February 8 – May 4, 1999
Université Paul Valéry III
Montpellier

After thirteen weeks of hard work, we can show you the result of our ‘inter-cultural’ work. In the introduction, we describe the group- and task-process. We wrote this in the first part because the following papers are the reproduction of those processes. The second part consists of the papers of every module. We decided not to change the structure of the papers although we see links between some modules. We refer to these links in the conclusions. In the final part, we wrote some general reflections on the legitimization of adult education. Although we are aware of the incompleteness of this legitimization, we give the results of our discussion because we think the legitimization is an important issue in the field of adult education. Enjoy the reading!

First of all, we want to introduce our group. Our inter-cultural group consists of two members from Belgium (Peter De Temmerman and Karen Dereymaeker), one member from Germany (Jutta Laukart) and one member from Finland (Paula Kari). In the following part, we describe and evaluate the task- and groupprocess of our group. We make a distinction between our intercultural group and the whole group of participants of the program.

The task-process proceeded in the following way. In our first meetings we tried to figure out in what way we could work together efficiently. We agreed that every weekly paper should be a product of the whole group. After the first module we noticed that it was impossible to write and to type the paper with four persons. So we decided to distribute the work depending on our knowledge of the subject and our personal interests: for instance, the Belgium members had followed courses in social–cultural education before, that is why they chose the module "Community Education". The Finnish group member is studying work psychology as a minor, that is why she is interested in organizational matters. The German group member studies, besides education sciences, philosophy and social sciences and that is the reason why she chose more philosophical parts of the program. Besides, every member of the group was responsible for a part of the final paper.

Every week we had a group meeting where we discussed about the content of our paper. The persons who were responsible for the paper led the group-discussion. We tried to reflect on the content we got from lecturers during the week. Then we spoke about the different situations in our countries and the relevance of the content for our studies and later work. We tried to search for appropriate examples from our countries. Furthermore we looked at the role of adult educators and how they can cope with the challenges, which appear in pretty new professional fields (such as information technology) and in the changes of our present societies (globalization, individualization, trend to neo-liberal policy-making). We also focussed on the broad field of adult education and tried to imagine future perspectives for study and practice. We refer to that in the conclusions.

In the paper we emphasized our personal experiences, nevertheless we used our background knowledge. We are aware that many statements, especially about our countries, are based on a subjective point of view and can not be generalized. After the weekly paper was written, we met at least once more to correct them, to clarify misunderstandings and to change parts if necessary.

When we worked as an inter-cultural group we were confronted with many kinds of problems. We all have different kind of backgrounds concerning education, work experience and contents/interests of studies. We had to deal with the fact that communicating in a foreign language was sometimes very difficult. Misunderstandings were not the only problem with the English language. We noticed that translations for some terms are not existing at all or do not have the same connotation.

Concerning the whole program, we think that the time for writing a paper was very short. In modules of one week, we did not have enough time to process the courses very deeply. There was always the pressure to write the paper in time. The content of the modules of two weeks were more processed. Another practical problem was the articles that came often too late in the week. We did not have enough time to read them carefully. Also the fieldvisits could have been more prepared. It would have been better to get information about the organisations beforehand. Only in the fifth module this was the case because we prepared questions. Another problem was the different weight of this program. While this program means for the Belgian students 20% of their final examination, it is for other nationalities of no big importance

Nevertheless, we think that this program really has broadened our view on adult education. Group-discussions and group-tasks made the learning processes very rich. The balance between theory and practice was very good. The fieldvisits gave us the opportunity to get some impressions how French organisations use adult education. So theory could be linked clearly to practice. And finally, the whole concept of the intercultural groups was revealing, although the quality of the papers depends on the members of the group and of the facilities they could make use of. Some groups could make use of a portable computer, so they could work at what time they wanted. We were not so lucky and were dependent on the computers at the university.

On the relation-level we had to search out our way of working together. Every member participated equal to the group discussions. Because of the different backgrounds, it was not always easy to be on the same wave-length. In the middle of the program, we organinized an evaluation to improve the group- and task-process. In general, we were a more task-oriented group and had not so much contact outside the courses.

Lecturers

Patrick Thomas
Mireille Mahous

The increased quantity of information and developed technology has an enormous effect on our lives in many different ways. Information technology and different kinds of media offer various applications for different aspects of life. Information technologies offer also various alternatives for communication, and also for training and education.

In this report we would like to point out some advantages and possibilities, but also some disadvantages and problems that computers and new information technologies will bring along with them. We also try to take into consideration those requirements that new information technology sets to learners, trainers in organizations and to whole society. We will present our opinions from a society's, an organization's and an individual's point of view.

In human sciences there are a lot of theories concerning communication. Explaining all of these theories would not be significant in this case, so we started from the following definition we give to communication.

We consider communication as the verbal and non-verbal actions between people. At the verbal level communication can be a deep discussion or one word between individuals. At the non-verbal level it can be just one look, facial expression or gesture.

Learning is based on communication, and it requires interaction with many kinds of people and environments, and also reflection within oneself. Changing thoughts and having discussions with other people, as well as observing the environment, offers some impulses and material for inner self-reflection. With the help of others, we are able to get some feedback, some new opinions and ideas. When we are explaining or arguing our own point of view to others, this may be clarifying for our own thoughts and thinking.

New technologies (e.g. computer, Internet, CD-rom, electronic mail, note boards, et cetera) provide a great deal of opportunities to communication, and by that way also to learning processes. Communication's nature has changed with the use of new technologies, for instance fastness of communication has increased. Fast flow of communication increases the dissemination and availability of information, the data is faster available at the right time at the right place. New equipment makes it also possible to connect people more effectively. New technologies help us to break down national boundaries and to create international co-operation networks. This opens the possibility to cope with the plurality of the society we live in.

At the same time when the fastness of communication has increased, the social and emotional aspects of communication have decreased. Nowadays people take part in Internet discussion groups, when in the old days they attended some real face-to-face conversation groups. Or for instance, people can study geography with the help of CD-rom or Internet, instead of going to the classroom where the teacher is teaching with a globe. For some people communication through multimedia may feel impersonal and distant when there are no others around.

According to Vansteenwegen (1994), every act of communication consists of two levels. The first level is the level of content (e.g. "my glass is empty"), the second is the level of connotation ("fill my glass"). When communicating by distance, both the sender and the receiver of a message get only the content of the message, the information they send to each other, but they do not get the connotation because the communication is reduced. So there is also a greater possibility to misunderstand the message when social contacts and non-verbal communication are missing.

When we are thinking of a society with new technologies, we are usually willing to see a developed and efficient society with critical members. Fast flow of information and effective communication are expected of a society where new technologies are used. But this is possible only if the society wants to develop towards an effective society and is ready to offer the benefits of developed technology and its fruits for all its members. To obtain this goal, at first the society should guarantee the open access to information and new technologies for everybody, because open forms of communication are preconditions for developing and learning.

Next to the benefits new technologies will create problems. On the one hand new information technology may raise the level of education and welfare, but on the other hand, some people may also be displaced from the society. Especially older people may feel uncomfortable to use information technology, because they may not have technical capabilities, or they may not understand the computer language, which usually is English. There will always be a development of terminology within new technologies, and some people can be masters of that language while others can not. This separates people effectively. It is dangerous to divide society into parts where some have access to certain kinds of education and to effective communication and others have not.

New information technologies provide an unlimited amount of possibilities and opportunities to use new equipment. Flow of information is so enormous that it is impossible to control what kind of information is spread. There is always a danger that some people may misuse those new technologies for example by spreading inappropriate material throughout them. There may also be old or/and incorrect information available. These are some reasons why the society may have to change the legislation or prescribe new laws and should think how to interpret the old ones. Persons also have to consider their own values and the values of the society, which are changing continuously.

