslyacquired in the training courses, establishing, that the continuity of the teaching learning is something inherent to the practice of the educational activity.It is necessary to reinforce the debates around the emergence of resolutions that increase the teaching potential in the Education Adults,encouraging the improvement of the training processes in the Adult Education, through effective public policies of professional teacher training in this type of teaching.

Towards new learning environments—Collective civic actions as learning interventions in post‐Communist Belgrade

AbstractThis article focuses on the social dimension of well‐being, based on a critical analysis of the way it is conceptualised in late capitalism: As the dimensions of individual state of mind and body, something that evolves in the individual realm, stressing personal responsibility and achievement of well‐being as a solitary act. Then, the contemporary conceptualisation and approaches to policy making for well‐being are compared with the policy of adult and youth education and learning. The perspective of a strong individual orientation, detachment from the social, community and collective aspects and efforts seem to be a common denominator. Agency is considered not only as a possibility for individuals to create and change the environment, but also as a process of active co‐construction of social reality. This includes (re)connection with a community, very often through new ways of community learning, civic actions and civic activities. An analysis of how these perspectives converge in civic interventions in urban areas of Belgrade places togetherness at the core of the broader approach to well‐being and learning. This article presents several examples of civic activities in urban spaces whose learning character is interpreted within the concept of public pedagogy. The examples presented prevail in the post‐Communist countries because public spaces as zones of civic interventions can oppose the controlling authority and through the fight for human and civil rights represent the bottom line of togetherness and collective agency. Learning through collective civic actions thus provides new ways of understanding well‐being.

Normative presumptions of the European Union’s adult education policy

The European Union (EU) has significantly influenced the formation of European adult education policy in the last decade. By raising the importance and visibility of adult education, the EU has become an influential actor in the norm and standard setting for adult education and lifelong learning. However, as previous research has shown, the EU strengthens primarily the economic, instrumental and vocational perspectives of adult education and lifelong learning. We supplement this critique by analysing the values, normative presumptions and ideology of the EU’s adult education policy. We analysed the core official EU policy documents on adult learning in 2000–2016 using documentary analysis as well as the theoretical framework of the political sociology of adult education and postmodernism-related theories in education. Our findings indicate that the EU conceptualises adult education not as an independent policy field but as a form of ‘crisis knowledge’, which aims to solve a variety of social, economic and political problems. Moreover, the EU’s adult education policy functions with the typical ideology of modernity that generates old myths in today’s rather late modern European societies.

Patterns of difference in understandings of equity and social justice in adult education policies: Comparing national reports in international contexts by a lexicometric analysis

According to globalisation theories, the importance of international organisations such as UNESCO and EU regarding processes of policy-making is increasing and it is no longer the nation state alone that is regulating policy. Focusing on equity and social justice as central topics of the global discourse, the article raises the question of how these concepts are negotiated within the context of adult education. It presents empirical findings from a comparison of national reports by UNESCO member states and allows conclusions concerning connections between the international and the national level. As regards the methodological approach, the lexicometric analysis is introduced as an addition to the scope of methods currently applied in adult education policy research. The results of the study show that there are different patterns of understandings referring to equity and social justice when contrasting states that are solely UNESCO members with states that have a double-membership in UNESCO and EU: when having an additional EU membership, states refer to typical topics of the EU agenda such as employability, even if they are addressed as UNESCO members. Thereby, equity and social justice function as examples to show how agenda-setting by international organisations, especially by the EU, influences the national discourse.

Adult and permanent education in times of crisis: A critical perspective based on Freire and Gelpi

Besides other theoretical perspectives, the understanding of present adult education and learning policy discourse also demands contributions from social enquiry originated in the broader field of permanent education. The works of Paulo Freire and Ettore Gelpi, two of the most important authors who developed a critical perspective of permanent education may provide valuable resources for understanding what adult education has to offer in educating our way out of the current crisis. Both authors developed political pedagogies and dialectical approaches, which are central to critical studies. Inspired by the works of Freire and of Gelpi, this paper challenges the perspectives which argue that welfare state intervention has been the main source of the education crisis, that the withdrawal of the state can be a way of reviving individual learning, that the training of competent and useful human resources represents a strategy for crisis management and the promotion of economic competitiveness. On the contrary, it concludes that adult education in the light of a critical concept of permanent education is a key to the understanding of the crisis, and to ‘educating’ the crisis – a metaphor that both in a Freirian and Gelpian perspective stresses the importance of culture, work and social struggles for the transformation of the social world.

Lógicas políticas da educação de adultos em Portugal

RESUMO Este artigo aborda as políticas públicas de educação de adultos em Portugal desde 1974, a partir de três lógicas: a lógica democrática-emancipatória; a de modernização e de controlo estatal; e a lógica da gestão de recursos humanos. Essas lógicas são tratadas em articulação com os desenvolvimentos e as principais características das políticas públicas de educação de adultos nos últimos 40 anos, destacando-se a influência da União Europeia no que se refere à ênfase atribuída à tendência vocacionalista e de gestão de recursos humanos.

We Are What We Do: Adult Basic Education Should Be About More Than Employability

AbstractIn this commentary, the authors review one area of federal policy, adult basic education policy, since its inception in the 1960s as an example of how educational policy can drift from its broad purpose as it responds to political, social, and economic forces. The authors argue that its current narrow focus on workforce development underestimates the challenges of improving employment and earnings outcomes. More important, it undercuts the value and benefits of skill gains that can accrue before participants are able to attain jobs that can improve their economic outlook. Analysis of adult skill assessments indicate that even small skill increases can have a significant impact on other important social outcomes. Thus, the authors call for broadening the goal of federal adult basic education programs from primarily workforce development to helping participants more effectively fulfill a range of adult roles and responsibilities.

Educação de jovens e adultos no campo: da extensão universitária às políticas públicas

Buscando debater as políticas públicas para a Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA) no campo brasileiro, realizou-se um estudo de caso com entrevistas semi-estruturadas sobre o contexto da EJA do acampamento Elizabeth Teixeira, localizado no município de Limeira, interior do estado de São Paulo. Lá, ações de extensão universitária promovidas pelo grupo de Educação Popular “Coletivo Universidade Popular” em parceria com a Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) conseguiu viabilizar por seis anos projetos de alfabetização, pós alfabetização e a construção de uma escola no acampamento. A partir de 2014, o projeto transformou-se em política pública a partir da entrada do Programa Nacional de Educação na Reforma Agrária (PRONERA), garantindo a permanência da turma no acampamento, a partir de um acompanhamento pedagógico e da sustentação política que o programa pode dar. Os resultados da pesquisa destacam a importância do investimento e da luta por políticas públicas de educação no campo brasileiro, como é o PRONERA e a necessidade do investimento e atenção à formação dos educadores e educadoras da EJA. As práticas de Educação Popular como os Círculos de Cultura merecem destaque, promovendo a troca de conhecimentos entre educandos e educadores, permitindo que a história de vida dos educandos e educandas sejam consideradas no processo de ensino e aprendizagem, assim como o contexto do espaço onde localiza-se a escola, pois este vem carregado de símbolos e marcas que o representam.

Global Perspectives on Adult Education and Learning Policy by Milana and Nesbit

Book Review of: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON ADULT EDUCATION AND LEARNING POLICYMarcella Milana and Tom Nesbit (Ed.). Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, UK, 2015, 254 pages.