Adult Education Providers Research Articles

Online courses for adults: do they replace or supplement on-site courses?

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic led to a marked increase in the number of online courses in adult education. However, such courses are viewed ambivalently because, on one hand, they are associated with digitalisation processes and an increased accessibility, reach, and flexibility of learning opportunities, whereas, on the other hand, there are concerns about acceptance issues and participation barriers. Given this context, the present study examines whether new online courses for adults have supplemented or replaced existing on-site courses by conducting a program analysis of online courses at public adult education centres (Volkshochschulen, VHS) in Germany. VHS are the largest providers of adult education in the country. A comparison of programs from the years 2018, 2019 (pre-pandemic), and 2024 (post-pandemic) shows that most online courses supplement the existing program, and that the content of approximately every second online course can also be learned on-site at the educational centre. In contrast, 29 per cent of online courses have replaced an earlier on-site course. Hybrid courses, which enable both online and offline learning, are rare. Results are discussed along with their implications for adult education centres and adult learners.

Rethinking student engagement for ‘hyflex’ teaching and learning in post-compulsory settings: acknowledging flexibility and agency needed for unplanned events

ABSTRACT Emergency remote delivery (ERD) employed by post-compulsory education providers during COVID-19 has left an enduring legacy. In particular, hyflex (simultaneous online and in-person delivery) teaching and learning (HTL) has the potential to offer a choice of mode and flexibility, and open new ways of thinking about adult student engagement. To explore whether existing ideas about student engagement are ‘fit for purpose’ for HTL, we conducted a mixed-methods study, using post-course online surveys (n = 110) and semi-structured interviews with students (n = 10) engaged in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in seven disciplinary areas in a large metropolitan university in Australia. Kahu and Nelson’s student engagement framework, and the educational interface in particular, guided our analysis. Our findings illustrate the ways that hyflex accommodates unplanned crises and personal challenges to provide flexible and equitable access to learning, as well as fostering aspects of the educational interface: self-efficacy, emotions, wellbeing, and belonging. Tertiary and adult education providers should build on such experiential learnings gained since the pandemic by continuing to invest in resources to support hyflex teaching as an essential feature of students and staff being able to balance the competing demands of life and study/work, especially in the context of unplanned events.

Overview Policies, Problems and Prospects of Higher Education in India

Indian education system traditionally served a particular segment of the society belonging to selected groups and elites. Colonial rule under the British Government developed concept of a modern state, modern economy and modern education system. After Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru visualized India as a secular democratic state. School curriculum was based on twin themes of inclusiveness and national pride, ensuring that India’s different communities could live together peacefully as one nation. Higher education through institutions like IITs and IIMs formed a major contribution to the Nehruvian vision of a selfreliant and modern India. Drawing on Nehru’s vision and articulating most of his themes, the Kothari Commission was set up in 1964 to formulate a coherent education policy for India. Kothari Commission felt education is meant to improve productivities, promote national and social harmony, consolidate democracy, modernize the country and develop social, moral and spiritual values. Attainment of this objective is possible only through the education policy which would provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14. According to Kothari Commission, Education policy must feature development of languages, equality of educational opportunities to all social groups and development and prioritization of scientific education and research. The Commission also lay emphasis on the removal of illiteracy and provision of adult education. The theme of the present paper is Policies, Problems and Prospects of Higher Education in India. The main objective of the present paper is to be analyze the policies, problems and prospects of Higher Education in India.

Promoting facilitators’ career development and workplace engagement: a missing link from the provision of adult education programs in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT The quality of adult learning depends on the professionalisation of individuals who are involved in the adult education programs provision. The delivery of adult education programs is mainly supported by facilitators. Increasing the amount of time and effort put into developing and acknowledging their contributions can aid in motivating and extending the duration of their work as program facilitators. Hence, promoting the professional profile of facilitators in the workplace is crucial to ensure the effective provision of adult education. Considering this premise, the current study was conducted to scrutinise how adult education facilitators’ training, career development, and workplace engagement have been incorporated into adult education provision. In doing so, a cross-sectional study design was employed. A simple random technique was used to select 200 participants. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analysed using a one-sample t-test, correlation, and chi-square. The study found despite increasing emphasis being placed on facilitators’ professional development, the practice and effort made to train, promote, and encourage them were found to be deficient in certain regards. This may account for a high turnover rate of facilitators which in turn, creates risks for the provision and management of adult education programs.

