Transcript Opportunities and barriers of adult education in disadvantageous social groups and underdeveloped regions

Opportunities and barriers of
adult education in
disadvantageous social groups and
underdeveloped regions
Gábor Erdei Ph.D
University of Debrecen
The circumstances of the birth of
adult education



The formation of adult education took place in
the late 18. early 19. century
Pluralism, heterogenety, shaping the citoyen
society
Adult education has on the democratical
aspects and features
Philosophy of Adult Edcuation

Five main philosophical mainstreams:





Humanistic
Liberal
Behaviorist
Progressiv
Radicalist
Functions of adult education I.



Objectives of adult education and learning
There are more functions than institutional
types
Types of functions (Belanger 1997, Siebert
1981, Lowe 1975, Urbanczyk 1965):




Compensation
Integration
Adaptation
Substitutive/expletive
Functions of adult education II.








Political
Democratization
Problem solving
Dissemination
Information
Active citizenship
Developing individual skills
Culturelisation
Functions of adult education III.







Professionalisation
Orientation
Value shaping
Further training
New knowledge
Complementary
Etc.
Challaenges of education


Quality of life – employobility – educational
level and qualifications are stongly
interconnected categories on the level of
individuals, society and economy
The big question: creating balance beetwen
competition and social cohesion/social
integration
Challenges of adult education




Adult edcuation playes the role in the societies
as ICT does
„Matthew effect” (accumulated advantage)
really exists in adult education
Disadventageous situation reinforce the
negativ elements of the situation
More laborforce demand from the labor market
does not mean automatically to have jobs for
the disadvantageous groups
Grouping of the disadvantageous





Limits on the labour market because of social
status, family background and cirmunstances,
and prejudice
Family and social background is proper, the
problem is with the personality
Disadvantageous by health
Being disadvantaged because of geographical
location
Partly or totally aggregations of the above
mentioned factors
Results of being disadvanted





Lack of equal opportunities
Hardship having a job
Situatiom of permanent under qualification
Learning difficulties
Life is always accompined by failure
Disadvantageous social groups


Disadvantageous persons: whose opportunity
on the labor market is worse than the average
Disadvantegous groups:







Lower educated/ not finished
Unempoyed/long term unemployed
Changed capabilities/handicapped
Those who are on maternity benefit
More than 45 years old people
Minorities, immigrants
Etc.
Reduction of social differences


The phenomena is complex > the solutions
should be complex also
Tools which can be used:



Social policy
Policy of employment
Policy of education
What adult education can do and
what can not




Financing adult education is based on three
pillars (state, employees, individuals)
Who can finance the learning activites of a
social disadventageous person?
There are some state sources for educating
disadventagous people plus sources from the
EU
In many situation not training/education is the
solution (e.g. graduated young unemployed)
Adult education for
disadvantagous social groups I.

Problems:





Analysis of the current situation: real needs from
the labour market
Guadiance and support during the training, helping
the integration
Fall into line with the challanges
Success of the education
Follow-up
Adult education for
disadvantagous social groups II.

Special group - special needs:





Special traning materials
Special teaching and learning methodology
Providing supporting services
Open labour market - protected labour market
problem
More education does not automatically means
more and better jobs

Adult education for
disadvantageous social groups
III.
Adult education can:




Re-train
Further train
But AE has limits: can not solve all of the
problems
Employment policy
Suggestions from empirical
researches I.



Education and training should focus on real
labour market demand
The objectives, the content and the
requirements of tranings should be
correspondent with the possibilities of the
target group
Flexibility in teaching, should rely on the
students’ former learning experinces
Suggestions from empirical
researches II.



The teaching process should provide by
institutes and experts, teachers who have
experience dealing with special groups
Traning modells should be as interactive as it
is possible (cooperative and project lerning)
Group and individual learning support > trying
to develop the autonom and autodidact
learning
Suggestions from empirical
researches III.



Besides the summative assessment, the
diagnostical and personel evaluation also
important
Try to find the labour market niche for the
special groups
Focus - during the process of the education –
on the vocational content < > personel
developments and general knowledge, learning
and social competencies are also important
Suggestions from empirical
researches IV.




There is a tension beetwen the official lenght
of educational programs and the necessary
time
Learners should clearly see the aim of the
learning activties and the „destination” of the
whole process
Keeping the motivitaion is the biggest
challenge
Social conditions significantly influence the
learning process of adults
Problems of underdeveloped
regions I.

Situation of geographical disadvantageous:






Remote places
Regions for agriculture or the old industry
Small villages with very less inhabitants
Accesibilty and connection is bad
The structure of the society is not healthy (less
youngsters, mand old citizens, less edcatad
people, roma, immigrants etc.)
No investment and development on the
condition of market
Problems of underdeveloped
regions II.

These regions can not compite
Challenges of adult education in
underdeveloped regions I.

Problems:





Most of the adult education providers (especially
profit oriented training companies) are far from
these places
Very few success stories of adult learning > adult
education and learning not really seen as
opportunity or tool
No labour market demand
The society is unflexible and inmobile
Active citizenship is not a common phenomena
Challenges of adult education in
underdeveloped regions II.

Opportunities:





There are lots of room for creative ideas
To develop new type of education and training
materials, methods
Adult education and community development can
strenghten each other (synergy)
Some good initiatives could reach great success in
short time
Good example: social cooperative
Thank you for your attention!
[email protected]