New information technology and effective communication within the organization helps organizations and companies to develop their competitive ability and to manage to get a better position on the market. Computers and new technologies enable training at the work place during the working hours. This kind of on-the-job-training is cheaper for the companies because employees can have a chance to solve actual problems at the working-place in stead of following a training off the job. For employees that kind of training is meaningful because they can work while studying and learning, or study and learn while working. Every worker is also an instructor or facilitator by him/herself. We can say that in some sense new technologies enable problem-centered learning better than other facilities, and with the help of new technologies companies can fulfill the precondition to develop towards learning organizations (Cf. Module Labor and Education)

Using new information technology on the organizational level will also cause some difficulties. New technology and the maintenance of it are quite expensive. Companies are investing large amounts of money in computers and salaries of technical staff. Still there are lots of people without access to computers and usually there is not enough technical support available. Training employees to use new technologies is also quite expensive.

Planning and carrying out training is a big challenge for the whole organization, especially for trainers and counselors. Using information technologies in education and training asks from teachers and trainers some special attention and a careful look at the pedagogical issues. The information should be offered in an interesting and inviting way, but too often entertainment is offered and the real issue is too difficult to find (for instance in Internet).

Trainers should not be familiar only with their own subject, but also with computers and all the equipment that they are using in education and training. Every learner/worker has very changeable experiences and backgrounds. For teachers and trainers this sets the challenge to take into consideration all these different backgrounds and to teach the different abilities that are needed before the learner can exploit new information technologies.

We should also take into consideration that new technologies are not suitable when people try to get knowledge about complex issues or try to develop complex competencies. For instance, learning philosophy by doing a multiple choice-test in a courseware is not the best way to learn that kind of issue. In addition new information technologies are not that good for each learning strategy. For instance, for some people the best way to learn is to write down important things, new information technologies are not so suitable for that kind of learning. But if a person is used to use his/her visual memory, the case is different.

A crucial part of deciding how to use technology in education is to know the goals of education and to find out learner’s learning needs. Another important aspect of deciding how to use technology and media in education lies in our ability to find the best technology for a given set of educational needs in a company. Therefore an adult educator should take into consideration the culture and habits of the company he is working in.

Various alternatives that new technologies offer in the field of education can enable for some people new learning experiences, a chance for self-realization and a chance to expand their own conceptions of the world. That way they may also find a way to increase their mental development and personal growth. With the help of new technologies, persons have opportunities to try new kinds of learning strategies and maybe also learning styles. Persons have possibilities to take into consideration their own individual learning-characteristics. For example some people like to work and study late in the evening, so computers and other equipment enable distance learning and that way persons are not dependent on time or place anymore.

Even though information technology offers a great deal of possibilities to learners, people have different kinds of learning experiences while using new information technology. The general opinion seems to be that it is still quite difficult to find relevant information (for example from Internet) because there is too much data available. To work effectively a person needs already a broad knowledge how to find relevant data. Quantity of data creates a difficulty to transform the data into information. We understood from Thomas' lectures that two things are required for this: first, the data have to be "new" for the learner, and second, the learner must be able to recognize the data as a piece of a whole, that can take its place in a certain context. If one of those parts is missing, the person will not transform the data into information.

A requirement to the learner to utilize information technology effectively is the fact that he/she has to be self-directed and willing to learn. Persons need to possess the abilities to take responsibility of his/her own learning. This means that the learner should have ability to search actively all kind of knowledge and information from his/her environment, and to be aware of what he/she already knows and what skills he/she still needs to improve. The learner has to be open for new ideas, for new information and he/she has to have the desire to use that information. He/she also has to possess critical abilities because of the amount of available data. These demands new information technology sets to individuals are not very easy to fulfill.

We discussed some tasks of the adult educator in the field of communication and new technologies. On society level adult educators should be able to keep up the discussion about the different sides of the use of new technologies. There should be as well discussion about possibilities and requirements as about problems. Adult educators should also give some information about these matters, so that people would be aware of all the effects of new technologies. Information and discussion will help people to deal with their fears and prejudices.

On the organizational level one of the main tasks of the adult educator consists of designing and carrying out the training carefully, so that it answers at the same time to the needs of the individual and the organization. Adult educators also should try to develop training and get some new information by doing continuous research in that field.

Last but not least, on the individual level adult educators should try to help and give some support to individuals. That way people could find out their weak and also their strong points and with this knowledge they could try to develop themselves. Support is also needed concerning social and emotional aspects of the learners and in more concrete things such as how to use computers.

We discussed some tasks of the adult educator in the field of communication and new technologies. On society level adult educators should be able to keep up the discussion about the different sides of the use of new technologies. There should be as well discussion about possibilities and requirements as about problems. Adult educators should also give some information about these matters, so that people would be aware of all the effects of new technologies. Information and discussion will help people to deal with their fears and prejudices.

On the organizational level one of the main tasks of the adult educator consists of designing and carrying out the training carefully, so that it answers at the same time to the needs of the individual and the organization. Adult educators also should try to develop training and get some new information by doing continuous research in that field.

Last but not least, on the individual level adult educators should try to help and give some support to individuals. That way people could find out their weak and also their strong points and with this knowledge they could try to develop themselves. Support is also needed concerning social and emotional aspects of the learners and in more concrete things such as how to use computers.

Using new information technology in communication may change individuals, organization cultures and the whole of society. The use of new information technology sets a great deal of demands to every part and every participant in our society. We are building our organizations and societies with the help of the individuals, and the whole society will develop and learn just throughout individuals.

The information technologies offer us an inconceivable amount of information. For some people that quantity of information is stressing, and they might reject it because they do not feel capable to handle all that information. Some people do not feel comfortable with the principles of life-long learning, and maybe they are not willing to learn. We should think how to motivate those people to utilize new information technologies. Our opinion is that education must focus on the person as a whole and we should remember that multimedia are just tools for us, not purposes on themselves. We should also remember that teachers are learners too, and they have their own experiences and backgrounds, which will affect on their behavior and actions all the time.

Vansteenwegen, A. (1994). Principes van systeem- en communicatietherapie. Leuven: Acco.

Lecturers

Ruud van der Veen
Ortfried Schäffter
Julia Spintourakis

Nowadays people are exposed to many experiences which may give them foreign or even uncomfortable feelings. Especially in the process of globalization which has positive and negative connotations. The positive effect is that people from all countries can work together: geographical distances are shortened and information is fast available. On the other hand, nowadays different cultures get in contact with each other and values/cultures are not distinct anymore. Due to this, people can feel overwhelmed and feel unsure about the impact of globalization on their lives. Some experts claim that this feeling of insecurity is the cause that we now notice a revival of the national-state idea like in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But not only the globalization and the economic and international system have effect on us, we all experience strangeness in everyday life: we meet foreigners from different cultures, we meet people from other social groups or subclasses and everybody changes his/her social roles within a day (we are part of a family, member of the working population, member of a leisure club...). Strangeness brings tensions and conflicts in our lives, between social and cultural groups and in the person him/herself.

According to this, the following questions are rising:

• Is it possible to find a theory which can describe these experiences on an abstract level?
• What can such a theory contribute to adult education?

These two questions will be discussed in the following paragraphs. We present in a first paragraph a theoretical framework concerning the theory of strangeness which consists of three parts: identity of strangeness, levels of identity and strangeness as a relationship. In a second paragraph this theory is linked with adult education from both a theoretical and a practical point of view.

To understand what strangeness means, we have to clarify the meaning of identity. To perceive the world, human beings need a certain structure because without structure the world would be a kind of chaos in their minds. The first step to come to this structure is to build an identity by making a distinction between the interior and the exterior, for instance body-environment or subject-object. Creating different categories of objectives is the second step. Thanks to the finding and construction of identities, human beings are not exposed to the world helplessly, but they are able to predict and to have influence on the world. If these borders drop, there is a danger that identity-problems arise. In the third step categories are evaluated and given a certain meaning, for instance if you want to define what is healthy, you must be able to recognize what is ill. The center of the selfhood -in the meaning of identity- cannot construct an identity on its own, it has to define itself through the view of the outside. This border between inside and outside is the necessary condition to experience strangeness. If the distinction-line between two self-hoods is clearly defined, it is transmissible. This means that strangeness is a relationship between two different systems, it is no object on its own. Strangeness is a kind of irritation. It could be an incident which does not fit in our mind, something we have not experienced or seen before.