Supporting adults to become numerate citizens: a study of adult numeracy provision in Ireland

This paper revisits and reanalyses data from a study carried out in the further education and training sector in the Republic of Ireland to investigate (1) how adults access and participate in numeracy courses and (2) how adult numeracy provision might support active citizenship. We analysed 45 interviews with adult education providers, adult numeracy tutors, and adult learners to identify themes that connect adult numeracy with a human rights conception of citizenship as access to and participation in economic, social, and community life. This analysis found that the most common barriers to accessing adult numeracy courses arose from dispositional factors relating to fear, anxiety and lack of confidence with mathematics, largely due to negative experiences in formal schooling. To overcome these barriers, adults’ participation in numeracy courses was encouraged by integrating numeracy learning activities into real world contexts in a non-threatening learning environment. The interview analysis also illustrated ways in which adult numeracy education supported active citizenship in the economic, social, and community spheres, by (i) enhancing financial literacy and preparing adults for employment; (ii) fostering individual empowerment, family learning and social inclusion; and (iii) enabling civic engagement. Policies for promoting adult education typically aim to develop active citizenship, but without specifying how this is to be achieved. Our study is valuable because it illuminates potential connections between citizenship and numeracy as a dimension of adult education that is separate from literacy. The findings lead to recommendations for translating national and international policy frameworks into research-informed adult education programs.

Policy Landscape and Promotion of Life-Long Learning in Croatia in the EU Context (2018–2022)

In this paper, we review the EU and national (Croatian) education policy trends related to life-long learning and adult education in the last five years, focusing on the subsequent crises (COVID-19 and the security crisis caused by the war in Ukraine) and their influence on policy processes and documents. We also provide secondary data on trends in Croatian adult education, as well as present the results of empirical research performed on a sample of adult education providers from the Republic of Croatia. Our research aimed to identify how the policy trends have been reflected in the practice of Croatian adult education providers in the last five years (2018–2022), with the focus on (a) the practice of life-long learning and adult education promotion; (b) target groups for adult education providers in Croatia; and (c) how the institutional infrastructure in Croatia has supported adult education providers. The obtained results inform the policymakers and practitioners of adult education of potential discrepancies between policy trends and education practices relevant to small and peripheral EU member countries.

Adults' Attitudes and Opinions Towards Elements of Promotional Mix and Promotion of Adult Education Programs

Following modern global trends in the commercialization of education and adopting the lifelong learning concept, as well as rapid development of adult education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this research connects the adult education field with one of the vital management models in each organization/company's practice – marketing management. The number of adult education providers is increasing, but practical tools and research of their scope of work are in deficit. With the intention to contribute to the improvement of the theory and practice of adult education and marketing management and to help adult education providers adjust their promotional messages to their target groups, for the purpose of this research, the population of adults is divided into four generations: Baby Boom, X, Y and Z. This research aims to understand opinions and attitudes of the four generation's representatives on the elements of the promotional mix of educational institutions and determine whether changes between them exist or not. A qualitative research approach has been used in collecting primary data with focus groups as the main research method. The final result of this research is a projection of twenty recommendations to adult education providers (public and private schools, organizations and adult education centers), which are not only applicable in these education institutions. Other companies and organizations creating offers for age-segmented markets could also benefit greatly from these recommendations.