There is always the question if the selfhood is or is not able to be aware of strangeness. The selfhood has an expectation about the other self-hoods and due to this it might block the ability to recognize something new. For instance learners can pick out those concepts of a course which already fit in their own sense of meaning without even recognizing concepts which do not fit in it. On the other hand there are also spheres of experience which never can be known and people will never have the chance to experience: a man can never know what it means to be a woman and a healthy person can never know what it means to be handicapped. Nevertheless the identity is always in a process of change, it even can happen that the selfhood itself becomes mysterious and frightening and loses its self-confidence. This can be illustrated with the feeling after a nightmare: your feelings become ‘unheimlich’ to yourself.

Schäffter mentioned different levels of identity: organism, psychic system, person, family, social group, organization, milieu/lifestyle, ethnic group, nation, culture. For the understanding of this paper, we have mentioned them here. A short explanation can be found in the footnote below.

Schäffter discusses in his article 'Modes of Experiencing Strangeness; Patterns of Interpretation in Encountering Foreignness" four modes of experiencing strangeness:

Foreignness as sounding board of the self

In this mode the base of experiencing foreignness is the assumption that the foundation of human life is in principle everywhere the same because the anthropological constitution of human beings is identical. In this context the strange seems to be something like an ideal of the lost paradise or the lost natural life. The own culture is considered uprooted due to European civilization and there is a longing for the wholeness other cultures seem to promise. Willingness, empathy and love make it possible to understand different cultures.

Foreignness as counter image

This way of experiencing foreignness has another basic structure of order. The own system has an inner coherence, it is closed and it has distinctive borders. The outside is regarded 'abnormal' and 'alien'. This model is used to save the own identity, especially when the order is not firmed. "The foreign appears as the natural enemy" (Schäffter 1991). But this model can also be used the other way around: the foreign can be the forbidden temptation or be seen as an utopia in the future.

Foreignness as supplement

This structure is understandable as a process. The system has its own development and if it has the need to get new experiences, it opens itself for the foreign. It is learning and changing itself if it requires stimulation from outside. There is always the tension between the longing for new experiences and the problem of how to cope with it. If there is too much new, the system is in danger to lose its inner stability.

Foreignness as complementarity

So far the position has been stated that "the foreign is not left to itself in its specificity..." (Krusche, 1983). This structure does not make a difference between outside an inside only: "the structures of order of a world interpreted in this way are thus no longer ambivalent but polyvalent" (Schäffter 1991). The order switches in this open and dynamic structure. There are no clear and distinctive separations anymore. On the other hand it is also excepted that the really strange and incomprehensible is left like it is. "This plurality demand the necessity for a constant reflection on divergent individual positions" (Schäffter, 1991). This means the system has to be open and it can not fix final positions towards the outside.

If we chose the last opportunity -foreignness as complementarity- and look at our contemporary society as a polyvalent system which ensures plurality, we have to face the problem that individuals and systems are overwhelmed with new challenges caused by strangeness. This may lead to identity-problems, the loss of orientation and inhibitation of the capability to act in social contexts. If the ability to make difference between outside and inside is not existing, education takes part to strengthen the own identity and to develop new competencies which help people to be open and reflexive without being overtaxed. The question arises how adult education can promote this development. Two things must be cleared. First, "Which method is suitable to cope with heterogeneity?" and second, "How can adult education use this heterogeneity in a positive way?"

A problem adult educators can be confronted with is the fact that adults who participate in education activities, all have different backgrounds, different biographies and everyone is/has a meaning-system on his own. Some teachers experience that some adults only pick up those things that agree with their own way of thinking. Nevertheless we assume that every human being is able to learn and to enrich his identity a life long. From this point of view teachers in adult education can help to create situations in which adults have the time to find a way how they can connect strange experiences to their own identity. Therefore the teacher must be sensitive to heterogeneity without verbalizing this explicitly. Strangeness is an inner process and verbalizing would contain the danger that consensus only exist on the surface and people are not sensitive for strangeness on the inside. Persuading people to change their opinions or attitudes can be harmful in the sense that it may give them bad learning experiences, which can have the result that people are not willing to learn anymore. A better strategy to sensitize learners to heterogeneity and matters they do not know or understand, is to give them the chance to put these matters in their own personal system of meaning. Strangeness has not to be a subject on its own. Sometimes it is better to let people experience strangeness on their own in real life situations and to give them the freedom to build an own opinion.

Education can help to provide an environment where the possibilities to meet people from different cultural backgrounds -and to have new experiences of strangeness- are available and where an open respectful attitude towards strangeness is guaranteed. In this way plurality is not a cause for anxiety but contains the chance to enlarge personal development. In the next part we put the theory we mentioned above in more concrete practice.

• Who do we call a migrant?

Migration is not only a phenomenon typical of the last century, since man learned to move himself, migration has been of all times and all places. When we all go back in our own genealogical tree, most of us will find migrants among their ancestors. This brings us to the question what we can call a migrant. Generally speaking, a migrant is a person who -as the word itself says- migrates with the purpose to build up a more or less permanent future at another place, mostly national borders are used to make the distinction between those 'places'. Nowadays, in European countries the term migrant is mostly used in a more negative connotation referring to people with a non-white background. Even though some centuries ago, through the eyes of the mediaeval man or woman an inhabitant of a near town also might be considered as a migrant and whereas the main part of the number of migrants in European countries nowadays has its origin in one of the neighbor-countries of the country they are moving to. Only a small part comes from another continent. Now the question arises why a lot of people in the first place make the association with African or Asian people when hearing the word migrant. The answer is quite simple: because of their different skin-color and other visual characteristics such as dressing-style and religious buildings, they catch the eye in daily life. Nowadays, when speaking of migrants, automatically we refer to people who are members of a culture different from post-industrialized western cultures. Applied to the different countries we live in, in general when talking about migrants, a reference is made to people with a Turkish, former East-European and former Yugoslavian (Germany), a former East-European, Turkish and Moroccan (Belgium) and people with a Somali background (Finland).

When people move to another country, in most cases it takes two or three generations before they get really integrated. Some of the elements already mentioned above make it difficult for people to integrate: because of their different skin color, dressing style or other visual aspects, they may look different from the inhabitants of the country they migrate to and this may make it harder for them to find a decent job or decent housing. On the other hand, one might say that the post-modern society we live in is characterized by a personal construction of people's own identity. Different dressing styles and inter-cultural relationships are examples of the visual presentation of this, so in the evolution towards a multi-cultural society, the main problem of a successful integration is not the visual aspect of being different anymore. According to us, language is the biggest problem. If a person does not speak or understand the language of the country he or she is living in, it becomes very difficult to find a job or to have contact with the local community, for instance with the teachers of their own children. Here, adult education has a task towards migrants who come into the country.

• Northern versus southern European approach

Integrating does not mean people have to give up all the characteristics of the culture they were raised in and adopt all aspects of the new culture they live in. According to several authors, integration in a new society or a new culture has the biggest chance to be successful if a person has the feeling he or she has a strong cultural identity and is accepted by a cultural group (Meurs, 1997; Oetting & Beauvais, 1991). Migrants of the second generation often have the problem that they feel swerved between the culture of the country their parents come from and the culture of dominant society in which they go to school. In most cases, due to an underlying feeling of racism and non-acceptation from the dominant society, identification with members of this society becomes difficult. When in those cases because of various reasons the feeling of belonging to a certain culture is missing, two destroying ways of dealing with this may rise. On the one hand, a threatening danger is created that these young migrants begin to identify themselves with sub-cultural groups on the fringes of society sharing the same feeling (Campbell & Pinas, 1994, p.200). Those groups may express their feelings by neglecting rules and behaving criminal as a reaction against society. On the other hand, a mostly underestimated part of those young people will fall into a depression, resort to drug-abuse or even commit suicide in the worst case.

This makes clear adult education has the task to make people feel stronger, to strengthen them in their own identity. This can be done in several ways: northern European countries have the tradition to focus on the common problems of the migrant population as a target group. Social workers help migrants with problems concerning accommodation, education and employment and fulfill the role of mouthpiece towards policy-makers on the local and national level. The southern European approach on the other hand is characterized by a focus laid on the sharing of nice things, such as theater, dancing and singing. The purpose here is to bring people together and give the neighborhood a soul. According to us, a mixture of both these strategies should be offered, because when people have problems -and migrants are without any doubt dealing with psychological and physical problems when being placed in another culture- it is a support when they feel being listened to and not being neglected. On the other hand, when only focusing the attention on their problems, the danger of stigmatization and linked to this the danger of racists remarks (for instance when putting too much the attention on the fact that they form a problem-group in society) coming from certain people and political parties becomes more likely. This is why, according to us, both strategies are needed.