LEGISLATIVE PROVISION OF ADULT EDUCATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND AND UKRAINE: A COMPARATIVE ASPECT

Background. The analytical article is devoted to the problem of legislative regulation of adult education in the Republic of Poland and Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to highlight the peculiarities of the legislative provision of adult education in both countries. The key role currently played by adult education in solving modern challenges, overcoming social inequality, is characterized and the development of this educational direction as an integral component of lifelong education is highlighted. The progressive changes that have taken place recently in the field of legal regulation in Poland and Ukraine are outlined. Methods. The following methods were used in the research process: descriptive (description of the current legislation in the field of adult education in Poland and Ukraine), historical (identification of changes in the researched phenomenon that occurred over time), comparative (identification of common and distinctive features of legislative provision in both countries) and inductive (formulating generalizations based on specific observations). The scientific explorations of Polish and Ukrainian scientists in the field of andragogy and adult education are characterized. Results. Based on the results of the analysis of legislative and regulatory documents (laws, regulations, government resolutions), it was concluded that the adult education system in Poland is regulated by a set of laws, the main ones of which are the Law on the Education System and the Law on Promotion of Employment and Labor Market Institutions. Conclusions. The importance of normative and legal provision of adult education in Ukraine is substantiated, the importance of which is strengthened by the conditions caused by the military aggression of the Russian Federation. The current legislative acts regulating individual components of adult education in Ukraine have been analyzed. The content of the draft Law on Adult Education has been revealed. A comparative analysis of the current legislative provision of adult education in Poland and Ukraine was carried out, in particular, similar and distinctive features characteristic of both countries were identified. The progressive changes that have taken place recently in the field of regulatory regulation in both countries are outlined. It has been established that the development of adult education systems in Poland and Ukraine reflects the leading general European trends and at the same time has mental features unique to them. The results of understanding the content of the study can be useful for the development of relevant legislation in both countries.

Comparative Analysis of Adult Education Systems in Croatia and Germany

In the current conditions of rapid and comprehensive changes in market and economic needs for knowledge and competencies, adult education is the foundation of modern society. The potential of adult education in modern conditions is noticed by international and European organizations and groups of experts who jointly develop strategies, goals and standards and create quality and effective adult education systems. Assuming that adult education systems are at least partially developed according to the same standards, this paper is based on a comparison of Croatian and German adult education systems according to criteria - legislation, adult education providers and programs, adult education funding, population involvement in programs of adult education and barriers to inclusion. The data were collected and analyzed using a qualitative methodological approach, specifically the method of content analysis, and the aim was to identify fundamental similarities and differences and to make justified conclusions and proposals for improving the state of adult education in selected countries.

Challenges of Adult Education Provision Towards Social Sustainability at the Institute of Adult Education-Morogoro Campus

The study aimed at examining the challenges affecting the provision of adult education toward social sustainability. The study was conducted at the Institute of Adult Education in Morogoro Campus where fifty adult learners, four adult education teachers and one administrator were involved as respondents. Respondents were obtained by using simple random and purposive sampling techniques. A mixed research approach with a sequential explanatory design was employed. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, document review and observation. The collected data were analysed through thematic content analysis and descriptive statistics. The findings of the study show that the provision of adult education toward social sustainability was challenged by several factors, such as insufficient funds, shortage of time for studies, lack of political will, language barrier, family problems, and contextual misinterpretation of the term adult education. These findings implies that apart from the substantial role that adult education play to promote wellbeing of the society, it is still hindered holistically. The study recommends that strategic initiatives should be taken by the government to address the challenges of its provision. Adult education institutions should be given enough funds to enhance their operation. Further, adult education institutions should initiate income-generating venues for creating more income, and there should be equality between the provision of adult education and formal education for social sustainability of communities.

'Proper Deadly': Student memories of adult education under Indigenous control: Tranby, 1980-2000

The voices of students about the early days of Indigenous-controlled adult education providers are hard to find. In historical research for Tranby National Indigenous Education and Training and the University of Technology Sydney 24 former participants of Tranby courses from 1980 to 2000 gave in-depth interviews, which were analysed alongside Tranby’s archival holdings for the first two decades under Indigenous CEOs and Board Chair. Tranby drew students from across the country with goals ranging from improving literacy to gaining skills for community roles, accessing further education or allowing promotion. Informal interviews with seven former Tranby teachers added information on subject design and teaching strategies. The former students’ interviews focussed on Tranby’s atmosphere and learning environment, strongly valuing the perspectives they learned from their fellow Indigenous students. Most felt that, while formal courses were useful, these contextual and informal experiences were more useful in their later careers.