• Policy making

Van der Veen mentioned four educational strategies to handle discrimination:

• Equality of opportunity;
• Positive discrimination;
• Pride of migrants in the own culture;
• The strategy of cultural encounter.

Concerning adult education, the strategy of equal opportunities is the goal to reach. The three other strategies can be used in a beginning or even more later stage to reach this goal, but -according to us- can not be seen as goals on their own. The strategy of positive discrimination can be a helping start to break the vicious circle migrants may be caught in, but can not be seen as a goal at the end because positive discrimination still is a form of discrimination. The strategy of strengthening migrants in the pride of their own culture is a necessary step towards integration, but becomes a danger to reach the goal of equality when people get stuck in this stage. This situation is clear in some European countries where real ghetto's are formed and the migrant-community forms an island in the country itself (for instance La Paillade in Montpellier). We like the idea of the fourth strategy -cultural encounter: bringing people together from different countries-, even though we want to place a critical remark here. According to us only those people are reached -especially the indigenous- who are already open to strangeness and the idea of a multi-cultural society, if you want to try to change the opinion of society and rouse people's feeling of strangeness, other strategies are needed.

• Strategies for the adult educator

Some tasks of the adult educator are already mentioned above:

• Make people feel strong in their own culture;
• Create opportunities to let people know each other, opportunities to rouse their strangeness and tolerate the strangeness;
• The importance of language courses as a step towards integration. Concerning these courses, we agree with Spintourakis to use language courses as an umbrella which contains different topics migrants need to be aware of (e.g. cultural costumes, rules, rights and social issues of the new society they live in, history...). According to us, working in multi-cultural groups -the strategy used at IFAD Paillade-, is a good way to get people in contact with other cultures. On the other hand, the adult educator must be aware of specific (cultural) factors that oblige him or her to work with categorized target groups. Working with target groups is inevitable because of different pre-educational experiences and different cultural backgrounds and because it simplifies the learning of a foreign language (e.g. some Islamic women are forbidden by their husbands to follow lessons together with other men). This opportunity was missing at IFAD Paillade.
• Another task the adult educator can pay attention to is helping people to decode a message. According to Spintourakis, every communication consists of three parts: perceptual, verbal and non-verbal processes. Different cultures may have other or even opposite expressions concerning each of these processes when referring to the same thing. This may cause a lot of confusion and even distrust (e.g. in some cultures saying 'yes' when avoiding eye-contact means 'no'). The adult educator must pay attention to this topic.

So far in this paragraph we have only been talking of adult education on a more individual level. It must be clear that when working with individuals, mostly those who are already open to the subject are reached. To create a good atmosphere in a country, a broader approach is needed. The introducing of different cultures in the curricula at primary schools could be a good initiative to rouse strangeness from childhood on. In this respect of a broader approach, media play an important role. Television, newspapers, radio... have a big impact on people's lives. If those media only refer to migrants in a negative way (criminality...), people may not feel open towards other cultures and reduce their feeling of strangeness. Media should be neutral when reporting criminal facts and not stress attention on the nationality of the criminals. Television programs (games, soaps...) should also give a more realistic view of society (for instance actors should be from various backgrounds) and allow people to change the stereotype ideas they have about migrants. This is far too less the case at the moment.

• Remark

The topics described in the last paragraph probably can not be generalized because they refer to our impressions of the situation in the continental countries, in our case specifically Belgium and Germany. In Finland, the migration rate of people from outside Europe is rather low -in part undoubtedly due to their migration limit-, so we discussed the situation particularly from a continental point of view. Especially in former East-Germany xenophobia is a fact among unemployed youth because before the fall of the wall there were less foreigners in East-Germany. People were not in touch with strangeness before. This example shows that a weak identity -due to unemployment and the missing feeling of a responsible position in society- can cause a defensive reaction towards strangeness when confronted with it.

Campbell, H.W., & Pinas, R. (1994). Hulpverlening aan Surinaamse drugverslaafden: oorzaak als aangrijpingspunt. In: Hoogsteder, J. Etnocentrisme en communicatie in de hulpverlening. Interculturele hulpverlening. Module 4. Utrecht: Stichting Landelijke Federatie van Welzijnsorganisaties voor Surinamers, p. 196-213.

Krusche, D. (1983). Japan. Konkrete Fremde. Dialog mit einer fernen Kultur. Stuttgart (2. Überarb. Auflage).

Meurs, P. (1997). Culturele continuïteit en discontinuïteit in migrantengezinnen. Enkele reflecties voor hulpverleners. Psyche, 3, jg.9, okt. 1997, p.3-5.

Oetting, E.R., & Beauvais, F. (1991). Orthogonal cultural identification. The theory: The Cultural Identification of Minority Adolescents. International Journal of Addictions, 25, p.655-669.

Schäffter, O. (1991). Modi des Fremderlebens. Deutungsmuster im Umgang mit Fremdheit. In: Schäffter, O. Erfahrungsmöglichkeiten zwischen Faszination und Bedrohung. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, p.11-42.

Theo Jansen
Herman Baert

Nowadays we are living in a risk-society. Our society is characterized by risks that are manmade but are not controllable anymore (f.i. pollution and overpopulation). The risk-society can be described by two keywords: reflexive modernization and individualization. By using the word reflexive, we want to stress that the foundations of modernity are put into question. The result is insecurity. Furthermore, individualization makes the individual person more autonomous. The person is free from traditions and is allowed to choose his own life-project. People do not become necessarily more egoistic, but more self-centered. They can be authentic persons who are loyal to their own values and to themselves. In other words, post-modern society has to deal with a Janus-face: individualization has a positive, but also a negative side.

Before pointing out some questions, we want to mention that we discussed in our group-discussion about the need of improving the communal life in today's society. In our discussion it seemed that there is a gap between the theory and the practical realization of this improvement of communal life. Several initiatives suggested during the module, seemed rather idealistic and not realizable. Communities can be successful if the individual has the feeling being part of the community contributes to his or her self-development. Forming a community must not be the goal itself, but should be the implicit consequence. We think if people really have to do something for the other, there is always a part of self-interest involved.

After this remark, several questions can be pointed out. Is the risk-society a threat for democracy? Do people still believe in common projects? Is community life really disappearing? Are social movements an appropriate answer to this post-modern society? How can networks between different generations be built? Which role does adult education fulfill? These are some questions that came up while discussing the topic of community education.

In a first part, we will try to clarify the concept of community education and the link with adult education in the different countries. This seemed to be a necessary condition to a fruitful discussion. Thereafter, we apply the theory in a case-study. In a second part, we will try to look closer to the role of social movements in society and how they adapt their strategies to this society. In a third part, we will put some question-marks beside some consequences of individualization.

According to Jansen, community education embraces two tasks: the task of making people better to be able to participate in the community they are member of and the task of enhancing their willingness. The emphasis is placed on the emotional ties, the moral responsibility, the capabilities and to influence the willingness of people to involve themselves (as a person) in collective life. Compared to the collective orientation of community education, adult education is more linked with an individual (vocational) orientation: a 'contract' between the individual and an educational institute. Next to adult education and community education, Baert also mentions the term 'community development'. In the educational approaches (community schools and outreaching work) programs/curricula are developed or people are made aware of the need of such programs/curricula to solve their problem(s) -programs as an educational goal-. On the other hand, the developmental approaches (locality development and community development projects) stress attention to the process of solving collective problems. In this last case, it is less important if the final goal is reached or not because the process itself is also seen as a strategy of involving people in changes of their community.

We want to clarify the relationship between the terms 'community education' and 'adult education' in the different European countries, in this case Belgium, Germany and Finland (the three countries the members of our inter-cultural group are belonging to). We do this to make clear that now in our studies and later on in our professional lives, some of us are or will be less or more acquainted with the subject community education.

When looking at the content of our studies, we see differences between the countries we come from. In Germany, community work is not part of the study to become an adult educator. This domain is part of social pedagogy, which has in contrast to adult education a strong legitimization in Germany. Nevertheless the German member of our group admits that this module can be seen as a broader view to build up a connection between adult education and social pedagogy. In Germany, due to the policy-making structure and history of the country, those initiatives would not work out. In Finland, when studying adult education, it depends on the optional courses you choose which branch you will get a job in. Most students who are interested in community development or community education, start studying social sciences. The link between adult education and community education/development can be made when choosing courses from social sciences as an option. In Belgium on the other hand, community education forms together with youth-work, vocational training and liberal education one of the four focuses in the training of social pedagogy.

Instead of repeating some part of the theory and searching some examples for it, we prefer to start with a concrete question that will be underpinned theoretically. As a starting-point, we focus on the case of Riverside-district. Riverside-district is a disadvantaged neighborhood, where a large part of the population is unemployed and where nearly 45% of the population are older people. In our case-study, we want to stimulate networks between generations. We think this is important because of the improvement of communal life. Through networking, the strangeness can be increased. By this, people of different generations are confronted with each-other and have the chance to know each-other. This gives them the opportunity to get a better understanding of their different worlds/ways of thinking and the insight that some things of the other just can not be understood (foreignness as complementarity). This contributes to an improvement of the feeling of safety and a diminishment of anxiety.

According to Spierts (1994) there are four kinds of networks, two on the organizational and two on the individual level.

(1) Issue networks gather around a certain issue they want to deal with. This network will be ended at the moment the goal is reached;

(2) Organizational networks have a permanent character. The common and final goals ask some continuity and regularity;

(3) Social networks consist of individuals and informal groups. The aim is to have social contact, appreciation and material support by exchanging experiences and doing activities together;

(4) Supporting networks gather people that share a common situation. These people solve their problems by supporting each-other. These networks have a temporary character.

Concerning our case, we want to improve the individual networks (social and supporting networks) and focus on the question how these networks can improve communal life between generations. We came to the following suggestions.

• If we want to improve the fact that generations get in contact with each other, a good starting point is to give them a place where they can have chances for formal and -even more important- informal meetings. For this reason, we think an activity-center in the neighborhood is indispensable. This activity-center must be a space where youngsters and elderly people can have their own activities. Social workers who work together with both groups must search out some common interests or contradictory ideas of both groups to work with or organize debates.

• The renovation of Riverside-district as a contribution to the 600-years-celebracy is an opportunity to get both youngsters and elderly people together to express their wishes. Those debates should be characterized by a different elements of social learning:

• Reflexivity can be obtained by bringing different generations together to make plans for the renovation based on their (different) expectations.
• The element of action-centeredness is reached because of the goal to renovate and create a new environment.
• A multi-actor-orientation is fulfilled when not only different generations, cultures,... take part into the discussion, but also different groups. For instance the trades-people can have an important contribution to a pleasant social climate of the neighborhood by developing own initiatives and the unemployed people can be involved (by giving them job-opportunities) to realize this.
• To fulfill the three elements mentioned above, an open dialogue is a first requirement. Therefore different open meetings must be organized together with some key-representatives of the different groups. The activity-center seems to us an adequate place where debates can take place.

We notice that networks are in the middle of the scheme. All actors can be involved. We need the government to give money to realize the renovation-project and to build the activity-center. The citizens are the main actors in it. Also services and associations are important partners because they are catalysators in the process of mobilizing people. The market can be another actor by sponsoring things and even by providing facilities for the renovation-project. Organizations may contribute in a more extensive way in the activities of the communities. For instance by offering vocational training. It may be also interesting that people of the village have a look in other districts where networks exist to see how everything is working there.

In the next part, we clarify the role of social movements. Social movements are a little bit beneath the middle of the scheme.

Social movements are a part of civil society. The civil society is the whole of organizations and associations where citizens can give their opinions and remarks about societal life. Citizens can bring important things on the public agenda. The focus of social movements is social action and collective protest. Movements want to influence the system and do it in an organized and/or intellectual way. Social action is a way to put certain societal problems in the spotlight. Movements want people and policy-makers to know what is happening and what is going wrong in society. Social action is necessary in democracy. In the first place because of the imperfection of democracy. It is also more difficult to mobilize people for common interests instead of their particular interest. Social movements can play an important role here. Elections are an opportunity for people to give a sign to the policy-makers that they agree or disagree with the general lines of the decision-making, but therefore they do not agree or disagree with all concrete decisions.

During the centuries, protest-movements have always existed. We see an evolution in those movements in every european country. Before the 19^th century, they had a questionable status. From 1800, the number of social movements was raising. They got the statue of maintainers of order in society. The movements moved from dangerous outsiders to legitimate central actors. The movements-life had a strong identification-function in that period until the beginning of the 20^th century. In the 20^th century, after the first World-War, ideological mass-movements came up. After the second World-War, the big movements were on their homeward way. After the war, people became more individualistic and did not feel a need for comprehensive ideologies. So the individual was obliged to give sense to his own life. People are still active in movements, but they want to keep distance. From the sixties, new social movements came up. These movements are movements who arose in the mid sixties as a reaction against the societal changes and contradictions. They were independent of political parties, associations and institutions. From the eighties, new social movements went downwards. The state took part of their ideas and as a consequence social movements were looking for a new role. Their new role was characterized by institutionalization and decay. Social movements became specialized institutions that work together with the policy instead of being critical associations.

Recently, we can see two evolutions towards new emotional movements and towards contemporary action groups.

Emotional movements are recent post-modern organizations. They are organized around victim-hood. The victim is the expert and he has the legitimization to speak. Those movements (for instance the White movement in Belgium around the White Marsh) are bad structured and because of that they will not live a long life. The media are very important, but also unreliable for them.

The other evolution is the one towards action-groups. Society has changed, the structural and cultural unity of social community life has fallen apart by a process of social differentiation. One of the consequences is pluralization of life. Individualization and globalization are the keywords that should be mentioned here. People have to create their own identity. Social movements have a task here. But fragmentation leads to a population that is not capable to design and execute common goals. This is why those movements are losing members. Globalization is also a cause of the decay in membership of social movements. Political and social action seem to have no significance anymore. The institutional structures are not transparent. People do not want to be a member of movements because being a member seems to have no sense anymore. That is why people just want to be a member for a very short and limited time. People also want to choose for one specific topic they are interested in. This is what makes the identity of action-groups. They are distinguished from new social movements by the four following characteristics:

1. While new social movements are based on a specific ideology, action-groups do not have a large ideological foundation. They are organized around few concrete goals and they do not have a coherent vision of society. People do not believe in big ideologies anymore, they want to chose their own values.
2. While new social movements could mobilize a lot of people, action-groups are not able to do that anymore. The action-groups have become more or less professional institutes where experts are working. Also volunteers have to be qualified. Staff and volunteers are responsible for one part of the actions of the organization.
3. New social movements are resisting the system. This is the same for action-groups, but where new social movements get money from the government, action-groups refuse this.
4. New social movements fulfill a lot of functions on the agogical field. They are occupied with education, activation and animation. Action-groups are only occupied with activation and education, animation and the provision of services are for them no longer important. A new function of action groups is network-development. Because of the decay of members, they have to look for other solutions to be strong enough. So many organizations are working together to achieve their goals. There is co-operation with many organizations, but only with those who are having the same values. Smaller organizations are often partners in one big network.

Those characteristics of action-groups make the link between individualization and globalization clear. It also shows that social movements get a new role and a new task in the society.

When looking at the social movements in our different home-countries, we may say (but this is a personal idea of each group-member about his or her own country) that in Finland social movements are not really an actual topic at least in the field of adult education. We thought this may due to the fact that Northern European countries have the reputation already being more emancipated, nature-respecting, et cetera. So, social movements are not really 'needed' there.

There can be a danger in this way of thinking: on the surface everything may look very democratic and equal, while examining the situation on a deeper level, hidden discrimination of different target groups might be found. Adult education has the task here to remain people thinking critical and to make them aware of this existing hidden discrimination in real life. In Germany social movements on the local level are not that important yet, they are more influential on the national level. Belgium has always been a country with a high associational life. Many people are member of a social movement. Also the post-modern individual takes part in movements, although it is in a rather different sense than before.