Initial development of adult education learning toolkit: Inputs from adult education providers in the Philippines

Initial development of adult education learning toolkit: Inputs from adult education providers in the Philippines

“From Top to Toe”: Choosing the Appropriate Training Method

Education is an investment in the future. An investment is only good if it pays off, and education is only effective if the resources used to result in the necessary increase in knowledge and competence. It is easy to make the mistake of investing less energy than necessary in choosing the appropriate training methods, which ultimately fails to have the desired impact. It is especially important in professions where theoretical knowledge must be converted into practice, such as in national security activity. The present study proposes a method to help adult education providers assess the depth of training methods that need to be deployed to achieve a given type of training outcome to avoid wasting money and energy on training. The essence of the idea is that a form of training can only be truly successful if it works through all the physical and psychological processes that are relevant to the actual manifestation of the knowledge, skills and competencies to be acquired. In this paper, I will review which nervous system levels may be involved in information processing and which training methods can be used to involve them in the learning process.

Governance of Publicly Financed Adult Education in England and Spain – A Comparison

International research on adult education systems reaches certain limitations when explaining differences between and within countries. Often, research within the multilevel system of adult education examines issues located at the macro-level, meaning policy and legal frameworks, and at the micro-level, dealing with impacts on learners. This article focuses on the meso-level of adult education in two sample countries, referring to providers and their educational offers of publicly financed basic and community education. Guided by the theoretical approaches of educational governance and neo-institutionalism, we identify governance regimes and organizational fields and analyze the impacts of legal and financial regulation on providers and their provision. Based on document review and expert interviews, relations at the national and regional levels are analyzed. We find a decentralized system supporting the regional provision of basic adult education in Spain and a mixture of national and regional regulations leading to regional provision based on learners’ needs in England.

The provision of adult education in Ethiopia: ‘policy initiatives and practice’ in focus from qualitative findings – A meta synthesis study

This study was conducted to build evidence-based research about the provision of Ethiopian adult education. Therefore, the main purpose of this meta-synthesis study was to upsurge understanding from empirical facts and give evidence-based research regarding the provision of adult education in Ethiopia from the standpoint of policy and practice a wide-ranging spotlight. In doing so, sample qualitative studies were searched and selected from databases using search terms. To find all the relevant primary studies on adult education to this investigation, both electronic and manual search strategies were utilised using the PRISMA (2009) guideline. According to this meta-synthesis result, Ethiopia has had three distinct political systems of government since the 1941, when adult education has been habituated into modern education with erratic emphasis. Each was defined by its approach to education policy. Sometimes adult education in all eras of government is used to spread political ideologies, rather than to directly benefit adult learners, who are the primary audience and effect good change. Although many policies and directives have been implemented to support the provission of adult education programs in the country, the actual effort and outcome are still merely symbolic. To conclude, the adult education policies should be revisited and formulated to reflect the creation of holistic development in all adult learners to be competent citizens and critical thinkers, stand for social justice, peace, and unity in diversity.

The latent structure of educational offerings—tracing topics from folk high school catalogues through large-scale content analyses

Program analysis has been developing into a prolific research tradition illustrating the utility of adult education providers and program descriptions as heuristic objects for addressing larger questions of social scientific and humanistic inquiry. In this research tradition, attention has been directed to the way programs and educational offers of adult education providers reflect the changing labour market, educational systems and cultural zeitgeist. In this article, we interrogate the opportunities to deploy large-scale text analysis on the content of the national catalogues of Swedish folk high schools (1954–2007) to further enlarge the analytical depth and precision of how program analysis can address changing educational offerings. Based on an analysis of a comprehensive digital repository we identify the latent thematic structures of educational offers in Swedish folk high schools over time and discuss how these changing course descriptions reflect broader structural changes in its educational system as well as regarding the purpose of adult education.