Adult educators are the kind of persons you can find in many different contexts. One function of social movements is education. Members of a movement learn a lot of the issue where the movement is organized around. Via member-bulletins, lectures, information-sessions,… members learn a lot. But also the population and the policy get the chance to learn from those groups. Sensibilization and activation are the most important functions of action-groups.

Members of a movement also learn more implicit things. For instance by participating in an organization or movement you may learn to feel responsible and to put problems in a broader context. Also the self-consciousness is increasing. On the other hand, one can argue that members of social movements are sometimes acting like one of the herd rather than acting as responsible persons.

Social movements and action-groups should reorient their role in society. The focus should not on creating the identity of people anymore, but on helping people to select their own values. They should give people the capacity to select and to create their own identity.

Social movements should pay more attention to the construction of stable social networks. They can organize different integrative activities to compensate fragmentation.

The civil society exists in the tension between citizen and state. The gap between those two has to be diminished. Social movements can play a constructive role in this tension. Movements can provide a public debate and dialogue. Also democratic attitudes such as tolerance, the stimulation of active participation and responsibility should be taught.

Another task of social movements can be a stress on the communicative handling (Habermas). Here we also see the concept of experience-learning. People have to reflect on their own ideas and to think about it critically in an inter-subjective and dialogical way. They have to know that knowledge is context-bound and not fixed. A danger is that people stay on this level of experiences. We have to be aware that in a plural context people see their experiences in a more broader view. Social movements are the place where new methods and techniques can be experimented. They are precursors in a new way of organizing society. This function is very important, social movements have to keep a laboratory-function.

Action-groups have to work both on the individual and the societal level. It is important that members can take a partial responsibility in the movement and at the same time also have the feeling that they are part of a social movement. It is very important to create unity in talking and handling. The group-feeling has to be increased.

Social movements have also to work on three levels, moral, political and emotional level. By working on the communicative handling and by promoting dialogue and debate, the emotional level will be increased. The sentiment of feeling well in a group or community will arise. By the orientation on one issue, social movements stress also the moral level. And if the social movement wants to be successful and have an impact on the policy, the political level is also very important.

Hellemans, S., & Hooghe, M. (1995). Van mei '68 tot Hand in Hand: nieuwe sociale bewegingen in België van 1965-1995. Garant: Leuven.

Hooghe, M. (1996). Met vlag en spandoek: hedendaagse actiegroepen. Globe: Groot-Bijgaarden.

Spierts, M. (1994). Balanceren en stimuleren: methodisch handelen in het sociaal-cultureel werk. Nederlands Instituut voor zorg en welzijn. Lemma: Utrecht

Lecturer

Lecturer

PART 1: NEW TRENDS ON IN-COMPANY TRAINING

What post-modern age has set in, can also be felt within companies. The fast flow of information, changing the needs of the clients and the development of new products make it necessary for organizations to go along with this tendency. New consuming markets are discovered, competition has reached a high rate and quality-demands are increasing. If organizations want to survive, they should adapt their organizational structure and culture within the changes. They will have to follow the market forces.

In order to survive and be competitive, organizations need to innovate and cope with changes in a flexible manner. They need to create new knowledge, distribute it througout the organization and integrate it into the technology and products (Poell, Tijmensen & van der Krogt, 1997). One popular concept to do this is ‘the learning organization’. This concept shows that employees and organizations as a whole have to learn continuously in order to react fast on the developments of the market.

The first part of this report (Training and eduction) will be a reflection on the trend towards learning organizations, followed by a practical case study. In the first paragraph we will situate the concept of the learning organization in a broader perspective. What kind of organization a learning organization exactly is, will be explained in the second paragraph. In the next paragraph, we make some remarks about the trend towards a learning organization. After that we will try to see how adult education can contribute in a more humanistic way to training and development.

In the second part (Organization and management) of this report we will concentrate on a case study, dealing with the question how to develop an organization where project work and networks are important to the organizations’ action. At first we will shortly describe our case, the Department of Forest Products Technology (DFPT) at the Helsinki University of Technology. We decided to work on this case because the Finnish member of our group has work experience in that organization. After that we make a diagnosis of the change process in that kind of organization and search answers to develop their ability to cope with the changing educational needs of students and the needs of Finnish forest industry.

A learning organization is an organization that follows a conscious policy to enlarge its learning capabilities on all levels (individual and organizational) and this on a continu-basis. Its goal is to optimize effectiveness itself through its competence of adapting quickly to fast changing circumstances in society (own translation - Bomers, 1991). Learning processes of the staff are facilitated permanently and the outcomes of those learning processes can be used to improve or innovate their products or services (Bomers, 1991).

A learning organization needs ‘learning employees’. Therefore, the learning organization develops a working place where individual and collective learning is motivated. The final purpose is the transfer of the learning experiences of individuals and teams to learning-experiences of the company as a whole. Learning is a keyword in those organizations. Learning is seen as a continuous process of doing (concrete experiences), reflection (reflective observation), giving meaning (abstract conceptualization) and action (active experimentation) (Kolb, In: Poell, Tijmensen & van der Krogt, 1997).

Learning together, being aware of learning, have a multi-faceted learning possibilities and take care that learning is linked to work improvement are here considered as important elements. (A learning project; Poell, Tijmensen & van der Krogt, 1997). We can also make a division between single-loop-learning and double-loop-learning. Single-loop-learning means that working-processes and products can be improved. The job can be learned in a better way. Double-loop-learning is another kind of learning, it is more innovating. New things can be learned and have to be reflected. In learning organizations, both kinds of learning are used (Argyris & Schön, 1996).

A learning organization has typical characteristics: the communication in a learning organization is characterized by a good functioning feedback-system, open communication and two-sided dialogue. According to the learning culture, there is a large readiness to unlearn things, a large tolerance for mistakes, an experimental attitude, openness and dialogue and time for reflection. The organizational structure of a company is usually flat in a learning organization. Employees should have the opportunity to work autonomous in multidimensional teams.

Depending on the kind of organization, the training department will be participating in the strategic planning of the organization.

In our opinion another important concept in this context are ‘learning networks’. Learning networks are organized taylor-made. Those networks are fitting the needs of the individual and the organization. The tendency towards learning networks is developed trough four lines:

1) Training towards learning. Learning is an activity of learners, it is broader than training. Also incidental and informal learning become more important;

2) System towards network: a network is a complex network of actors in interaction with each other who undertake different learning activities;

3) One best way towards multiple choice: a learning network can be organized in different ways;

4) Develop static towards develop dynamic: learning activities take place continuously.

The whole concept of the ‘learning organization’ is an ideal but rarely a reality in companies. It is just a direction towards companies are evolving. Most organizations are trying to change towards this concept. This word is also abused by many organizations. If the organizations spend a large part of their time and money to learning they often call themselves already a learning organization. For being a learning organization, the whole organizational structure and culture has to change.

In the trend towards a learning organization, people have to be trained continuously. The organizational structure and culture change and the employees have to adapt to new situations.

In general, we think if an organization wants to be successful, it has to deal with several tensions. The main tension is the balance between individual goals and organizational goals. The individual workers have subjective needs while the organization has more economical needs. It is a challenge to deal with this tension.

We can say that training is good if it fits both the needs of the individual and the organization. We agree that every person wants to learn and wants to be challenged by his job. We also think that we can not ignore the fast flow of information and new products. If the company wants to be competitive, it has to go along with the market forces. Also the workers have to be prepared to learn a lot and to be flexible. So we agree that the increasing amount of information is a progress and that we should accept the challenges. Beside the positive sides of the learning organizations, we want to mention also some negative aspects. We will in this analysis take into account different forms of training with a focus on the in-company-training.

In the first place, this tendency towards a lifelong learning creates an opposition among the workers. The qualification demands are increasing and all-round functions are becoming more important. In those all-round functions, the demands towards employees are higher. Overall key-qualifications are needed. Key-qualifications are for instance independence, responsibility, quality-awareness, social abilities et cetera. Those qualifications make people able to react quickly and efficient on a) changes in their jobs by means of a broader knowledge and interdisciplinary work, b) changes on the labor-market and c) transfers within the job (Van Zolingen, 1995).

Changes in companies lead to processes pushing aside some people. Because of the changes in companies, the work is sometimes getting more complex and then there is only place for the high qualified people. On the other side, there are too many high qualified people on the labor-market. So companies have the possibility to take on those high qualified people to do lower qualified jobs. The lower qualified people are pushed aside in this process.

A negative aspect of life-long learning can be the distinction between core-employees and employees who are more at the border. The core-workers are high qualified people with a full-time job and high salary. The migrants, women, low-qualified people, et cetera have to go into more marginal regions of the labor-market (Van Zolingen, 1995). Training (this is not really the case for in-company-training) can make the gap between higher and lower qualified people larger. The high qualified people become more qualified while the lower qualified workers fall out of the boat.

According to Richard Sennet (1998) who wrote a book about the present situation in America (from sociological point of view), on the one hand, there are few high qualified employees with a high density of work. On the other hand, many people have a low qualified job with bad social security. Training can be abused for those in low qualified jobs. They are often trained for very specific jobs and do not know the whole process. For instance, people who work in a company to make bread. Sometimes people just know their machines and do not know how to make bread. This is resulting in many failures. So people do not stay a long time in the company because of psycho-social problems and have to find new jobs.

Some people do not like training life long because of the pressure training brings along. People have to achieve/compete a life long and to participate in the training programs. It is not even a voluntary choice. Learning has become a new form of labor (Shied, Howell, Carter, Preston, 1998) because learning has become obliged. In every company a needs-analysis is really necessary to know the needs and motivation of the workers. If employees do not like training, the training department should take this into account. In a top-down approach there is often no involvement of the people.

In general, we can conclude that the focus is too much on the organizational point of view. The balance between the needs of the organization and the individual are not equal. "People have become human resources, another economic commodity to be combined with other forms of capital to produce increased wealth for owners and shareholders. Social and ethical issues are rarely a part of the discussion, a commitment to social responsibility, freedom and human dignity are largely ignored" (Shied, Howell, Carter, Preston, 1998).

In general, organizations should pay more attention to the individual needs and their point of view. We can see some solutions on different levels.

On the societal level, we think a reversal is needed: in the first place, we think that the level of general education should be raised. Nowadays we see a lot of people who need training that also could be offered in the (obliged) formal educational systems. Key-qualifications can be taught. But therefore the educational systems have to be changed (for instance by increasing courses such as project work where people learn to work in a responsible and independent way).

Another solution should be the creation of new professions that are more modern than the existing. For new professions a broad knowledge-basis is needed, so in-company-training could be reduced.

Also the appreciation of voluntary work would solve the problem partly. Nowadays, we see a lot of people that just work because they have to. They do not like training (on or off-the-job-training). They would like to do other more social things to earn money, but for the moment that kind of work is not paid.

We discussed a lot about what the politics of education could do to make the in-company-training more human. Opinions in our group were very divergent. This is the opinion of the Finnish group member.

To avoid that organizations do not have to re-train people so that they would be suitable for the job, there should be found a balance between the demand and supply for educated and qualified workers. This means that the representatives of commercial life (employers) should take part in the process of planning the contents of training. This also may require a follow-up of the amount of student-places in every field, so that there would be a suitable amount of work places and trained people who can fill in those places.

When the demand answers/meets the supply, organizations do not have to re-train people so that they would be suitable for the job. The organization's personnel planning has big responsibility to find the right persons to the right places. Usually organizations are overestimating the needs of the tasks, and they try to hire employees who are overqualified for that work. When the abilities of the worker are not answering the demands of the task (or opposite), persons lose their motivation very quickly. If the organization manages to find persons with the right competencies to their tasks, people are more motivated and willing to do their jobs as well as possible. They are also more willing to develop their work. If the workers are motivated and interested in their work they usually are also aware of the lack of their competencies/abilities and they know what skills they still would like to improve. This makes the task of the in-company training easier.

On the organizational level, we suggest that a needs-analysis of the staff/workers is necessary. Every organization should know the exact needs, goals and actual level of performance of every single worker. When the training-department is concerned about those things, the training program can be individualized. On the other hand, training should only be done if it is really necessary.

Organizations should be aware that learning on the workplace is not always possible within the time boundaries of the workplace (Shied, Carter, Howell, Preston, 1998). In-company training and learning affects also the living worlds of individuals. So the training department should also be sensitive to cultural, religious, political and social influences of the worker population.

But the question remains if adult educators are able to change this problem. As in-company-trainer, you have to work for your company and to achieve certain organizational goals. One possible thing you can do is to make the management of the organizations more aware of their duty in the humanistic sense. They should stay critical and try to change the system.

The Department of Forest Products Technology is a part of the Helsinki University of Technology. The Department is the only one in Finland that offers university-level teaching and research on every aspect of forest products technology, i.e. the processing of wood from forest to construction materials, printed paper and board. Starting from a common ground in chemistry, physics, mathematics and process engineering, students can specialize in seven subjects: wood technology, the chemistry of forest products technology, pulping technology, environmental technology, paper technology, printing technology and process control. Each of these fields has its own research program and laboratory.

Major fields of research are, among others, wood processing, development of pulping and bleaching processes, cellulose fiber and sheet properties, paper physics and water removal from fiber webs. The department is well equipped with laboratory and pilot scale equipment for both research and education on the properties of wood and wood-based materials, as well as processing and measurement technology. The major part of the research projects are parts of collaborative work with other university laboratories, research institutes, the pulp and paper industry and industries manufacturing equipment and chemicals used in wood, pulp and paper technology. Research projects are mostly financed by governmental funds but there is an increasing industrial funding of fundamental research. To a limited extent, the department has also undertaken some contract research, mainly in cases where they are available to offer unique equipment or experience.

International contacts are maintained on several levels. The international contacts of the Department are comprised of co-operation within research projects (on a Nordic and European level), exchange of graduate students and senior scientists, lecturers and organization of international symposia. A one-year undergraduate course in Modern Technology in Pulp and Paper Industry with half of the participants from abroad is given annually. Together with departments at several other Finnish universities, the Department runs an international graduate school in Pulp and Paper Science and Technology. In addition to extensive international exchange of students, research scientists and lecturers, many research projects collaborate with research groups abroad and are partly or wholly financed by Nordic or European funds.

At the moment about 120 employees are working at the DFPT. The main part of the workers are researchers, who usually are ex-students or students who are doing some post-graduate studies at the university. Because of the nature of the work, the researchers are doing mainly project work in horizontal networks. This work is very independent and responsible. Another big group of employees are laboratory workers. They mostly have a college-level degree from a technical institute. Laboratory workers are working for the researchers and they get the working instructions from them. The Department has also an administrative and technical staff. In spite of their task or position in the organization, every employee is also somehow taking part in student education.

Forest is vital for Finland, because Finnish people are living from the forest. Forest industry is one of Finland’s primary industries. High-quality papers and other forest-industry products account for about 40% of Finland’s exports. Finland is also a world leader in the construction of paper machinery. The forest has always provided employment for hundreds of thousands of Finns.

Here are some reasons why education and research at that field should be put into practice in the best possible way, also at the DFPT. The DFPT should be able to train professionals, real specialists, for Finnish forest industry. A high quality research institute has also better possibilities to get financial support for its projects. Competition with other universities is also one reason to try to obtain the top position in the field of forest products technology. Despite of the competition, all the institutions and universities are making co-operation because interacting is vital for continuous development.

In the following we point out some assumptions for a good chance process.

The change should arise from the bottom of the organization, so that it would be accepted by all the workers and so that the change would be durable. This kind of change is rarely possible because changes are usually very fast. Too often the employees just have to accept decisions that are made by the management. Still the management can help the organization and its workers to come along to the change. The management’s task is to inform and explain why organizational changes are needed, and also to set clear the goals and a plan strategy how to reach these goals. The goals and strategies should be shared with all the members of the organization. The personnel should be given a chance to influence, for instance by taking part into decision-making. This requires open communication and dialogue, not only among the members of the organization but also with other interest groups.