Analysis of the Adult Education Policy Initiatives in Ethiopia: Implications for Policy Reconsideration

Using a qualitative research approach, this article analyzes the adult education policy initiatives in Ethiopia as of 1994. The data were collected from nine adult education professionals/officers who are working at regional-, zonal-, and district-level education offices through in-depth interviews and official documents. The results indicated that the adult education initiatives of the country lack consistency and clarity and affected the practice of adult education. The National Adult Education Strategy (NAES) and its implementation guideline lack a clear framework for stakeholders to collaborate effectively in the provision of the program. Moreover, different policy issues such as partnership, coordination mechanisms, communication strategy, funding, innovation, and monitoring and evaluation were rarely considered in the implementation of the policy. Therefore, for effective adult education provision, a clear adult education policy and greater synergy between policies and practices must be in place.

Task of leadership for intercultural opening strategies in organizations in adult and continuing education

In view of the growing number of people with a migration background, continuing education organizations are faced with strategic tasks of intercultural opening. These tasks require leaders to initiate and expand integration-promoting teaching work, to promote the intercultural sensitization of the members of the organization, and to develop an intercultural culture. This is a wide issue and concerns leadership action regarding funding, regular and special course programs, training for staff and lecturers, intercultural training, etc. In this qualitative study, the types of intercultural openness adopted by the management of adult education centers were categorized into proactive, reflexive, ambivalent, and symbolic types of openness. Using the procedure of exploratory sequential design, hypotheses were tested with the aim of gaining information that would facilitate broader statements about the field of adult education providers. The quantitative distribution was analyzed using a data set called ‘wbmonitor’ and a regional data set.

Reimagining Adult Religious Education and Faith Development in a Detraditionalised Ireland

The culture of provision of adult religious education and faith development, whereby talks or courses are made available at parish level and/or in formal educational settings, has undoubtedly dominated the Irish scene for many years. The low level of uptake of such opportunities or long-term engagement, however, coupled with the recognised decrease in regular church attendance would suggest that this culture of provision does not meet the needs of the adult population. This mismatch was a key driving force behind the inception of the Adult Religious Education and Faith Development (AREFD) project. Cognisant of cultural and societal changes, a core aim of the project was to assess this traditional culture of provision within a detraditionalised context. The present study is based on data gathered in phase two of the AREFD project consisting of fourteen semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted between December 2019 and April 2021. The participants were involved for a number of years in adult religious education and faith development in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and across a variety of settings. The purpose of these interviews was to gather together the rich insights from the wealth of experience of the interviewees on the practicalities and possibilities central to adult religious education. The findings affirm dissatisfaction amongst participants with the current state of AREFD in Ireland, but indicate that there is hope for the future. Fresh and innovative engagement with adults is called for. This paper outlines key themes emerging from the data which contribute to the conversation of how innovative engagement with adults can revitalise church culture in Ireland.

Adult Education in the United Arab Emirates

Adult education plays a critical role in a country’s economic development, but very little information on the sector is available in the UAE. To address this gap, we conducted a landscape review of the key adult education regulators in the country to understand the existing situation and identify challenges and make recommendations for the sector going forward. Using publicly available information, we found a complex system of regulators that lack transparency in roles, processes, and criteria, with some information contradicting public information available elsewhere. To address these challenges, we suggest immediate steps be taken to update and standardize regulator websites across the country and create a centralized portal for all adult education regulators and providers with a dashboard of key indicators. This can be further supported by developing a national adult education strategy and conducting a needs assessment to adopt a more inclusive approach, to TVET in particular, and a greater focus on quality provision. Finally, we emphasize the importance of greater collaboration between the regulators as well as the private sector across the country. Together, we hope these recommendations will lead to a more efficient adult education sector that aligns with market demands and supports the continued growth and development of the nation.