By giving the employees more responsibility and a voice in decision making, the employees will be more motivated and involved into the organizations’ action. They will be more committed to the goals and resistance of the change will decrease. If some innovations are expected, the organizations’ atmosphere should be flexible and encourage persons for own thinking. At the same time also making mistakes should be allowed. There should be a supportive work organization that gives to the individuals possibilities to act, to solve problems and time to reflect on the result of their actions. All the time support and training should be available. There should be possibility to take part as well in formal, as in informal training. The informal training is not necessarily essential for the person’s work at that time, but it can be useful later on when the employee’s problem solving capabilities are needed. It is also important that the work is organized so that there is the right person at the right place, and the right challenges to the right persons. However, all the workers should have the possibilities to get personal development at work. It has to be stressed that the organizations’ personnel planning has a very important role when speaking about continuous changes in the organization.

A feeling of togetherness and a team spirit are also important matters. Usually disagreements and quarrels as well as the changes are easier to settle if the organization is coherent. Reaching this feeling of togetherness means that there should be equality among the members regardless of their position in the organization. Common rules, habits and a strong organization culture may also influence or create a feeling of togetherness.

Before trying to develop the organization, first the resources and the capacities as well as the needs of the organization should be analyzed and identified. The role of the consultant is to help the organization to find its strong and weak points. The consultants should find a way how to get employees find the solutions to their problems themselves. The goal is to facilitate and combine the knowledge within the company with the knowledge outside.

When we look at the organization where continuous learning is important, in this case at the DFPT, we find that communication is one of the main principles to keep up development. We see that the Department’s strong point is its organizations' structure where the employees are doing project work and working with national and international networks. The networks are the channels where information flows and where development can start if the communication is effective enough.

In the Module ‘Community work and adult education’ we presented the four different kinds of networks according to Spierts (1994). In that Module we concentrated on social networks and supporting networks. In this case, issue networks and organizational networks are more to the topic. On the one hand, the DFPT is a part of organizational networks. On the other hand, different issue-networks exist as well in the DFPT itself as between different organizations.

What does ‘support’ mean?

Support can be offered in the forms of all kind of resources. Different kind of forms of the support are equally important for the members of the organization. In this case we do not speak about for example material support, we want to concentrate on emotional support. From our opinion examples of emotional support are in this case training and personal communication between people (also between managers and employers).

At the DFPT especially researchers need a lot of emotional support to be able to do innovative work. Relationships should be open for communication with all the members of the organization so that the interaction and the change of information would be as effective as possible.

Continuous training is also important for the researchers’ innovative work. Training is not only important for the researchers' work because also work of the others is connected to research work in one way or another. So in this case training is important for the whole organization. How this training is offered, and how it answers to the needs of the employees, effects on how the employees will receive and exploit the training and offered knowledge. Communication is required as well to carry out the training as to get information about the needs of the employees. For a deeper view on training, we refer to the Module Labor and education.

What is goal oriented information flow?

We think that the goal oriented information flow is mainly a matter of effective communication. The information flow becomes goal oriented when the channel of communication (depending on the information that is intended to be spread) is thought beforehand. It should be thought how, when and to whom the information is attended to.

Because of the quantity of information or reliable/confident nature of it, it is not possible or even reasonable to offer all the information to all the employees. To whom the information should be aimed is usually a very difficult question, because the information is easily offered to the wrong target group. The information can also be offered in a too big or too small amount or it can have no usability for the person at that moment (information is arriving too early or too late). The amount of the information and timing of it is equally important as the information itself.

According to the vokipo-profile we can suppose that at the DFPT there are possibilities to make the goal oriented flow of information better by putting some attention to the remarks mentioned above.

Figure 3. (Kari, P., Ruohisto, J., Sparig, P., Töllinen, P., 1998)
This figure can be seen as well as on the individual, team, organizational or society level.

Figure A describes an introspective person, team, organization or society that probably is taking some information from outside, but that is not willing to share the information with others. This figure can be seen as a person, a team, an organization or a society that has not enough self-awareness and self-knowledge in order to have effective interaction with others. Some prejudices and preconceives can prevent the interaction.

Figure B can be seen as a person, a team, an organization or a society where information is shared, but where getting, adopting and utilizing new information is difficult. They are able to share their knowledge but for some reason they can not manage to communicate in an effective way. Due to that they can not utilize the interaction with others. Another fact can be that co-operation is not mutual.

According to this model some difficulties and problems can turn up or arise on all four levels, from the individual level to the society level. All the levels are affecting on each other. Problems will always reflect at least to the previous or the next level and even to further levels. On the individual level all presented figures (Figure 3 A-C) can be seen as ideas or thoughts. The person can be open to some ideas and try to develop them or prevent them to arise. The person can have for example some inner conflicts to accept organizational values, goals, strategies or working methods. So he/she can not accept the information what is offered to him/her. Some difficulties can also appear between the individuals. (Concerning this case figures 3 A-C present different kind of persons). Usually the question is about prejudice or disagreement among people. Difficulties can also be caused by chemistry between people.

On the team-level difficulties can exist between the individual and the team if there is for instance confusion about the role of the leader, the team rules or the goals. Problems can also arise (1) when a lack of the skills and abilities which should support each other can be noticed or (2) when the members of the team are not committed to the team action on the same level or not motivated in the same way.

Problems and difficulties between different teams (figure 3 A-C can be regarded as different kinds of teams) can arise if there exists for example competition between the teams that should work together. In that case communication is usually reduced. On this team level we can also see some prejudices, for instance if there are differences between scientifical approaches or different ways how different teams or organizations are doing science. It may be difficult to accept other kind of working methods. Also the particular work language, that usually will ensue among the team members can be totally different between different teams. And what to talk about teams which members have a different mother-tongue?

All these previous problems can be seen as well on the organizational level inside the organization as between the co-operation organizations. On the organizational level problems can arise between the teams and the organization, for example when searching for common shared goals and reaching this goals. International companies may have difficulties to formulate the common strategies to work in different countries. Co-operation with other organizations (figure 3 A-C can be seen as different kinds of organizations) can be reduced, so that new knowledge and know-how do not reach the organization.

On the society level there can be some difficulties between the organization and the society. This can for instance appear when forming the legislation and common rules. We usually also have some stereotypic images about other cultures and foreign people. For example some may think that Japanese people are difficult to understand because of their different kind of negotiating habits. These stereotypic images can affect for example on the willingness to make trade together. This can be an example for difficulties between societies; an extreme example can be a war. (Figure3 A-C can be regarded as different kinds of societies).

All these difficulties can affect on the workers' personal motivation as well as on their desire to develop the working environment. The role of the consultants is to help organizations and individuals to identify all their problems and to help them to find solutions to those problems.

At the Department of Forest Products Technology as well as at other organizations, problems may appear at all the four different levels. The problems are still mainly concentrated on the first two or three levels. Figure 3 C describes the DFPT's project work quite well, at least as it is most of the time. There has to be pointed that the whole organization is not working the same way. Open communication is not really achieved all over the organization.

From our opinion on the team level one problem is that the administrative staff is not taking directly part in the project- or network-working, so they have their own channels and ways to communicate and change information which are separate from the others. Also the laboratory staff is more or less a group on its own. In addition the organization consists of different laboratories, this means that also the researchers are divided in separate groups. In addition problems appear on the individual level within the individual or between individuals and also between the individual and the team/group, for example concerning working methods.

At the DFPT, depending on a project, there are usually several researchers working on it. Because of the international projects and co-operation with other schools and institutes, in reality also several researchers, who are working in different organizations and in different countries, work on the same project. This all makes communication and sharing of information very difficult. These problems within project-work and the intercultural networks can be seen as organizational level difficulties, between the teams/groups and the organization and also between the different organizations.

It is very difficult to connect all these different groups. To reach the organizations main goals, there should be found a way to share the information. We notice that every group could have its own part-goals that are aimed towards the common goals, because it is easy to imagine that for instance the administrative staff may have difficulties to engage to scientific goals. To make the communication better, there should be as well vertical as horizontal work groups within the organization.

The Helsinki University of Technology is quite bureaucratic, like maybe all the state's institutes. This is why the Department may not always be able to be as flexible as needed. That may mean a lack of support in some cases. These vertical and horizontal work groups can offer some personal support to workers for example by giving chances to change the information and to interact with each other.

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